Tiny bubbles
Gum connoisseur Bruce Weiner showcases his love for microcars (at Dubble Bubble Acres)

BY LESLIE BAKUN

Remember the amazement you felt when you watched a group of clowns climb out of those tiny cars at the circus? And did you ever wonder where they found such a small car? Maybe they found it at the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum at Dubble Bubble Acres in Madison.

"Bubble cars," or microcars, as they are technically called, had their heyday in the decade following World War II. Europe was rebuilding itself and many people didn’t have the money to spend on expensive cars. There was an extreme shortage of food, raw materials, electricity and gas, so the cars were built out of practicality. They have a round, roly-poly shape and are often topped with a clear, plastic-domed roof. They generally are 10 feet long or less, have three or four small wheels, and are powered by small one- or two-cylinder engines.

Weiner, the museum’s owner, is also known to some as "Mr. Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum" because his company, Concord Confections Inc., manufactures that chewing gum. Hence the name "Dubble Bubble Acres."

What began as a passion for collecting autos is now a museum with more than 125 cars, scooters, memorabilia and one-of-a-kind vehicles that you only read about in books. "The first microcar I bought was the Messerschmitt Tiger," he says. "Then I started running out of room in my house for them." So he built a warehouse to store the cars, and opened the museum to the public in 2001. Every inch of the building is filled with cars, signs, posters and microcar gear.

"It’s nothing you’ll see anywhere else," Weiner says. The museum’s 15,000-square-foot building not only houses all of the cars, but has a house built inside that contains extensive literature on microcars that Weiner has accumulated.

The museum also holds a workshop where restorations are done. But before a car is restored, Weiner says, a great deal of research goes into finding the right accessories, such as the interior fabric and paint colors that make the car "authentic." "It’s a painstaking process," he says. The restoration can take two to three years for one car, so the museum usually works on seven or eight cars at a time.

The car is dismantled and "rejuvenated," right down to the last nut