French post-war microcar makers

Post-war France was short of cars. Buyers of a new Citroën 2CV waited years, while Mochet could deliver its 125 cc car in six weeks.source 1 Most of the firms here were in Paris or its suburbs, and several came from the motorcycle trade: Poinard made sidecars, Decolon moped frames, DS-Malterre and Motobécane motorcycles. They bought in their engines, motorcycle singles by Ydral, AMC, Gnome et Rhône, Aubier-Dunne, Train, J.A.P., Villiers and Sotecma, and many of them built three-wheelers.source 2source 3source 4source 5source 6source 7source 8source 9source 10source 11 The largest output recorded among them is Galy’s, about 100 cars; most built a handful.source 6

The makers that sold in real numbers, or are better documented, have their own pages: the Rovin, the Mochet CM-125 and France’s other 125 cc licence-free cars, the Avolette and the P. Vallée Chantecler, the Voisin Biscooter, the Atlas Babycar, the Ardex, the Reyonnah, the Solyto, the Inter 175, the Vélam Isetta, the Vespa 400 and the one-off Alan. The licence-free makers of the 1970s and 1980s are on French licence-free small makers. The eighteen below follow in the order they began.

The record for them is thin. For almost all, the only account found is a German Wikipedia article resting on the encyclopaedias by Linz and Schrader, by Georgano and by Zeichner, and on René Bellu’s annuals of the Paris Salon; the Manocar, the Grataloup and the 1962 Motobécane also have pages from the Weiner museum, which owned them, and Boitel is known first from the old microcarfan.com.source 12source 13source 11source 14source 15 Where a section is short, it is because nothing more has been found.

Automobiles Boitel was founded in Paris by an engineer named Boitel, whose first name has not been found, with a works on the eastern side of the city.source 16 At the Paris Salon of October 1946 it showed a small two-seat cabriolet in steel, with a water-cooled 400 cc two-cylinder two-stroke at the back: 12 hp was claimed, it weighed 350 kg (772 lb), and the old microcarfan.com gives it 75 km/h (47 mph).source 16source 15source 17 A more elegant version followed with a rear-mounted DKW twin of 589 cc and 18 hp, good for 90 km/h (56 mph); English Wikipedia places it at the Salon of 1947, the old site and German Wikipedia in 1948.source 16source 15source 17 The last, in 1949, was the 3 CV, with 688 cc and 20 hp.source 17source 16 At 3,150 mm (124 in), on a 2,000 mm wheelbase, as English Wikipedia gives it with a hedge, it was larger than most cars here.source 17source 16

It never reached customers. At the 1947 Salon Boitel took orders, with deposits, on the understanding that production would start in 1948; the business failed, and the deposits could not be repaid.source 16 The old microcarfan.com says the car never went beyond a pre-series, and English Wikipedia that it is unclear whether any were sold, which puts Boitel among the never-weres.source 15source 16 How it began is disputed. German Wikipedia has the firm starting in 1938 with a front-drive small car under DKW licence, built with many German parts; English Wikipedia has Boitel developing a single-cylinder two-seater in the early 1940s, too small for two and abandoned. Neither is confirmed.source 17source 16 No survivor is known, and no price or production figure has been found.

Maurice Julien had worked for Citroën before he founded the Société des Études Automobiles M. A. Julien in Paris, which built a prototype in 1946.source 18 Its MM 5 of 1947 was an open two-seater with a narrow rear track and a 325 cc four-stroke single of 10 PS mounted just ahead of the rear axle. It was 2,870 mm (113 in) long, weighed 300 kg (661 lb) and did 65–70 km/h (40–43 mph).source 18 In 1949 the MM 7 moved the engine, now a 368 cc single of about 13 PS, to the front, drove the front wheels and wore a ponton body; German Wikipedia finds it like the Rovin D3. The firm stopped in 1950. How many it built is not stated.source 18 The MM 5 went abroad: the photographs show it at the RAI motor show in Amsterdam in April 1948, with a placard for its patented double elastic suspension.

The Société V.E.L. of Paris made one model in 1947 and 1948: a four-wheeled open two-seater with front-wheel drive. An air-cooled two-stroke single by Train, rated at 1 CV, drove it through three speeds to 64 km/h (40 mph).source 10 Nothing more has been found.

Sofravel, of Annonay in the Ardèche, built the Coccinelle, the “ladybird”, in 1948 and 1949. It was an open two-seater 2,700 mm (106 in) long and weighing 180 kg (397 lb), with a 150 cc four-stroke single of 6.5 hp at the back driving the rear wheels by chain. Only a few were made.source 19 One survives close to home: a “1948 Coccinelle SOFRAVEL” is listed among the exhibits of the Musée du car, the coach museum, at Vanosc, a few kilometres from Annonay.source 20 Who was behind Sofravel, and what the car cost, has not been found.

