31-year-old Alex Orchin from Wivelsfield, Sussex drives the world’s smallest car, a blue Peel P50. It measures out at 134cm long, 98cm wide, and 100cm high and has a 5-liter petrol tank. And while he gets made fun of for it, he has the last laugh as he gets to save quite a bit at the gas pump.
He usually taps out at £7 ($9.17) for his gas bill, to be exact, in comparison to many US residents who find themselves having to pay upwards of $80 to $100 to fill up their tanks, depending on the car.
Meet Alex Orchin, owner of the world’s smallest (and most gas convenient) car
Alex is an avid motoring collector, which makes sense as to why he’d grin and bear it having to place his legs on either side of the steering wheel to even operate it, or the fact that he can’t even fit so much as a suitcase inside. Its top mph reaches 23 mph as well. “I have always had an interest in old, vintage and unusual cars since I was a kid,” he explains. “No one in my family was into it — it was a bit of a random obsession!”
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“I used to be a chauffeur for vintage cars and have had a 1914 Model T and a 1968 Morris Minor, too… I got fixated on this idea of having a P50 just because it was so tiny but when I saw an original was £100,000 it kind of killed it off.”
“The car always gets attention — it is quite staggering because to me it’s just a tiny car,” he continues. “It’s much smaller than you think it is — everyone says that when they see the car in person. I can fit a shopping bag down the left of the car by the handbrake, but nothing else.”
His car was first made on the Isle of Man in the 1960s and in 2010 was named the smallest production car ever built, according to the book of Guinness World Records. This specific vehicle was made in 2017, but the design is based on the original ’60s look.
Alex is also using the car to give back to charity. He started a 1,488-mile journey from John O’Groats on Nov. 13 and arrived in Land’s End on Dec. 4. raising over £11,000 for Children in Need.
