This May Be The Grandest Grille Badge To Least Grand Car Ratio Ever: Cold Start

Cs Powerdrive 1
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What caught my attention about this little three-wheeled roadster I suspect may be what also caught your attention: that huge lion-head badge in the middle of the grille. Well, to be fair, I’m not even really sure that is a grille, because this thing is rear-engined, with a two-cylinder, 15 horsepower two-stroke 322cc engine out back. I think it’s air-cooled as well? Also, this is a three-wheeler, though the body design seeks to disguise that a good bit. It’s an interesting little car I wasn’t aware of before, and it’s called a Powerdrive. Also, look at that lion head!

The Powerdrive was built from 1955 to 1957, by a designer named David Gottlieb, who had experience designing interesting and fun microcars when he designed the Allard Clipper, which I’ve actually written about before.

You remember, right? Allard was a sports car maker who decided to get into the microcar business after the war, since there was a big and growing demand in the UK for cheap transportation.

Allard1

The Clipper was a sleek little thing and was Britain’s first fiberglass-bodied car, but it was also kind of a steaming pile and suffered all sorts of problems, including overheating all of the driving excitement that comes from a one-wheel drive (the left rear, if you’re curious) car. It wasn’t really a hit.

Cs Powerdrive 2

The Powerdrive wasn’t really one, either. It was a bit more mature and refined than the clipper, and larger, too, able to sit three abreast in its bench seat, snugly, and if the people aren’t terribly huge, and it featured luggage compartments front and rear. Being three-wheelers meant they could get the tax breaks offered for three-wheeled cars weighing under around 900 pounds, which was a huge advantage.

You know, the Powerdrive also had only one powered wheel, the lone rear one, via chain, but somehow that seems less weird than the Clipper that powered just one on one side. I mean, it likely barely matters, but still.

Cs Powerdrive 3

According to that ad, these were £412 back in 1956, which translates to about $16,000 American dollars today. For comparison, a 1958 Austin-Healey “Bugeye” Sprite (the first year those were sold, and the closest four-wheel equivalent to this thing I can think of) sold for £669, which would compute to about $24,000 USD today. So, yeah, it was dirt cheap.

Of course, the Bugeye Sprite is a much more real and capable car than the little Powerdrive, though the Powerdrive did have hydraulic brakes and an electric starter, and wasn’t as crude as a lot of microcars of that era.

It’s not clear how many of these were actually ever sold, and it’s hard to say they were a success – but damn, that’s a fierce lion-head.

 

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34 thoughts on “This May Be The Grandest Grille Badge To Least Grand Car Ratio Ever: Cold Start”

  1. I realize that I probably read waaaaaayyyy too many British classic car magazines when I saw “322cc” and my brain instantly responded with “Anzani.”

  4. To me it looks less like a lion, and more like a guy dressed up as a lion. Which would be a fantastic automotive mascot. Or not. One or the other.

  5. To me it looks less like a lion, and more like a guy dressed up as a lion. Which would be a fantastic automotive mascot. Or not. One or the other.

  8. Welcome to Lee Carvello’s putting challenge.
    I am Carvello.
    Now choOse a club… You have chosen a 3 wood. May I suggest a putter? 3 wood.
    Now enter the force of your swing, I suggest feather touch. You have entered POWER DRIVE, now push 7 – 8 – 7 to swing.
    Ball is in parking lot. Would you like to play again? You have selected No.

  9. Welcome to Lee Carvello’s putting challenge.
    I am Carvello.
    Now choOse a club… You have chosen a 3 wood. May I suggest a putter? 3 wood.
    Now enter the force of your swing, I suggest feather touch. You have entered POWER DRIVE, now push 7 – 8 – 7 to swing.
    Ball is in parking lot. Would you like to play again? You have selected No.

  12. somehow that seems less weird than the Clipper that powered just one on one side

    I think it’s because as humans, symmetry generally makes more sense than asymmetry.

    There might also be an element of familiarity. There were a lot of motorcycles in post-war Britain, and most motorcycles at the time were propelled by a chain drive to a single rear wheel; people were accustomed to that design.

  13. somehow that seems less weird than the Clipper that powered just one on one side

    I think it’s because as humans, symmetry generally makes more sense than asymmetry.

    There might also be an element of familiarity. There were a lot of motorcycles in post-war Britain, and most motorcycles at the time were propelled by a chain drive to a single rear wheel; people were accustomed to that design.

