Biscúter (Spanish spelling for the pronunciation of Biscooter) was a microcar manufactured in Spain during the mid-20th century
The car actually had its origins in France in the late 1940s, where aircraft designer Gabriel Voisin had designed a minimal car called the Biscooter. The playful name implied that it was about the size of two motorscooters, or a scooter with four wheels. The design drew no interest from either manufacturers or consumers there, however, and he eventually licensed it to Spanish firm Autonacional S.A. of Barcelona. By the time it was introduced in 1953, the marque had been hispanicized to Biscúter. The first car had no formal model name and was called simply the Series 100, but it soon became known as the Zapatilla, or little shoe (clog), after a low-heeled peasant slipper popular at the time.
The Zapatilla was minimal indeed, with no doors or windows or reverse gear. The 1 cylinder, 197 cc, two-stroke motor produced 9 horsepower (7 kW), had a crank starter, and drove only the right front wheel. Braking was by an unusual three-point system involving the transmission and cable ties to the two rear wheels. One genuinely advanced feature was an all-aluminum body (on the 100 Series cars), although steel was later used (on the 200 Series cars). The steel body increased the weight by 55kg (240kg for the aluminium-bodied cars versus 295kg for the steel-bodied cars)
Amenities such as doors and windows did eventually appear, and several different bodystyles were produced, including trucks and an elegant woodie station wagon (200-C Comercial).
In 1957 the company attempted to produce a sports car, the Biscuter 200-F in an attempt to attract the wealthier buyers. The styling was similar to the Pegaso Z-102 (hence the nickname Pegasín, "little Pegaso") and it was available in both hardtop and convertible variants, but it didn't help much. By the early 60s, Biscúter sales and production stopped, after a total production run of about 12,000. It is thought that almost all of the cars were eventually scrapped.
Source: wikipedia.org, Biscuter
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