The future and the past
Forty years ago the British publishing firm, Macdonald Educational Ltd. brought out a series of soft-cover booklets, mostly geared to young readers. “The Superbook” looked at aircraft, ships, trains and cars! The car book is only 32-pages but it is fascinating - and not only for youngsters. The pink car shown above is taken from that book and here’s the description: “This is an American idea from General Motors for a city car. It is called the XP883. The body is made from fibre glass which will not rot. There are two motors. An electric motor driven by batteries at the back is used for moving off. When the car is moving, the petrol motor at the front takes over. If extra speed is needed, both motors can work together.”
There is a fair bit of information online on this experimental car. And, although we think Macdonald Educational has likely changed a lot since their booklet series was published, you still may be able to locate some old copies online. One intderesting part of this book is a two-page diagram of how a car comes together on the assembly line.