For nearly as long as cars have existed, drivers all around the world have been enamored by the promises of cheap, hyper-efficient transportation. I mean, who doesn’t want to drive as far as possible for pennies on the dollar? In the 1970s and 1980s, some of the thriftiest cars in America were tiny fiberglass cuties promising around 100 mpg and pure driving fun. This is the 1986 D & A Vehicles Minikin, and it promised drivers pure driving fun to families, additional mobility to RV owners, and 75 mpg to delivery drivers. With perhaps as few as 16 made, you might not see another for a while.
This car has popped up for sale in the Obscure Cars For Sale group on Facebook. I totally recommend visiting this group because you might just find a car that you never even knew existed. You might not have seen this car before, but I bet you’ve seen or even own the car that this car is associated with.
The Minikin was pitched as a sort of great vehicle to buy if you were looking for a fun second car. D & A Vehicles was ambitious in the vehicle’s marketing, saying that it hugged the road and made “driving great again.” So, what’s the deal with this little guy? Some of you might even wonder why it looks somewhat familiar. Well, that’s because this car is technically related to another cutie.
Born From A Familiar Name
The Minikin was the work of D & A Vehicles, Inc. of St. Cloud, Minnesota. According to St. Cloud local paper, the Chronicle, D & A Vehicles was founded by Don Schirmers and Allen Tank in 1982. The pair had acquired the rights to the H-M-Vehicles Freeway and began a three-year development period, turning the thrifty trike into a two-seat convertible.
We’re pretty huge fans of the High Mileage Vehicles Freeway (yes, that’s what the “H-M” means) around here and know that at least one reader owns one. Here’s some history from my old H-M-Vehicles Freeway piece:
In 1979, Apple Valley, Minnesota resident Dave Edmonson believed that he found the solution to America’s fuel woes, reported Minnesota newspaper Sun This Week. His HMV FreeWay didn’t just advertise 100 mpg, but guaranteed it so long as you kept the vehicle in operating order and drove it just 40 mph. Backing up Edmonson was his research. In 1970, he was studying mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota when he began looking into economical vehicles for a course. And Edmonson, like the fellow that built that 75 mpg Geo Metro, felt that taking the family car to work was wasteful. From the Sun This Week:
“I thought it would make a lot of sense for people driving to work or when they don’t need a big car to be driving something smaller and more economical,” said Edmonson, a father of six and grandfather of 19. “I did studies on how much power it took to move a small vehicle down the road and what kind of mileage you could expect. I began building a prototype in 1974 and finished it in 1976. That’s when I tried to start getting the business going.”
And what you got with this trike is, well, not much. The body consists of two pieces of fiberglass molded in color. The body is draped over a steel tube frame with a perimeter frame that includes the vehicle’s crash structure. And yes, that small strip of black is the vehicle’s steel bumper. The Burnsville Historical Society shows us what that structure looks like.
Aside from the featherweight bodywork, another key to the frugality was the 345cc Tecumseh single-cylinder engine. H-M-V promised 100 HP from the 12 HP mill so long as you kept it around 40 mph. If you had a need for speed, there was a hotter 453cc model that made 16 HP and still clocked in around 80 mpg. That one was also said to have a top speed of 65 mph.
Reader Mike Harrell owns a Freeway and apparently gets nothing near the advertised fuel economy:
I own an HMV Freeway with the smaller engine but I’ve got to say that even at a steady 40 mph I’ve never seen anything approaching 100 mpg. About half that, or slightly less, is more realistic.
I do, in fact, drive it on the freeway. It will cruise at 60 mph or so on level ground, although ascending even modest hills will slow things down considerably. My longest trip so far has been about 300 miles; on the one occasion I took it farther from home I towed it.
The Freeway was sold for $3,400 ($15,919 today) and H-M-Vehicles managed to produce about 700 examples before going under in 1982.
The Big Minikin
That brings us to the Minikin. Don Shirmers and Allen Tank used to be employees of H-M-Vehicles and felt that the Freeway’s design could have been improved. Buying the design was their chance to make things right in their eye.
Back then, Schirmers said that the average American car commuted less than 12 miles on each trip and most of the time, those vehicles had one occupant or maybe two. So, the Minikin was designed to have two seats next to each other. However, a funny quirk about the Minikin is that its steering wheel is in the center. After all, as Schirmers said, most cars have just one occupant in them. Presumably, that means if you’re driving with a passenger, you have to drive with your arms at an angle. Schirmers says he also wanted to keep as much weight in the center as possible because, after all, you’re driving a trike weighing just 950 pounds.
The Minikin sports the hotter 16 HP engine from the Freeway, plus an AM/FM radio, a vinyl convertible top, and a defroster. A heater, a spare tire, a towing kit, and a backpack kit were among the few options. The Chronicle continued by describing the Minikin as surpassing the safety of a motorcycle with its safety glass, steel frame, and rollbar.
One of the biggest selling points of the Minikin was its simplicity. It has a clutch and belt like a go-kart, a gravity-fed fuel system, a carburetor. D & A Vehicles advertised the easy maintenance of the drivetrain and the fact that parts and service were plentiful since the car pretty much used a ride-on lawnmower engine.
