Autocar reveals first picture of Murray T25

Autocar have published the first picture of Gordon Murray's city car proposition, the T25.

The car has been seen testing in Surrey, and Murray expects the first cars to be ready for production in two years time. The T25 is smaller than a Smart and weighs in at only 650kg.

Judging by the photo it's not the prettiest of vehicles (though you can't go too far wrong with matt black paint...), but if the car lives up to expectations it could bring about a change of thinking in the city car market. We're already starting to see smaller vehicles being put forward for serious production, such as Renault's Twizy, which will form the basis of the next Smart itself.

Full story here. Autocar are, as yet, the only magazine to have driven a prototype of the revolutionary city car.

Image: Autocar

Spy shots of new "Topolino"

Fiat's small car, the 500, isn't actually that small. Competing against the Mini it rests in an awkward limbo between the A and B segment vehicles, above tiny city cars like the Smart and below regular small hatchbacks like the Fiesta.

More in the spirit of the original Fiat 500 is the disguised micro-car, currently undergoing testing out on the roads, codenamed "Topolino". It even shares it's layout with the classic Fiat, using a new rear-engined, rear-wheel drive platform. It'll be shared with BMW who'll use it in their new Isetta, another classic name to be resurrected. The car will have a 3+1 seating layout and a 65bhp 900cc engine which could get as much as 80mpg and less than 90g/km of CO2 emissions, one of the lowest from any production car.

Although it's the Fiat that's been caught testing (as visible by the Panda lights cobbled onto the back end), the Isetta is perhaps the more interesting concept. Auto Express showed a render of the possible car a while back (shown in the last image below) and whilst it's unfortunately unlikely to look like this, the fact that BMW are prepared to invest in something so diverse and put their own name to it (unlike the self-titled MINI) is something to celebrate.

Images: Automedia and Worldcarfans.com

Image: Auto Express