Glassy Prototype

Streamlined it isn't. "It looks," observed the London Daily Sketch, "like a motorized greenhouse without the tomatoes." But never mind. The Cubicar, an almost perfectly cubic car manufactured by Britain's Universal Power Drives Ltd., could well become the commuter car of the future. In the age of the traffic jam, when both road space and parking space are at a premium, the 6-ft.-4-in.-long Cubicar is a fascinating concept. With a top speed of 55 m.p.h., it gets about 24 miles to the gallon. It can seat five adults in comfort. And it can park, headon, where even a Volkswagen would fear to tread.

At a list price of $2,160, the Cubicar's main drawback seems to be that its roof and four walls are glass, allowing the squares of the world to see in as easily as the riders of the cube can see out. But then, explains the car's designer, a Vietnamese Parisian named Quasar (after the far-out starlike bodies) Khanh (TIME, Oct. 27), "Transparency is part of the modern world."

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