The term light car is used in Great Britain since the early part of the 20th century for an
automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
less than 1.5 litres
engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...
capacity. In modern
car classification this term would be roughly equivalent to a
subcompact car. There are numerous light car clubs in Britain and Australia.
The current driving licence category B1 ("Light vehicles and quad bikes") in Great Britain covers motor vehicles with four wheels up to 400 kg unladen, or 550 kg if designed for carrying goods. This category does not exist in Northern Ireland; a full car licence is required for light cars and
quad bikes there.
The term light car was used in the 1910s and 1920s in the United States to describe a cyclecar that had been improved with conventional automobile components, but was not a classification.
History
A paragraph in the ''Autocar Handbook'', sixth edition (1914) states:
It goes on to state:
A specification for the light car was promulgated in 1912 by the
ACU, by which engine capacity was limited to . Also in 1912, cars in Europe with engines smaller than were classified for motor sport purposes as
cyclecar
A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive motorized car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the c ...
s.
In October 1913 the British Temple Press, the publisher of various vehicle magazines, launched a magazine called ''The Light Car and Cyclecar'',
Light Car and Cyclecar-Volumes available on Grace's Guide
''www.gracesguide.co.uk'', accessed 24 January 2021 later shortened to ''The Light Car''. It was on sale every Friday and cost 3 d, but it ceased publication many years ago. This magazine covered topics on the range of cars used by the 'average motorist
Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a land vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. A driver's permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met, and drivers are required to ...
'.
Examples
* Ageron – French light car produced between 1910 and 1914
* Econoom – Dutch light car produced between 1913 and 1915
See also
* Car classification
* Vehicle size class
Vehicle size classes are series of ratings assigned to different segments of Motor vehicle, automotive vehicles for the purposes of vehicle emissions control and Fuel economy in automobiles, fuel economy calculation. Various methods are used to c ...
* Subcompact car
Subcompact car is a North American Car classification, classification for cars smaller than a compact car. It is broadly equivalent to the B-segment (Europe), supermini (Great Britain) or A0-class (China) classifications.
According to the Unite ...
* Compact car
Compact car is a vehicle size class—predominantly used in North America—that sits between subcompact cars and mid-size cars. "Small family car" is a British term and a part of the C-segment in the European car classification. However, before ...
* Mid-size car
Mid-size—also known as intermediate—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than compact cars and smaller than full-size cars. "Large family car" is a UK term and a part of the D-segment in ...
* Cyclecar
A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive motorized car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the c ...
* Microcar
Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are ofte ...
References
{{Reflist
Automotive industry in the United Kingdom