Monday 24 January 2011

Quasar's crazy cube

You might have wondered what on earth that cube on wheels is on the picture next to here. Well, boys and girls, that is the Quasar Unipower dreamt up by Vietnamese born designer Quasar Kahn and built by Unipower Drives Limited in Perivale in the late 1960's. And, yes, that is the same Unipower who came up with the Unipower GT sports cars at around the same time. They were rear engined and Mini powered too, now with 1100cc engines and automatic boxes.

They were also a serious attempt to come up with a ultra modern city car but I'm not sure if they were taken too seriously. With a lenght of 64" and a width of 66" it may have been the only car that was wider than it was long. According to Danny Chabaud of France, who has researched them better then I have, only six are known to survive. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon three of them in a barn in northern France one day! Two of them were in a very sorry state, but the third (the car on the picture with me sitting in it) was not too bad. It has been restored by now and made it to the Goodwood Revival in 2009.

However, the cube's main claim to fame came from a 1970 French film called 'Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause!' ('She doesn't drink, smoke or flirt, but... she talks!'), which may not fit all the Nouvelle Vague criteria, but surely must have been both nouvelle as vague in 1970. Thanks to Bart Vanreusel of Belgium I came across a movie clip recently with some of the highlights of the movie in which the little motorised greenhouse appears. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Source: youtube.com

1 comment:

  1. This film is quite old now and I don't think it was really a hit but all actors playing in are all famous French actors, especially the woman driving the car: Mireille Darc. Back in the 70's, she was one of the most beautiful and sexiest actresses in France. She was very popular. She's still famous today. It's nice to see here driving the Cube!

    ReplyDelete