You just have to love this photo which recently turned up on ebay. This is a Vespa 400. Not everyone is aware that Piaggio tried its hand at making a car, but they did. They built the cars in France, so as not to come into direct competition with the Italian car-makers of the day. The Vespa had a 400cc two stroke, two cylinder engine mounted in the rear. It had some innovative features, such as a hand crank two-stroke oil mixer for the fuel, and four wheel independent suspension. With the two stroke motor, I'm sure it compared well with the four stroke Fiat 500... which is probably what doomed the car. The story goes that Fiat threatened to begin production of a scooter if Piaggio didn't cease car manufacturing. And thus the short production run of the Vespa 400 came to an end.
It is surprising to think that some of these little cars actually came to the US, but they were actually sold here. I have seen quite a few of them, considering their low production numbers. I don't know the story behind this photo, but one can imagine that this tiny car stuck out like a sore thumb in the suburbs of the 1960's where huge American behemoths ruled the roads.