From one of yesterday’s tomorrows, here’s a creative solution to the urban transportation problem: The 1981 Ford Cockpit Concept.

Urban congestion, environmental pollution, and energy costs are hardly new problems on the human landscape. They’ve been with us for a while. This concept vehicle by Ford Motor Company and Carrozzeria Ghia of Turin from way back in 1981 faces the perennial issues with imagination and a fair amount of style. The Cockpit, it’s fair to say, bears little resemblance to the commuter vehicles produced by the automakers today, and we’ll call that fortunate. Still, it’s an interesting vehicle.

The Cockpit takes its name from the novel packaging concept. Essentially, it’s a passenger pod with aircraft-style tandem seating mounted atop a simple three-wheel chassis. An enormous, forward-hinged canopy allows entry and exit for the two passengers. Meanwhile, back at the third wheel on the rear there’s a tiny but enthusiastic 200 cc, 12-horsepower engine from an Italian Piaggio scooter (which also gave up its gearbox and final-drive unit, we presume). Front suspension was a very basic transverse leaf setup with a pair of hydraulic dampers. We’ve seen this basic layout on a few specialty and kit vehicles, but never from a major automaker that we can recall.

While the Cockpit was stylish and futuristic in its presentation, the clip below reveals that the actual driving experience left something to be desired. Mainly it was a) slow and b) noisy. At the 1982 Chicago Auto Show and elsewhere, Ford boasted fuel economy of 75 mpg or more for the Cockpit—not bad, but we have vehicles today that can beat that mark and still provide reasonable utility and comfort. It’s good to know that in some ways, the auto industry is doing better than the futurists predicted.