King Midget

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King Midget (Model III)

Manufacturer	Midget Motors Corporation
Production	1946–1970
Class	microcar
Body style	2-door convertible
Engine	1-cylinder air-cooled
Transmission	2-speed automatic

King Midget was a type of car produced between 1946 and 1970 by the Midget Motors Corporation. Claud Dry and Dale Orcutt first sold the King Midget as part of their Midget Motors Supply operations in Athens, Ohio. By 1948, they began to use the name Midget Motors Manufacturing Co., too. In about 1956, Dry and Orcutt changed the name of their company to Midget Motors Corporation.

The King Midget was a very small car and it used an automatic transmission of their own design. Dry and Orcutt designed the midget while working as civil air patrol pilots during World War II. The car used many aircraft techniques to make it lighter.

Originally the King Midget was a single passenger kit car in which any single cylinder engine could be installed. The car was sold in kit form containing an assembly book, the frame, axles, springs, steering mechanism, and dimensioned patterns for the sheet metal. In the late 1940s through 1951 the Model 1 was also available in assembled form powered by a 6 hp (4.5 kW) Wisconsin engine.

In 1951 the Model 2 was developed. It was a two passenger convertible offered either fully assembled or as a kit, powered by a 7.5 hp (5.6 kW) Wisconsin AENL engine. The Model 2 was still a very basic car, for instance it had no speedometer and no reverse, but it was light, strong, and available for just $500. In 1955 a custom model of the Model 2 was introduced.

Sometime during the 1950s, Midget Motors developed the Junior and Trainer. Both was without a body or even a design for one. It was up to the owner to design and build. The Junior was powered by a 2.5 hp (1.9 kW) Briggs & Stratton engine, while the Trainer used a 3 hp (2.2 kW) Briggs and Stratton. Both had an automatic clutch with a geared, reverse transmission in the drive train. They were discontinued sometime in the early 1960s.

In 1957 the Model 3 was introduced. It had four wheel hydraulic brakes and was powered by a 9.2 hp (6.9 kW) engine. Midget production lasted through the 1960s, but emissions and safety regulations ended production in 1970.