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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTO: Bubble Cars Make Big Splash At Auction
Tiny BMW Isettas and rare Heinkels score loads of attention and decent bids at Barrett-Jackson auction.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted January 22, 2010   Scottsdale, AZ
A pair of BMW Isettas and Heinkel Trojan bubble cars flank a muscular Shelby Cobra at Barrett-Jackson. The blue-and-white Isetta on the right sold for $47,300. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Teeny cars are making a big noise at Barrett-Jackson this week, where one little BMW Isetta “bubble car” scored a solid $47,000 sale, including fees.

There are four Isettas in the Scottsdale sale and two rare Heinkels, which were briefly made copycats of the successful Italian Isettas during the 1950s.

Nestled in the display tents, these little critters attract plenty of attention, much of it bemused appreciation of the quirky design, which includes a front-opening door that looks like something from a 1950s Frigidaire. Nobody walks by without stopping and smiling at them.

Not a bad presence at an auction dominated by roaring horsepower.

Tim James, a co-consigner of several Isettas and Heinkels, relaxes in a little red 1957 Heinkel 200 while waiting in line for bidding. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
“In the 1950s, BMW was just about out of business,” said Tim James, a restorer and co-consigner of two of the Isettas and both Heinkels. “They took this Italian design and were very successful with it.

“Heinkel copied them but BMW sued and forced them to stop. So there were very few of them made and even fewer of them left.”

The only thing comparable made these days is the Smart car, and that would look mammoth standing beside a tiny Isetta or Heinkel.

They are powered by equally tiny rear-mounted, one-cylinder motorcycle engines and have top speeds around 55 mph.

These rolling eggs, with their narrow rear tracks that makes them look like three-wheelers, have climbed in popularity among car collectors in recent years, and nearly every major collector-car auction has an example or two on hand.

In Barrett-Jackson’s Wednesday sale, where several of the little cars sold one after the other, one of the Heinkels reached $44,000, including the bidders fee, a solid success. That Heinkel was a 1962 coupe made in Ireland by the Trojan company, and it wears a bold, chrome “Trojan” on its front door.

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