Just Cool Cars: Cyclops minicar isn't exactly fearsome

SEASIDE, Calif. -- It has a fearsome name, but it hardly lives up to the part. Meet the Cyclops.

Unlike most of the vehicles we profile, this one isn't vintage. Rather, it was built three years ago by Jim Ducoing of Fairfield, Calif., as an homage to a design by illustrator Stan Mott.

Mott had eclectic tastes, becoming probably best known for far-fetched fantasy ideas. He created sketches of how a locomotive might look as a racing car, or a supertanker as a chopper.

Among his many creations was the Cyclops, of which a few were actually built. As a car, it is tiny, practical and cheap. At least that's how it was envisioned.

Ducoing set out to make his own. Because of his aerospace experience, he didn't have much trouble building the car's tiny cabin. He equipped it with a seven-horsepower engine adapted from snow equipment.

It has a pull-start similar to a gas-powered lawnmower.

He says he has yearned to build a Cyclops for 30 years, but he waited until he retired. "it's a real treat to own it," Ducoing said, when we caught up to him at the Concours d'LeMons auto event here over the summer.