Lets Get Small, Really Small: The Arbet

The Arbet has the distinction of being the smallest car ever registered in the United States, as confirmed by the 1993-97 Guiness Book of World Records. It was built by a skilled machinist named Arliss Sluder. The Arbet measured just 88 ½” long, 40” wide, 38 ½” tall, and weighed in at a few pounds over half a ton. Powered by a 13hp Onan 2-cylinder engine the Arbet delivered a 45mph top speed and 50mpg economy. It appears that the Onan engine was one just a handful of the car’s 5000 components that Arliss Sluder did not fabricate himself. That is likely why a project that he started late in 1945 was not completed until 1956. Arliss came up with the Arbet’s name by combining his own with that of his wife, Beth’s - possibly in acknowledgement to her for letting his little project take over her garage for a decade.