Born of neccessity, the scootmobile was a miniature automotive movement of the 1940s. WWII had seen severe rationing of gasoline and people were finding efficient alternatives to ordinary automobiles. This is one of the more attractive examples.
Credit: Modern Mechanix - July, 1947
Click for more.
The movement was miniature in that the vehicles were tiny. Also, it never really caught on, so overall numbers of Scootmobiles were also small. Norman Anderson’s creation netted 75 mpg and went 40 mph. The caption claims that it was made mostly of airplane parts. Need that car is guessing it had no standard airbags.
Click the image to zoom.
NeedThatCar 
In my parallel life as a Vespa scooter guy, I’ve become interested in minicars – my favorite is the Messerschmidt – even got to sit in one. Based on that experience, I would never drive it – I felt much safer on a 250-pound 150 cc scooter.
But they are cool to look at…
Safety-wise, it may be about sixes. Speaking of Vespas, they made their share of microcars as well. Perhaps a feature on of those is in order. The Messershmidt may be the coolest one though.