D & A Vehicles was ambitious in its marketing. The companies claimed three market possibilities. The first was the island runabout rental market. D & A expected Minikins to be a far more popular and even more profitable alternative to scooter and bicycle rentals. D & A Vehicles even expected to rename the Minikin to the Island Pop’r for the rental version.
The second target market included condo dwellers, RV owners, and the islanders themselves. The RV idea was simple enough. D & A said you would hitch the Minikin up to the back of your RV and tow it to your destination. Then, you had a car to drive around in once you got there. This wasn’t a new concept. So many experimental vehicles had been built around being a sub-1,000-pound escape pod to tow behind an RV. Many RV owners today buy an old Smart Fortwo if they just want a tiny car to tow with their RV.
Anyway, D & A Vehicles also started asking islanders and condo owners and both apparently said that the vehicle looked like a ton of fun, so the vehicle was marketed toward them, too.
Finally, the last market for the Minikin was pizza delivery. D & A Vehicles planned a van version, and the idea was that a pizza delivery driver would enjoy getting 75 mpg as they delivered hot pies. D & A also figured that business owners would love the ease of maintenance, tiny size, and “under $4,500” ($13,640 today) purchase price.
D & A Vehicles trademarked the Minikin name in 1983 and began advertising that year. By 1985, Schirmers indicated that 8 examples had been completed. He expected that over 150 vehicles would be built in 1986. But that didn’t happen. It’s believed that D & A Vehicles managed to sell only 16 examples. That’s despite marketing going into the early 1990s.
Sadly, I’ve found no official explanation for why barely over a dozen of these were sold, but I’m not all that surprised. A Yugo was only $3,990 ($12,094 today) back then. A Nissan Sentra was $5,499 ($16,668 today), and a Pontiac 1000 was $5,735 ($17,384 today). Of course, used cars were cheaper than that.
This Minikin
The 1986 Minikin for sale in Cary, Illinois, is said to be number four of the alleged total 16. There isn’t much of a description that comes with the car, other than the fact that it runs and drives and that it’s registered as a motorcycle. The photos that come with the vehicle show that it appears to be in pretty good shape!
It’s gloriously simple. I love the off-the-shelf speedometer, which reads all of 2,931 miles. The carpet is sort of just there, there’s basically no weatherstripping, and there’s even just a single wiper. I could have sworn I’ve also seen that steering wheel on a go-kart.
It’s all delightful and fun. The seller wants $10,000 for the Minikin, and yeah, that’s a lot of dough. But I think the price might be worth it for someone. I could totally see this thing showing up on an Aging Wheels video one day. Hey Robert Dunn, are you reading this? Amusingly, I live maybe 10 minutes from this car, but $10,000 is way too much for me. But maybe I’ll ask the seller if I can take it for a spin.
I love the 1980s era of weird cars like these. The people behind cars like the Freeway and the Minikin had huge ideas, even if their budgets and manufacturing only somewhat lived up to the promises. Yet, they still made at least a few cars and people do love them. It’s hard not to root for an underdog like this, and I hope this Minikin finds a good home.
“H-M-V promised 100 HP from the 12 HP mill”
And to be grounded to the ground too I’m sure.
When I first saw the title say 75mpg I had to check that it wasn’t written by Toecutter. Then the picture loaded and showed this was severely lacking in aerodynamics to be his.
I’d say the pricing killed any chance it had to sell 150 (or more). That’s way too much money for what amounts to basically a motor, wheels and a steering wheel, and it apparently wasn’t that much more efficient than small cars of it’s time, not enough to be worth all the nothing you endure.
Maybe at half the price they were asking?
Also, 1986 was a far way away from the immediate aftermath of the 1979 oil embargo that birthed HMV, by the mid 1980s, oil prices had completely cratered to historic lows and people kind of stopped caring about fuel economy. MSRP, however, yes, that remained a concern
I used to really want a Freeway, until I had the chance to actually see one up close a few years ago. I don’t know a thing about bodywork, but I’m pretty sure I could build something better finished and more substantial in one of my garages. It does seem that the Minikin is better built, so I might keep an eye out for one in the future, but, honestly, I think Reliant’s Regal 3/30 does a much better job at being this sort of car.
Aside from my own Freeway I’ve had the chance to examine about a dozen others and one Minikin. The build quality is about the same. I’d rate both as better than a kit car as typically completed but not as good as a well-finished kit car. I’ve also seen a few Reliants of various types and they are generally of better fit and finish. They appear to be quite a bit more practical, too.
An ambitious ride is the Minikin,
Whose promise holds more than its cabinkin.
It can put in its seat
Two folks cheek to cheek.
But I’m damned if I see how in hellitcan.
I’m amused by the piece of stove pipe ducting cooling air off the engine Mike Harrell would probably go for this if it was cheaper and closer
I… Yes. Yes, I would. I would even have given some thought to cheaper or closer had I not just bought a Velorex 435. Ah, well, at least the Warsaw-Pact Velorex was a solid choice for driving to work on May Day.