Went to the AACA Museum in Hershey PA last weekend. This American Bantam is open to pose/sit in. Engine is tiny. Felt like a four-speed, not 100% sure, but the scale of this little car blew my mind. For reference I'm 6 feet tall and 225 pounds.....

 

I do lots of perspective illustration and am fairly adept at estimating dimensions from images. Including your height as a scaling reference is most helpful. But because you are seated it's hard to use that figure. Also, the photos do not show the front of the car so critical information is missing.

It's surprising how much difference in measured overall length bumpers make. We sense the length of cars by the overall volume we see and bumpers don't usually register. So in that case the Bantam looks quite short. But if its front bumper is similar to its rear then it could be an additional 5-8" longer than it appears to be.

If you look carefully at the rear bumper you can see it protrudes beyond the bodywork. Because the bumper is small and the connector is black it doesn't look like much. But if you compare the gap between the bumper to the width of your hand, for example, you get an idea of how far it extends. It's a lot.

The MINI's front bumper is very close to the bodywork. So it "gains" there in dimensional compactness compared to many other cars. Sorry I wasn't able to guess the length of the Bantam.

Happy motoring.

 

It is substantially smaller with a 14 HP engine!

Wheelbase 75"
MINI wheelbase 96.5" (I believe)

Big difference

 

that's a neat looking car!

 

Go Dog Go!



Look familiar?

 

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/G...896/bantam.htm

Cool! The American Bantam is somewhat related to MINI through Austin heritage.