Minimal Motoring

1

The Life of the Cyclecar

The tricar seemed to be the future for low-powered and economical private transportation at the turn of the century, and for the few years between 1905 and 1909. The motor tricar, a three-wheeled device with the engine and transmission behind the driver and passenger, was an inadequate compromise between the motorcycle and the motor car. At its crudest it was a motorcycle with a two-wheel appendage in front of the main chassis frame and was the basis of innumerable cheaply produced lightweight delivery vans. Two people could sit side by side at the very front between the two wheels with the smelly, noisy engine behind them. In Britain the Riley and AC were the major manufacturers, but there were many others building some cars and hopeful of success.

The voiturette, a scaled-down large car with an engine, radiator and bonnet in front of the driver, was the future. There were also two new and advanced forms of light motor vehicle - the cyclecar and the light car, which were both under development in many countries.

A.C. Arthur Armstrong in his 1946 book Bouverie Street to Bowling Green Lane, the history of the Temple Press publishing house, stated that there were two widely held beliefs of the first decade of the century. Firstly, that the motorcycle was doomed and, secondly, that motorcycle sport did not have a future worthy of consideration.

The Chater Lea Carette of 1907 was a precursor of the cyclecar, fitted with a vee twin Sarolea engine and single belt final drive.

By 1910, motor cars and motorcycles had evolved from their primitive stages of development into vehicles which were close to providing reliable transport. The engines for light cars were simplistic, having been designed and made to the motorcycle standards of the time. Most of the cars or devices offered on sale were built up from proprietary offerings. Ignition systems, if not reliable, were moving towards that state; practical spray carburettors were in production, and gearboxes and clutches were effective. Refinements such as electric lighting, mechanical and electric engine-starting systems and shock absorber devices were still in the future, but becoming available in America.

Many individuals, unknown to each other, and in many countries, were working towards the same end of producing a car using motorcycle and off-the-shelf technology, with no particular plans for going into the business of manufacture. These were do-it-yourself backyard enterprises for the personal amusement of the constructors. It was only after the passage of two or three years that these pioneers realised that they had created an entirely new movement within the growing motor industry and drew together to follow the common path. In 1909 the two favoured names for these lightweight cars were 'monocar' and 'duocar'.

In France there were two active enthusiasts, L.F. de Peyrecave and Robert Bourbeau, and it was the latter with his friend, Henri Devaux, who triggered off the cyclecar vogue. 'One-off job designs' were appearing on the roads in Britain, and the Temple Press journal Motor Cycling became interested in what appeared to be a development in their sphere, but whether it was really a new kind of motorcycle with four wheels or a light car with a motorcycle engine was something that caused the Editor, W.G. McMinnies, to think about the future.

It was said at the time that if there were two Germans marooned on an island, within a week they would have produced a new philosophy, two Frenchmen a duel and two Englishmen a club. Indeed, the untranslatable word 'club' has been given by the British to the world, like the French terms chassis and chauffeur. The rest of Europe and the world absorbed the word 'club' from the very beginnings of motoring. The first motor club of all was formed out of enthusiasm for the new sport of motor racing. In 1894 the historic first motor run took place from Paris to Rouen, and the following year the Automobile Club de France was founded. Two years later Britain hailed the birth of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, which became the Royal Automobile Club in 1907. Regional motor clubs followed quickly. The Midland Automobile Club ran its first hill-climb in 1901 and at Shelsley Walsh in 1905. A joint Committee of the Royal Automobile Club and the Auto-Cycle Union, which was convened in the spring of 1912, considered the new form of light motor car. It was decided that the generic name should be a 'cyclecar'. That same year, motoring had its first club dedicated to the development and enjoyment of a new kind of motor car with the foundation of the Cyclecar Club.

In 1902 one of the founders of the Motor Cycling Club, the largest and most active club in the country, was Ernest Penman, once a racing cyclist who had joined Temple Press to launch Cycling and became general manager. Waylaying a harassed Armstrong, he put the suggestion to him of a cyclecar magazine, and found it instantly snapped up. The Cyclecar staff operated in an office in the Temple Press Rosebery Avenue premises, where they worked to prepare the first issue of the journal. By 1912 the cyclecar movement was booming. Companies were being formed all over the country and there was furious hammering and welding to prepare models for the forthcoming October Motor Cycle Show. A meeting was assembled for a round table exploratory discussion where, among others, were Frank 'Hippopo' Thomas, Osmond Hill, H.R. Godfrey, Glynn Rowden, W.G. McMinnies and Armstrong in the chair. The upshot was the decision to call an open meeting in London, at the Holborn Restaurant, on 30 October.

