The Collection would never have been enriched with the Isetta had it not been for Helmut Bannert. One day, at the home of one of his customers, he spotted an Isetta standing in a barn. The car was wrecked, and a grimy pastel colour looked out from under a layer of dust. Helmut assessed it, and although the car looked like the seven woes, its overall condition gave him hope that the vehicle could still be revived. Interestingly, the vintage BMW had only one owner in all that time. Becoming the second owner of an Isetta is no small matter. So, the collector decided to buy it.

– It turned out that the Isetta we had just found was manufactured in May 1962, i.e. in the last month of the car’s production. You cannot get a newer one! The first owner bought it at a substantial discount and used it as a daily driver until 1971. Where did he drive it to? We do not know exactly, but he certainly did not avoid… beer bars. On one occasion, returning from a nearby tavern, he hit a tree. Huddled against the boot, the car made it effectively impossible to leave the interior through the door. The large roof opening came in handy. The driver walked the rest of his way home and returned for the car the next day. Using a tractor, he towed the Isetta to the yard and locked it in the barn. Assumingly, he had a plan to repair the car in his own time, but as is common, ‘his time’ never came. The car spent the next decades in oblivion, with the mileage stopped at 22000 km.

Bringing the bodywork up to scratch started with the purchase of the right-wing doors. Helmut took the engine apart, but ruled that, apart from oil changes and minor things, there was not much to do. Once the doors had been replaced and the engine assembled, it was possible to get behind the wheel and finally drive at least a few dozen metres. The car was unsuitable for driving on a public road, if only because of the muffler, which made a merciless noise, but anyway, covering even such a symbolic distance was a landmark event. Like anything happening for the first time in half a century.

The meticulous restoration of the bodywork was conducted in Poland, while the fitting and assembly, which took two years, happened place in Germany at Helmut’s workshop. During the restoration, new parts were used and those with which the car left the factory were reconditioned. Although the Isetta was originally painted beige, it now pleases the eye with a blue and white paint job. Why did Bonaventura decide to deviate from the car’s previous look?

– It is such a beautiful car that it was a shame to leave it in a mousey colour with a brown interior. When choosing the paintwork and upholstery pattern, I modelled it on the car I used to drive, which was in the showroom opposite the BMW Museum in Munich. This is the original combination taken from the Isetta catalogue. Specimens with exactly this look went for export sales.

The Isetta is powered by a 12‑hp, 250 ccm unit based on the engine from the BMW R25 motorbike. Contrary to appearances, driving the tiny car is not easy. In the hands of a persistent driver, who does not mind the noise of a small engine, it is able to accelerate up to 85 km/h. The only thing to remember is that this is one of the few BMWs that is either fast or pleasant to drive.