  14. It looks like something you’d see in a ’40s adventure comic. “BUX BRIFFGO IN: WHAT’S WRONG-O IN THE CONGO?” Cue a panel Bux driving with a woman leaning over the side to get a full frame of leg while the text box explains four years of comic backstory in thirty six words.

    1. “BUX FIGHTS CRIME AROUND THE WORLD”
      “BIG BUX ACTION! LITTLE BUX PRICE!”

      Bux also has an unusually smart chimp and unusually dumb kid as his sidekicks.

  15. It looks like something you’d see in a ’40s adventure comic. “BUX BRIFFGO IN: WHAT’S WRONG-O IN THE CONGO?” Cue a panel Bux driving with a woman leaning over the side to get a full frame of leg while the text box explains four years of comic backstory in thirty six words.

    1. “BUX FIGHTS CRIME AROUND THE WORLD”
      “BIG BUX ACTION! LITTLE BUX PRICE!”

      Bux also has an unusually smart chimp and unusually dumb kid as his sidekicks.

  16. “by a designer named David Gottlieb”

    This is the design you get when you hire guy who makes pinball machines. (Yes, I know, this is a different David Gottlieb.)

  17. “by a designer named David Gottlieb”

    This is the design you get when you hire guy who makes pinball machines. (Yes, I know, this is a different David Gottlieb.)

  20. When I was little I had an RC Lamborghini from Radio Shack that was one-wheel-drive. It would turn much tighter in one direction than the other. I mentioned this to my dad, who, being the engineer that he was, explained the concept of differential gearing to me. As an experiment, he added a wheel collar and a set screw to the non-powered wheel, giving it power to both rear wheels, and then it wouldn’t turn at all – unless I drove it on the back patio where there was some sand on the surface, then it would drift (though I didn’t know the term at the time).

  21. When I was little I had an RC Lamborghini from Radio Shack that was one-wheel-drive. It would turn much tighter in one direction than the other. I mentioned this to my dad, who, being the engineer that he was, explained the concept of differential gearing to me. As an experiment, he added a wheel collar and a set screw to the non-powered wheel, giving it power to both rear wheels, and then it wouldn’t turn at all – unless I drove it on the back patio where there was some sand on the surface, then it would drift (though I didn’t know the term at the time).

              1. It’s a REAL song?!? Not just a Bloom County/Billy and the Boingers hit?

                “I wanna run through your veldt!
                I wanna stomple your albino

                I’ll be your love rhino!”

                2. It IS a real song: I had the incredibly flimsy 45 that was included in the book.

                  -of course, I was very inebriated when I finally tore it out & played it, so I can’t tell you how good or bad it was. I do seem to remember laughing the whole time, so there’s that

            1. I have “Classics of Western Civilization”, which I bought in the ’90s, sitting on my bookshelf right now.

              It’s been brought back to the front of my consciousness via the strip’s plotline where Donald Trump’s brain gets transplanted into Bill’s body.

              1. It’s a REAL song?!? Not just a Bloom County/Billy and the Boingers hit?

                “I wanna run through your veldt!
                I wanna stomple your albino

                I’ll be your love rhino!”

                2. It IS a real song: I had the incredibly flimsy 45 that was included in the book.

                  -of course, I was very inebriated when I finally tore it out & played it, so I can’t tell you how good or bad it was. I do seem to remember laughing the whole time, so there’s that

            1. I have “Classics of Western Civilization”, which I bought in the ’90s, sitting on my bookshelf right now.

              It’s been brought back to the front of my consciousness via the strip’s plotline where Donald Trump’s brain gets transplanted into Bill’s body.

    1. I had the same thought! Which one were you picturing?

      Mine was from the 1970 version with Albert Finney. It’s kind of a musical but the songs are catchy little earworms. Bonus: it has Sir Alec Guiness as Marley.

      1. Wait for it…

        Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol from 1962. For whatever reason, this version has always been my family’s standard Christmas Carol choice, and I’m not 100% sure why. It’s shockingly solid. And yes, this version also has surprisingly catchy songs as well.

    1. I had the same thought! Which one were you picturing?

      Mine was from the 1970 version with Albert Finney. It’s kind of a musical but the songs are catchy little earworms. Bonus: it has Sir Alec Guiness as Marley.

      1. Wait for it…

        Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol from 1962. For whatever reason, this version has always been my family’s standard Christmas Carol choice, and I’m not 100% sure why. It’s shockingly solid. And yes, this version also has surprisingly catchy songs as well.

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