Once you arrive at your destination via plane, it can be a drag waiting for a rental car. Why not bring your own with a replica of the Mazda suitcase car?
The heady days of the 90s brought us many wild vehicles from Japan, and in 1991, Mazda built three prototype go carts built inside Samsonite suitcases as a potential rival to the Honda Motocompo. After some appearances on the talk show circuit, two of the prototypes were destroyed, and the world moved on. [Bucket] felt wistful about the vehicle and decided it was time to build his own since the only remaining example is in collector hands, although they were able to reach out to the owner for more information on how the original prototypes functioned.
Using a very small gas motor from a pocket rocket and a welded aluminum frame inside the suitcase, the builders managed to beat the stated top speed of the original, hitting 33 kph (20 mph) before the driver decided things were getting too frightening. The final build tips the scales at 56.8 lbs, so some further refinement might even get it under the 50 lb airline limit.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first suitcase-sized go cart we’ve seen. We wonder if a ride-able suitcase hovercraft is next?
Now imagine trying to pass a security check with this suitcase…
It’s a joke project, but gas tank is already a big nope.
Convert engine to run on ethanol – pick up a bottle of Everclear on the way though Duty-free?
I love the theoretical nature of this…
It would be a terrible energy density and it is likely going to raise so many questions…. but you could technically run this with an alternative fuel to gasoline and not need to bring a tank.
Ethanol is a ‘viable’ fuel, and depending on your local airport duty free shop, you might be able to get a high enough proof fuel on your way out of the airport.
Everclear is ~190 proof, and possibly would run a small engine.
You would need to bring your own oil though as the engines are two-stroke…
And you would also need to… remove some ethanol… to make enough room to pour in your 2 stroke oil and insert your fuel feed tube…
And you’d need a fuel feed system as you would not have a fuel tank to fill, the bottle would be the tank.
That’s a cool idea; however, I’d be worried that the combination of 2-stroke oil and 5% water in the ethanol might constitute a literal recipe for failure.
Pure ethanol is very hydroscopic, isn’t it? It absorbs moisture from the air? I feel like I’ve seen other small engines that burn some alcohol (for models and the like), and I assume those are 2-stroke. If a small percentage of water would be a problem, how do those deal with it? (genuine question, I’d like to know)
I suspect that pre-2001 Japan probably had extremely lax rules around airplanes, and bad behavior was almost non-existent much like their other public transport and common areas… But yeah even they probably wouldn’t let you put a full can of unleaded in the checked baggage. Maybe you were meant to walk out onto the tarmac (you were allowed to do that in the old days) and visit the avgas pump?
Bond. James Bond.
Little Nellie? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_WA-116_Agile
If I remember correctly, Honda did a small suitcase motorcycle in 80s, right?
Yes, the Motocompo. Honda even re-released it a couple years ago as an EV.
The Motocompacto, as mentioned in the article. They were recently revived as a battery powered product. My father has one. It’s pretty expensive for a folding scooter, but it does look funny.
The original idea was that traffic and parking was so bad in Tokyo that it was better for commuters to park in the outskirts of the city and scooter the last mile. It was designed to fit in the trunk of the subcompact Honda City car.
I saw one at a local motorcycle rally. It is one very neat little gizmo, you instantly love it. No idea how it rides. I’m jealous of your dad’s scooter.
I wonder what they were supposed to do when it rains.
The whole “Park outside of city, use public transportation within.” idea also never caught on in a big way, because the entire point of the car is to get you within a stone throw of where you’re going. It’s the distance you can push a shopping trolley without looking like a homeless person. Anything more and the utility of the car is lost.
Very convenient, admittedly, but not necessarily the best idea everywhere.
Many UK towns have a Park&Ride where you park your car outside-ish of the town and take a bus to the town centre. It is obviously not the best idea if you are buying a lot or buying large items, but since the larger supermarkets and large item shops (furniture, kitchen appliances, DIY, …) are typically at the outskirts of the town, you would rarely need your car in the town proper.
It makes for a more pleasant experience in the towns and improves air quality there.
It also means that the people living in town now have to travel out of town and drive more to get anything beyond the daily groceries.
Here’s the main catch though: even the specialty shops have gone away from the city center after people no longer drive there. Want computer parts? Nope, all closed down. Art supplies? Yep, same deal. Gone online. When people from the outside can no longer get to the inner city with ease, they stop coming. Parking your car far away and then waiting 20 minutes for the next bus, both ways, and paying extra for the inconvenience is not the same thing at all.
People stop bringing the money that sustains these inner city businesses in general, which means there’s even less reasons for people to come. All that’s left are bars and restaurants, that mostly survive off of people who come downtown at night to get pissed and stuff their face with kebab.
Does anybody know who was the firt to think of putting a motor in a suitcase ?
That gentleman is Yoshimi Kanemoto. I wonder what else he has done.
These days, an electric unicycle gives you a better solution to the same problem. They require more practice, but on the other hand you ride upright so you’ll have better visibility. And they’re a fraction of the size of that suitcase.
Not as cool though, I have to admit. In fact they’re not exactly cool at all. But they are fun.
Folding electric scooters. They’re everywhere – often piloted by people who are staring at their phone while on city streets.
Well, think of the alternatives. Would you rather have them wearing VR headsets?
By coincidence there’s a motocompo up for auction in the UK at Mathewsons this month. Tempting
Since nobody mentioned, the speed in ISO is km/h not kph (which is missing the unit: meter and adding a imaginary unit: p ? for what, pulses? period? photons?). Please stop using imperial-like invented unit for speed that’s completely non sense.
“Pocket Rocket” has a very particular meaning.
And I’m certain there were no commercially produced pocket rockets with Internal Combustion Engines…
Does no one do a cursory search when making up a term for something anymore?
It’s like someone naming their restaurant “The Pink Taco” and wondering why people keep giggling at the name…