>>
>>Is it the predecessor of ID-19, aka The Shark? One of craziest cars of all times.
>
>Don't know this car.

http://www.cta.a.se/id19.htm
http://www.allsportauto.com/english/1970-citroen-id-19.php

>>The claim to originality of sir Issigonis was that the Mini was the first car ever with front wheel drive and transverse engine. Which it was not - Trabant came a couple of years before that.
>
>and the Big 15 etc. were before that with the front-wheel drive

Front wheel drive is not the point: it's the "front wheel drive and transverse engine".

>>But then it's not the first nor the last time that whatever doesn't originate within the Western world doesn't count.
>
>Man you sound like one of the "Ostalgia" adherents, living comfortably in Virginia Beach :-)

We (the then Yugoslavia) did have a comfortable position between the blocs, being able to freely travel to both sides... and we'd feel immensely rich when on the East side, after having sold some of the artifacts of the more-west-than-yours production. So my memories of the East bloc tend to be pleasant, simply because it felt good there :). I remember we used to spend an equivalent of their monthly salary in a day.

I was referring more to the general cultural shortsightedness - just pick any large list of the most important (insert "painters", "novelists", "scientists", ... anything) of the century, and you'll find two token Russians, one token Hindu, maybe one token author from Afrasia and South America, and maybe one guy from the rest of the world. And then you'll find any number of Angloamerican and West European authors that you never heard of.

Because that's how the education works - books are written based on other books, and they're all in the same circle.

>Did you see my message to Alex, with a link to the "British Trabant", the Reliant 3-wheeler (they werew made of fibre-glass): #1028067
>
>DAMN! How do you get the message no. to go "live"?

1. I've seen it. 2. use the "copy" button in the toolbar of the message, you get the proper stuff to paste, or 3) use the "message #1028067" syntax.

>Also, when I was a teenager, our family had a Muscovite as a 2nd car. I think this was built from the "Polski-Fiat" stable.

Moskvich was older. Polski Fiat was built upon Fiat 125 and the small one on Fiat 126 (aka "the little iron", or "tetrapak").

> It was built like a tank, and had all mod-cons (I doubt the version for the home market was up to this spec.). Considering there were only c. 3 in my city, spares were a pain to get hold of.

My uncle had one. There were stories of one of these hitting a train or a Mercedes and leaving with just minor bruises (not the driver, the vehicle).