Let's Talk Cyclecars

A Dekko at the Decauville






Known as Decauville's Voiturelle, this was a hot sell in 1898 Paris. It cost £140, one third up front and the rest on delivery.
At the steeplechase of Auteuil a very pretty little motor-car made its first appearance and was greatly admired. Light, very elegant, painted in bright golden yellow, with two comfortable seats. This motor-car merits considerable attention, as it is very easy to manipulate, and can be turned in a small space. Later on, at the Paris Agricultural Show, it was one of the greatest attractions of the Exhibit of the Société Decauville.

Full particulars of the car may be obtained at the offices of The Société Decauville :— 13 Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris.

Well, good luck if that adress produces a result now ...

 

Same engine - does it still look like a V4?
Mors made V4's, but to my knowledge, not Hotchkiss.
And I venture to suggest that it is a very long way removed from a cyclecar.

 

Just got some more pictures of the"v4" engine

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55288722@N00/sets/72157632186534601/

 

Yes - that engine IS a V-4. But not the other from post #3474.
So ... we've been talking about two different engines?

 

Neat video with what appears to be a bit of cyclecar footage @ 4:21 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhlUBuLG3T0

 

Shelsley Walsh! Great find Airhead Roadster.

 

The narrow angle suggests Lancia, but as far as I know all the narrow-angle Lancia V4s had a single cylinder head, like this Lambda:


Profuse apologies for introducing a third V4

 

Not at all: in fact this last makes only the second V 4. Maybe we can move on before it becomes even more confused?
Post #3439... the aero engined Amilcar.
It IS aero engined, but not quite as one normally thinks of as an aero engine.
A Globe-Dayton fitted into an Amilcar CGSS
3 liter: based on a Ford A bottom end with air cooled barrels (maybe it's only used during a typical UK winter?).
Here's the story about the Globe-Dayton from this website.
http://www.memaerobilia.com/engineselection.asp
Story is that only two of these engines survive.

 

Here's a picture of a guy named Bourbeau with his Bedelia in 1913 at Le Mans.It appears that the source of the photo is the National Library of France.

 

Ade, if ever you do find out what that mystery V4 is, please let us all know.
It's magnificent!

 

Looks like Prescott.

 

Not Prescott this time, rather - Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris - 2007.

 

1927 Morgan Super Aero. Vincent-Vintage Reivial Montlhery pic

 

This car is still in Paris museum, very nice patina.

 

Very nice Lung and ACHILLE! Thank you.I love the building as well as the Aerocar.Tile work and stained gl***..just fabulous. Was this building always used for this purpose?

BanjeauX Bob

 

The new owner of the chater lea come over to pick it up , I was a little sad but I have to get the jappic done,
They were both very interested in seeing the jappic in the flesh , and now I have more space in the garage

 

I can't remember if I have posted this 1914 Majola from Vintage Revival Montlhery or not...

 

Musée des Arts et Métiers. Paris. Go there via the Metro as the station is done in Steampunk décor - wonderful.
The building was a church/cathedral, now added on to in modern style. Allow yourself a full day to "do" the museum: it's full of wonderful things.
As just one example, Cugnot's "Fardier" from 1770.

 

Danke,Merci,paldies,THANK YOU...once more Lung!

 

I agree, the museum is very pretty and interesting. In a superb building.

One more, the Hélica is on the left.

 

hi res scan of the very first edition of the cyclecar nov 27th 1912

sorry guys this will ruin your day as you will have to look through all the pages full of great ads for makes i had never heard of

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/toyota.tcl?main?toyota.10448?n=7?i=1

 

WOW! What a resource that is!
And don't you just have to love the statement on page 24 ...
"A cyclecar is not an omnibus"
Yes, well....!
Good one, Ade.

post script: this page is an utter GEM!
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/toyota.tcl?full?toyota.10448?n=7?i=66?size=full

 

Played around with body lines the other day though I'm still a very long way away from that stage. For a while now I've been stuck on driveshaft design, but I think I finally have it sorted. Thought I would take and share a few pics. Happy Holidays!

 

Great stuff,, interesting oval looks very 50's racing car, personaly i would go for the early gn look have a very narrow front body and have the cylinder heads and part of the barrels exposed out of the sides of the body, ,
early gn s just had a pointed nose then later had a faux radiator grill to apppear more modern
you could go veteran and have a cylindrical copper fuel tank with a point on the front obove the engine, this would mean you dont need a fuel pump

this certainly has the makings to be a great car ,

 

Looking good AR! I agree with Ade on the exposed jugs. Do you plan on having a reverse gear? What about the Jappic, Ade, will it have a reverse?

 

the 1/2 VW keeps 2 opposing cylinders whereas the FIAT 500 are not only on the same side of the engine, but the cylinders fire together. Unfortunately the 1/2 VW conversion chucks the flywheel end and mounts the prop on the opposite end, the prop then acting as the 'flywheel' if memory serves me well (all bets are off). I always thought that the 1/2 VW would make a good conversion for a FIAT 500 if you could figure out how to retain the flywheel.

In reality, they are getting rare, and even a dilapidated one will fetch $3K! I have a restored 1963 500 D plus a spare motor/******, but they are a host of better engines to use (IMO) for a cyclecar.

 

GM's Lean Machine of the early '80s or so used a half VW and must've had a flywheel.

I think you're correct, the aero-conversions of the half-VW use the prop as a flywheel, but that doesn't mean you can't bolt the flywheel on the back and cut it off at the other end/half.

 

They probably cut the back half off so they don't loose the oil pump.

 

And the timing gears.

Don't think--from what I remember of the ones that I had that the air cooled Fiat 500 had both cylinders fire together. Would make no sense. Of course, the whole damn car made no sense.

Herb

 

the Jappic uses a 1924 sturmey archer motorcycle box,so no reverse here, but it is a very small light car

it was designed to run at brooklands and to break speed records so reverse wasnt required,

in later pictures it aquired a little push ****on switch on the gear lever, and my ***umption was it was used to do full throttle shifts without the clutch and as it had a hand throttle on the steering wheel rather than a pedal it makes sense, or at least to me
so to change push kill switch and when the load comes off the gearbox dogs shift into next gear let go of ****on,

in the days before F1 cars had sequential hydraulic shift the driver would apply pressure on the gear lever then when the rev limiter cut in and the dogs became unloaded the driver could shift gear with the throttle to the floor