There were about sixty present that Wednesday evening in the Edwardian glories of the famous old restaurant which stood at the corner of Kingsway and Holborn. Into the chair they voted Revd E.P. Greenhill, who was chairman of the Competitions Committee of the ACU. At this stage in the development of motoring the motorcycling people regarded cyclecarism as a branch of their own activities. The RAC, on the other hand, was dubious about admitting the new machines to the dignified car world. When everybody had settled down, C.S. Burney (of Burney & Blackburne, makers of motorcycle engines with the outside flywheel) proposed that a club be formed, seconded by F.A. McNab. The proposal was accepted and officers had been appointed at the Motor Cycle Show at Olympia, on 29 November: W.G. McMinnies was proposed as the Club Captain; Frank 'Hippopo' Thomas as Hon. Secretary; A.C. Armstrong agreed to become the Treasurer; and Glynn Rowden was nominated as Club Chairman. A Rules Committee was appointed: H.P. White; W. Cooper; F.A. McNab; E. Hapgood; D. Kapadia; Revd E.P. Greenhill; Dr A.M. Low, a scientist whose enthusiasm for anything new and progressive knew no bounds; E.M.P. Boileau; E.H. Taylor; R.M. Stallbrass; A.E.Parnacott; A.W. Ayden; R.W. George; R. Cleave; Glynn Rowden; A.C. Armstrong; F.S. Whitworth; Percy Bradley; G.N. Higgs; F.C. Whitworth; E.C. Paskell; R. Surridge; R.F. Messervy; A. Selwyn; Osmond Hill; Archie Nash; W.G. McMinnies; Maj. Lindsay Lloyd; Laurie Cade, the Fleet Street journalist; Gambier Weeks; J.N. Barrett, C.S. Burney and F.L. Goodacre - a number of leading cyclecarists who managed to produce a set of rules within a month.

The inaugural meeting duly took place at Olympia with Glynn Rowden in the chair. Business was brisk. The subscription was fixed at one guinea with half a guinea for country members and for ladies. The proposed officers were elected en bloc and Osmond Hill agreed to help Thomas as the Assistant Hon. Secretary. Between fifty and sixty people joined there and then.

The Wall Tri-car, made in Birmingham 1911, had a single or twin-cylinder engine and the transmission was by a Roc clutch and two-speed epicyclic gearbox.

The GN Quad of 1912, standing for quadricar, before the term cyclecar came into use.

All was not sweetness and light, however, for there was one man who challenged every rule as it was proposed, criticised everything, further he demanded that no one in the trade should be admitted to membership and, having departed that night, was never heard of again.

The first outing was reported:

A motor-bus turned round to look at us. Taxicabs thought they should give way, sidling down to the kerb in their best Saturday morning style. A pair of equine thoroughbreds stood upon their hind legs and pawed the air with delight. A tram driver pulled up his house-on-wheels with such a jerk that the passengers were shot on the floor. A portly pedestrian, making his fourth attempt to cross Piccadilly Circus, bathed in the mud instead. Even the man on point duty put an electric-light standard between himself and the peril of the streets. And then we passed.

The roar of the 8hp JAP swept up the torrent of abuse that marked our passage as we churned through a sea of slimy, yellow mud that made the heart of the stoutest taxicab driver turn faint. Not so the heart of our Duocar as we rocketed over the greasiest streets of south-east London. Beyond Putney we picked up a GN and, as one cyclecarist to another, hooted merrily, trod on the accelerator pedal and gave the glad-eye for a speed exhibition up Putney Hill. The GN, being in the hands of some reckless young fellow, won easily, and we considered, as we picked up various cars one by one, that their drivers were not looking too pleased about it. Later on, the GN enthusiasts were discovered warming their hands by the roadside. So, hastily referring them to The Cyclecar Manual and giving a nod to three gloomy-looking gentlemen in...