AN example of the smallest production car ever made has sold at auction for the second highest price paid at a British auction for the tiny model.

The 1963 Peel P50 microcar sold for £111,000 when it went under the hammer at a recent Car and Classic online auction.

The three-wheel single seater was one of only 46 made by the Peel Engineering Company at its works on the Isle of Man between 1962 and 1965.

Capable of 38mph and with economy of 100 miles per gallon, the car has no onboard instruments or odometer, nor a reverse gear, relying on being lifted and turned into the desired direction by the driver.

Its compact dimensions allowed it once to be used in a promotional stunt in the 1960s going all the way to the top of the Blackpool Tower where it was driven around the observation platform.

When it was launched it was sold as car capable of carrying only one passenger and a shopping bag.

Measuring just 52.8 inches long, 38.6 inches wide and 39.4 inches high it weighed in at 132lbs.

The car sold at auction may have been the earliest version made and as a pre-production example had a lower fitment of the windscreen, early Lucas sidelights, a cream steering wheel and no rear roll bar.

No other Peel has the same features.

The Peel was reborn in 2010 with the P50 and the slightly larger two-seat Trident model now produced in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts.

It was listed in the 2010 Guinness World Record as the smallest production car ever made.

The originals sold for £299 each and the current car - of which only a handful are built each year - is available as both a petrol and electric model priced from around £14,000.