Just Cool Cars: Flipper minicar is French craziness

SEASIDE, Calif. -- If you've ever dreamed of owning a cramped, underpowered, plastic car that may have been named after a 1960s American TV show, we know just the ticket.

Somehow Steven Mandell of Claremont, Calif., managed to fall in love with a 1978 Seab Flipper I, a French microcar that that is such a questionable automotive exercise that it makes you wonder of how they ever could have built a Flipper II.

Not that the Flipper I didn't have a few things going for it. For one, the 47 cubic centimeter single-cylinder, 3 horsepower engine gets more than 100 miles a gallon -- not that you'd ever want to drive it 100 miles. And in France, the car is so underpowered that a license isn't required to drive it.

There is no need for a reverse gear. To go in reverse, you simply turn the steering wheel 180 degrees.

Mandell has whipped the Flipper I up to a blinding 25 miles per hour. Its lightness must help: The whole car's body is made out of hard plastic, not heavy steel. It won't rust itself into oblivion, which some might say is a shame.

As for the name, Mandell thinks it's attributable to the American TV show  about a kid and his energetic dolphin. The car? Not so energetic.