Mirakocar 1001 (1938 - 1964)     The Mirakocar 1001 is A Miracle car. This newer model 1001, from my collection, travels along the table top untill it reaches the end then turns to avoid falling just in the nick of time. This is made possible by the addition of A sideways wheel mounted under the car in front of the rear wheels. The front wheels never touch the ground, the front of the car rides on A indentation on the bottom plate designed so it will slide back onto the table top when driven by the sideways mounted wheel, or turn to the right when bumping into something.

There are several different body styles of the Mirakocar 1001 all bearing the same model number. Shown here, from my collection is the older body style in blue. Although the basic design is the same there are slight differences between there base plates, mostly due to the different bumpers. If this older blue 1001 looks good to you, look again. Someone has broken off the front headlights.

Miracocar 1001 Base Plate (New Style, Actual Size)

Like the Telesteering 3000 the Mirakocar has one rear drive wheel with a rubber oversert and one rear wheel made of metal to handle the differental problem. The sideways mounted wheel also has A rubber oversert for traction.     The red car pictured above, from my collection, is one of the few which left the factory with either its sideways wheel to low or the indentation on the base plate too high. When wound this car has a tendency to just spin in circles, I wonder how much quailty control was exercised back then. This could be considered lucky as my Mirakocar 1001 marked "Made in U.S. Zone Germany" has very little wear and even the box is in very nice condiction. The original owner probably realizing it did not work put it back in the box and forgot about it. Most of the Mirakocars I have seen that operate do so fairly well.     Made popular by the pre war Schuco 1010 the "Won't fall off the table" or "No Fall" action was very popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Everybody, German, French, English and later the Americans and Japanese manufacturers made at least one of these toys, in many forms, cars (Marx made the "Tricky Taxi"), trucks, Busses (Schuco made the Mirako Bus, not yet in my collection), animals (Schuco made a mouse), and just about anything you could think of. Schuco designed the 1502 Express Service Station to work with the Mirakocar. Three of the Schuco model 1001/1 variations are show below.

Schuco 1001/1 in three variations