3 - 1948 Davis Divan
Aside from looking like a toothless Beluga, the Davis Divan was a scooter born of a pioneer's imagination. In fact, Glenn Gordan Davis bought the car from a racing enthusiast who had converted his racing car into a three-wheeler, hoping to make it an economical car.
Davis subsequently manufactured 16 of these models (2 prototypes, 11 Divan models and 3 military units). The Divan, shown in our photo, was 15.5 feet long, an enormous size for a vehicle with only three wheels.
4 – 1951 Hoffmann
In the post-war years, many companies wanted to start producing automobiles, lured by a rapidly growing market. One of these was the Hoffmann company, which from 1949 to 1951 assembled the strange insect pictured here.
In this case, the small engine and low traveling speed and the fact that the car had only three wheels meant it was sold tax-free and no licence was required to drive it. This was enough to attract a clientele hard-hit by the war.
One special feature was that the steering wheel controlled the rear wheel. As you can imagine, this made for a very unstable model that was easy to lose control of.