In the late 1960s, my mother had an old Heinkel Trojan bubble car. 2 wheels at the front, 1 driven wheel at the back. No reverse gear, and the only access was through the front, climbing in and out past the steering wheel. Aged 7, I had to push it some distance while my mum was steering after it broke down. On another occasion, my grandfather was able to lift one side to tip it to examine what he thought might be the fault. I was sitting in it at the time.
There was a local legend of an unpopular teacher who arrived at work in one, and a gang of youths picked it up and turned it face to the wall before he could get out. With no reverse gear, and the door opening forwards, he was trapped.
A chap who lived near me had a Messerschmidt 3 wheeler: 2 wheels at the front, 1 at the back, and with room for one passenger who sat immediately behind the driver. To my mind, as a kid, it was not unlike a plane fuselage on wheels.
One of my dad's friends had a Reliant Supervan: 2 driven wheels at the back, 1 steered wheel at the front. It was a faded milk chocolate colour. I went in it a time or two. He explained that he could drive it on a motorcycle licence because it had no reverse gear. It was one of those older single men's cars, kneed deep in cigarette packets and sweet wrappers.
A group of local bikers also had a Supervan. They painted a confederate flag taking up the whole roof, in true Dukes of Hazard style. (In those days, the confederate flag was thought of in England as "the rebel flag" and was associated with rock and roll music, and had no associations with slavery. Times have moved on and I would no longer war one myself, although I used to, perfectly innocently.
My dad was walking home from the pub one night and the Dukes of Hazard Supervan came past at high speed (probably 30 or 40 mph!) took a hard left turn, flipped and rolled a couple of times. It ended up on its roof. The occupants got out, turned it the right way up by hand and continued on their journey.
We referred to them as "plastic pigs". There was a spate of torching them in the late 1970s. (I was not involved.) At the same time, there was another cheap small car, 4 wheeled, made by DAF. Someone went round the local area with a brush and some silver paint editing them to say "DAFT".
I remember Bond Bugs. They were ugly things. They were a bit of a craze at that time, along with VW-engined "beach buggies". I lived in Nottingham at the time which is a good 2 hours or more from the nearest beach!
My second car was a Citroen 2CV6, bright red. 602 cc horizontally opposed flat twin, capable of 80 mph with a good run up. It's still the car I remember most fondly. The gear change was like a walking stick coming horizontally out of the dashboard. 1st gear was where you would expect 2nd, and reverse was where you would expect 1st. My then wife made the obvious mistake when doing a hill start once and scared the guy in the car behind half to death.
You could get a tandem inside the 2CV, although with the front wheel taken off. You could take the back bench seat and the front seats out easily to sit on them for a picnic. One unsuspected benefit of the design was that, at a feeble 10 stone, I was able to lift the back end by the bumper and walk it round 45 degrees one day when I was boxed in in a car park.
Another car of the time was the original Fiat 500. Tiny, lightweight, and charismatic, it had a full length fabric roof to save weight, not as an extra! It was not at all like the retro fashion statement of the modern Fiat 500.
The world has moved on, but there was a special charm to the gloriously quirky cars of that time. They shouldn't have worked, but they did.
And yes, everyone said "Robin Reliant" and the were, and remain, wrong!