Tholomé, at Roquevaire and then Aubagne in the Bouches-du-Rhône, worked on its car from 1946. In December 1950 it announced series production of an open two-seat roadster, at a planned eight to ten cars a day; the traces stop after February 1951. At least three were built.source 21 It had nothing to do with the 1919–⁠22 Tholomé of Saint-Ouen, among the French cyclecars.source 21

Deshais of Paris built an open two-seater from 1950 to 1952 with front-wheel drive, an air-cooled single of 125 to 350 cc (6–15 PS) and four speeds. Its wheelbase was 2,000 mm, and with the smallest engine it weighed 180 kg (397 lb). From the autumn of 1951 it was also offered with a water-cooled twin of 420 cc mounted across the car. The price was high, and few were sold.source 22

Productions M. Vautrin had its office at 52 rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin in Paris and its works at Choisy-le-Roi, and in 1951 and 1952 offered open two- or three-seaters. They were 2,650 mm (104 in) long and 1,230 mm (48 in) wide on a 1,750 mm wheelbase, and weighed 150 kg (331 lb). Engines by AMC, J.A.P. and others, of 125, 175, 250 and 350 cc, gave 60–90 km/h (37–56 mph).source 7 No production figure has been found.

Vaucelle’s Strop was a four-wheeled open two-seater with a steel body, 2,600 mm (102 in) long. Its 125 cc two-stroke single, by Aubier-Dunne of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, sat in front and drove the rear axle by chain, and the axle had no differential. It was made from 1951, by Linz and Schrader and by Thyssen, or 1952, by Georgano, until 1953, and only a few were built.source 9 Where Vaucelle was, and who ran it, is not recorded.

Poinard of Cachan made sidecars, and from 1951 to 1953 one small car: a three-wheeler with its single wheel in front, the driver on a motorcycle saddle and a bench for two behind him. A 125 cc Ydral two-stroke of 4 PS drove the rear wheels.source 2

The Manocar, from the Établissements Manom, was meant to bridge the gap between the car and the scooter, and the Weiner museum, which owned one, compared it in concept with the Brütsch Mopetta, though larger.source 13 It was a three-wheeler of 1953 with one wheel in front, a doorless steel body, swing axles and a suspension of rubber bands. It was 2,250 mm (89 in) long and 1,380–1,400 mm (54–55 in) wide, weighed 180–183 kg (397–403 lb) and did 55 km/h (34 mph).source 12source 13 Its 125 cc air-cooled two-stroke gave 4 hp. Here the sources part: German Wikipedia puts the firm at Saint-Ouen and has the engine driving the left rear wheel; the museum puts it at Pantin, names the engine as a SABB and has it driving the front wheel by chain.source 12source 13 Only two pre-production cars were built before the project was cancelled, and one survives.source 13

Pierre Brissonnet et Cie of Neuilly-sur-Seine had offered small cars before the war under the name Virus, and made scooters from June 1949. In 1953 it built the Soucoupe Roulante, the “rolling flying saucer”: an open two-seat three-wheeler with a 200 cc two-stroke driving its single rear wheel through three speeds. One survives.source 23

Galy, the car of the Forges et Ateliers de la Vence et de la Fournaise in Paris, built the most cars here, about 100 from 1954 to 1957. It was a rear-engined two-seat coupé, 2,950 mm (116 in) long, that looked like the Goggomobil coupé, with a choice of a 175 cc Ydral two-stroke of 11 PS or a 248 cc AMC four-stroke single of 15 PS. In 1955 Galy also showed an open prototype in the style of a Jeep.source 6

Decolon of Champigny-sur-Marne made frames for mopeds and motorcycles. In 1955 it built the PB, an open, doorless two-seat three-wheeler with one wheel behind and a 175 cc Ydral of 8 PS; it was 2,650 mm (104 in) long, 1,380 mm (54 in) wide and 1,150 mm (45 in) high, weighed 175 kg (386 lb) and was claimed to reach 80 km/h (50 mph). In October 1955 it cost 200,000 to 230,000 francs.source 3 In 1957 a developed version followed under the Decolon name, with a 125 cc Ydral of 5 PS or a 175 cc of 10 PS. Few were built, and one source blames the price.source 3

The Malterre brothers’ firm in Paris had built motorcycles since 1920 under the initials DS, for Deblades and Sigrand. From 1954 it worked on a closed three-wheeled coupé with a 125 or 175 cc engine, by Sotecma or Ydral, of 6–8 PS, driving the single rear wheel by chain. Prototypes followed from 1955, and the project was abandoned in 1958.source 4

M. Grataloup of Bagnères-de-Bigorre, in the Pyrenees, built himself a car and drove it every day. It was found later in a Citroën garage in Biarritz. A single-seat three-wheeler, it had a 247 cc Villiers Mk IX two-stroke of 7.5 hp, said to have come from a BSA, with a separate René Gillet gearbox and a chain to the rear wheel. The starter was driven by a leather link belt and the clutch worked on three belts, and the car rode on leaf springs. It measured 2,440 by 1,320 mm (96 by 52 in), weighed 175 kg (386 lb) and reached 85 km/h (53 mph).source 11 The Weiner museum dated it to about 1955, with a question mark.source 11 The photographs show it, green and weathered under a tattered canvas top, in the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville.

