(December 11, 2012) Seems like a low price for such an unusual car, but the Flatmobile, just 19 inches tall, commanded only $15,000 at suction earlier this month in England. The Flatmobile, which Perry Watkins of Perrywinkle Customs built in 2007, started out as a 1963 Hillman Imp.

Watkins’s experience building the world’s lowest cars extends back to 1990, when he and Danny Curtis whacked another Imp – dubbed Impressed – down to a height of 26-1/2 inches, or an inch and a half less than fellow Brit Andy Saunders’s Claustrophobia, which had held the record for the prior five years.

Before that, the Ford GT40 was considered the world’s lowest car.



Watkins, apparently not impressed with Impressed’s (lack of) height, elongated, chopped and sectioned a Mini that he called Lowlife down to 24 inches in 1999 to break his own record. Seven years later, Saunders fired back with his Flat Out, measuring a mere 21-1/2 inches tall.

So Watkins went to work on Flatmobile, chopping off the roof and sectioning 11-1/2 inches out of the body. Keeping with the Batmobile theme, he added a couple fins and 1959 Cadillac taillamps, along with a cockpit divider and plenty of switches and gizmos, all the while keeping the height to a mere 19 inches.

While it still runs on the Imp’s stock rear-mounted 875cc overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine, the Flatmobile also derives additional thrust from a jet engine that Watkins built from a turbocharger off a Volvo truck.

A year after Watkins built it, Guinness certified the Flatmobile as the world’s lowest car.

Entered into the Bonhams auction at Brooklands that took place Dec. 3, Flatmobile sold for £9,775, including premium, which is about $15,675 in U.S. dollars

Source: Hemmings Blog