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World’s Smallest Car, Made from Postman Pat’s Ride

‘The Wind-Up’, as its constructor called it, a tiny hybrid of a quad bike and a model of Postman Pat's van was unveiled this weekend. Perry Watkins, a 47-years-old sales director from Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, transformed a Postman Pats children’s ride into the world smallest car ever built.

The vehicle, which is fully legal and taxed as a quad bike, is half the size of the former holder of the title, Peel P50. It is only 39 inches high and 26 inches wide and was officially declared by the World Records Academy as the world’s smallest car.

Watkins, who has previously broken the record for the world's lowest car three times, got inspired for his latest construction while surfing on the Internet. “I searched on eBay for something suitable and found a Postman Pat coin-in-the-slot children's ride from a vendor in Scotland,” he said for BBC News.

“It was in non-operative order, but for what I had in mind this was of no consequence as I only wanted the bare fibreglass body from the ride,” Watkins added.

In only seven months after he purchased the Postman Pat’s van, Watkins reinforced the shell with a steel frame and mounted the body on a mini-quad bike. He also added a 150cc engine, mirrors, windscreen wipers, washers, lights and indicators and just for the fun of it, even added racing exhaust pipes. Removal of Postman Pat and his black-and-white-cat Jess from inside the ride was also necessary.

Peel P50, a three-wheeled microcar, is the former holder of the world’s smallest car record. The vehicle was manufactured in 1962 and 1965 by the Manx Peel Engineering Company. Designed as a city car, it was advertised as capable of seating "one adult and a shopping bag." Well, ‘The Wind-Up’ barely seats an adult, so we guess the shopping bag is out of the question.
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