Motobécane of Pantin, a motorcycle maker since 1922, tried cars more than once and never sold one.source 14source 5 The first, of the mid-1950s by the Weiner museum or 1958 by German Wikipedia, was a small open four-wheeler with a removable windscreen and no doors or top, designed, German Wikipedia says, as a beach car. A fan-cooled 125 cc Motobécane single of 9 PS at the back drove the rear wheels. Georgano gives it two seats, Linz and Schrader four, and it stayed a prototype.source 14source 5 About 1960, Georgano records trials of a closed car with sliding doors and a 300 cc four-cylinder; Linz and Schrader give it a single-cylinder two-stroke instead.source 5

The car the Weiner museum owned is dated 1962. It had Italian styling and an aluminium body on a steel frame, and under it a 125 cc Motobécane two-stroke driving the rear wheels through a variable-speed transmission, torsion bars in front and struts behind, rack-and-pinion steering, hydraulic brakes, an electric starter and 12 V electrics; it was 2,850 mm (112 in) long and 1,230 mm (48 in) wide and weighed about 240 kg (529 lb). The museum spoke of “Italian style and Japanese mechanicals” while listing Motobécane’s own engine, which it did not explain. It was used only for tests and exhibitions; one was built, and it survives.source 14 It may be the closed car of about 1960.

The Office Technique International of Paris used the name Microcar decades before Jeanneau’s Microcar brand of 1980.source 24source 8 Its designer was Lucien Rolland, formerly of Rolland-Pilain, who died on 9 October 1957; autopasion18.com names him with a M. Couleau, of the Ateliers de la Muette.source 8source 25 The first version, shown in the autumn of 1957, was a plastic-bodied three-wheeler with no doors and no roof, a large curved windscreen and seats of steel tube; a thick roll of rubber ran round the body as a parking bumper, and the headlamps stood upright on the bonnet.source 24source 8 A 125 cc Gnome et Rhône two-stroke sat in front and drove the single front wheel; the two rear wheels were small, of 8 in. It measured 2,870 mm (113 in).source 8source 25source 24

The OTI 125, or Microcar 125, shown in October 1959 for production that December, had two doors, a canvas roof, some protection from the weather and a fabric rear bench that could take a third person. Its body was moulded by Gengoli of Colmar, and it weighed 160 kg (353 lb), reached 60 km/h (37 mph) and used 4 litres per 100 km.source 25source 8 autopasion18.com alone says it was also sold as the Oti Pilain 125 and the Bugatti Oti 125; nothing else links it to Bugatti.source 25 The public showed little interest, and about ten were built, each a little different.source 25source 8 None is known to survive.

Rodolphe Grunberg (Rodolpho in Linz and Schrader) built his cars in his garage at Monbahus, in the Lot-et-Garonne. The RG 125 was an open two-seater measuring 2,000 by 1,100 mm (79 by 43 in), weighing 150 kg (331 lb), with a 125 cc two-stroke single at the back and a top speed of 64–70 km/h (40–43 mph).source 26 The reference books date it 1960, and one 1950. But in 2009, at 84, Grunberg told La Dépêche du Midi that his first petrol car, “la Grunberg RG125”, was born in his garage in 1974, a memory recorded 35 years on.source 26source 27 He built five more, in the winters, all bought at once by private buyers, among them a well-known collector in Toulouse, and stopped when demand seemed to call for a production line.source 27

A teacher had said of him at 14 that he would invent something for them. He went on to build a barrel organ and his own light aircraft, an HM 293, which he first flew in 1990 without a pilot’s licence, and in 2009 he was at work on a new car in light alloy.source 27 Six RG 125s were built in all.source 27

A few survive. The Weiner museum owned the only known Manocar, the one-off Grataloup and the 1962 Motobécane, and RM Auctions sold its collection in February 2013; their prices have not been found.source 13source 11source 14 The photograph of the Grataloup shows it in the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. A Brissonnet Soucoupe Roulante survives, and a 1948 Sofravel Coccinelle is in the coach museum at Vanosc.source 23source 20 No Boitel, Galy, OTI or RG 125 has been traced, though the Toulouse collector’s Grunberg may still exist. More on collections like these is in museums and meets.