Cyclecars elsewhere: Austria, Poland, Scandinavia and beyond

On 14 December 1912 the international motorcycle federation, the FICM, agreed a rule for cyclecars: a large class of at most 350 kg and 1,100 cc, and a small class of at most 150 kg and 750 cc.source 1 Born in France and Britain in 1910–⁠13, the idea then spread through Europe, the Americas and beyond, and English Wikipedia’s list of makers runs to at least fifteen countries.source 1 Most of these makers built a handful of cars and left little behind them. Spain and Czechoslovakia have their own pages, the David, the Spanish microcars and the Aero 10; the makers below follow by the year each began.

Names only

For eleven more, nothing beyond a name in Wikipedia’s list has been found: Mascot and Self in Sweden, SKAF in Poland, CAP and SCH in Belgium, Theologou in Greece, Viglione in Argentina, Holden-Morgan in Canada, and Anzani, C.I.P. and SIC in Italy.source 1 Greece’s later three-wheeler, the Attica 200 of the 1960s, has its own page.

Hakon Olsen’s Maskinfabriken Dana, in Copenhagen, built light cars with friction transmissions.source 2 They were small cars rather than true cyclecars, and began before the cyclecar wave. A snippet of Georgano’s encyclopedia suggests that a Danish law favouring such light cars was later abolished, and that this forced Dana out of the market; the law itself has not been identified.source 3

The Canadian Baby Car Company of Montreal was announced in Motor Age on 4 December 1913; work on the car had begun in October 1912.source 4 The magazine’s cyclecar directory of January 1914 gives the details: an air-cooled twin of 85 × 88 mm, by JAP, De Luxe or Wizard, with a cone clutch, a two-speed planetary gearbox and V-belts to the rear wheels. The two seats were semi-tandem, the wheelbase 2,134 mm (84 in), the track only 914 mm (36 in), and the price $495.source 5

Georgano counts the Austro among the few cyclecars made in Central Europe, and says it did well in mountain trials and in the Semmering hill-climbs (more in racing and rallying).source 3source 1 Its maker, its engine and how many were built have not been found.

The Dart Cyclecar Company of Toronto assembled the American Scripps-Booth Rocket under licence, for a short time only (more in built under licence).source 3

Fritz Moser’s Moteurs Moser, at St-Aubin in the canton of Neuchâtel, began with V-twin cyclecars in 1914 and moved on to a voiturette.source 3source 2 In 1918–⁠19 it also built a four-cylinder car with a Zürcher engine; later the cyclecar was dropped, and a light tourer got Moser’s own L-head four. The firm also made engines for other makers.source 2source 3

Paul Speidel of Geneva started with a tandem-seated cyclecar with a four-cylinder engine.source 2 A French encyclopedia counts him among the more enthusiastic builders.source 6

Perhaps the strangest of them was built for snow. Hans Christian Bjering of Gjøvik designed a car for narrow winter roads and sledge tracks, and his company, A/S Autoslæde, built the first ones.source 7source 3 It was only about 1 m wide, with two seats in tandem and the driver over the rear wheels, and its front wheels could be swapped for skis. The engines were nothing like a cyclecar’s: an air-cooled V4 of 2,010 cc in the early cars, then an air-cooled side-valve four of 2,100 cc at the back. Wooden bodies gave way to aluminium on the later cars, built by A/S Raufoss Ammunisjonsfabrikker.source 7 With nearly twice the engine size the cyclecar rule allowed, the Bjering was a cyclecar in shape only.

About six were made, four in 1920–⁠21 and two more in 1923–⁠25, by Norwegian Wikipedia’s count; Georgano dates the make to 1918–⁠20.source 7source 3 Better snow ploughs ended it: once the roads were cleared, a car for sledge tracks was no longer needed.source 7

The Vaghi was built at first as a three-wheeled cyclecar with a 546 cc twin.source 8 Nothing more on it has been found.

Robert Gross and Leopold Friedmann joined their names to make Grofri, at Atzgersdorf near Vienna. The firm began with large three-litre six-cylinder cars, and from 1924 built small cars under licence from the French Amilcar: side-valve four-cylinder sports cars of 903 cc or 1,047 cc, with supercharged versions for racing.source 9 The small cars ended in 1927, and the firm closed for financial reasons in 1931; Georgano dates Grofri to 1922–⁠27.source 9source 3 In Italy, Amilcar Italiana also built the Amilcar under licence, as Pluto did in Germany.source 10source 11 How many either of them made has not been found.

The Turin motorcycle maker Fratelli Della Ferrera showed a cyclecar in 1924 that used, as Georgano notes one might expect, a motorcycle front end. Della Ferrera’s air-cooled one-litre V-twin also powered other Italian cyclecars.source 3

Alois Schasche imported Belgian Saroléa motorcycles to Vienna. At the Vienna Spring Fair of 1929 he showed a single-seat racing cyclecar with an exposed Saroléa single of 500 cc, the model 23 U of 1928, of about 25 hp (19 kW), built to attack the world record of 108 km/h (67 mph) for 500 cc cyclecars. Whether it beat the record has not been found. It was possibly the only one built, and it survives.source 12

The last of them came in 1939, from the Kielce workshop of the brothers Eugeniusz, Jan and Wacław Knawe: a three-wheeler with a convertible body and a 98 cc moped engine from Steinhagen & Stransky of Warsaw. The prototype was shown in Warsaw that year and impressed the Minister of Industry and Trade, but the German invasion in September 1939 ended the work.source 13 The account comes from one short Wikipedia article, which is itself flagged as poorly sourced.

Two Bjerings are in the Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo, and the Schasche record car survives.source 7source 12 One encyclopedia snippet mentions a Moser of 1918 in a Swiss museum, but the entry is cut off and the car has not been confirmed.source 3 No other survivor from these makers has been identified.