Velam Isetta

The Iso Isetta made its debut at the Turin Show in April 1954, and its maker, Renzo Rivolta, sold licences to build it. BMW, with its BMW Isetta, was the chief licensee, and took with it, RM says, a considerable amount of the tooling.source 1 A French licence was negotiated at the same time, the start of one more licensed Isetta. M. Budin, President and Technical Director of VELAM, the Société de Construction de Véhicules Léger à Moteur, wanted what RM calls a substantial departure from the Italian car: BMW’s hold on the tooling might limit the parts Iso could supply, and he had technical and styling ideas of his own.source 1 When the licence was bought is not settled. One study says VELAM is said to have bought the right in late 1953; the English Wikipedia says 1954.source 2source 3 Nor is it clear who led the firm. The Weiner museum and RM name Budin; the study says the production lines were set up by Michel Cromback, who also hatched the plans for a wider range and for the records. They may have held different roles.source 4source 1source 2

At the Paris Salon of October 1954 VELAM’s stand still showed an Italian Iso, but the word was out about the French car, and orders were taken against deposits of 20,000 francs.source 1 Full production began only the next year, in a rented part of the old Talbot works at Suresnes, outside Paris; Tony Lago supplied parts.source 1source 4source 2 The first cars came in June 1955. The study notes later dates in some accounts, March or October 1956, and judges June 1955 the most likely.source 4source 2source 3 At its peak VELAM employed 350 people and built 20 to 22 cars a day.source 2

Thirty-four differences

The VELAM was not a copy. It kept the Iso’s 236 cc split-single, or “twin-piston”, two-stroke, but VELAM designed its own body, a monocoque shell with subframes where the Iso had a full chassis.source 1source 3 The Weiner museum and the study list 34 changes in all. Among them were Niemann rubber-ring suspension, a better gear lever, engine access from inside the car, a new tail, lamps and bumpers, front wings that could be removed, a push-button door catch and the speedometer in the centre of the steering wheel.source 4source 2 Like every Isetta it was a bubble car with its door in the nose, and it had four wheels, the rear pair only 506 mm (20 in) apart and driven by a chain, with no differential.source 2 The French called it the pot de yaourt, the yogurt pot.source 3

It was also cheap. The standard car cost 297,000 F, which by the Weiner museum’s reckoning, and the study’s, was 15 per cent less than a Citroën 2CV.source 2source 4

A wider range, and the end

About 5,000 cars were built in the first twelve months, to June 1956.source 2 The year began well, but towards its end sales fell sharply against the Citroën 2CV and then the Renault Dauphine, full-sized cars from big makers that the egg could not undercut by enough.source 4source 2source 3source 1 VELAM built 4,886 cars in 1956 and 1,005 in 1957.source 5source 2

It answered by widening the range and chasing records.source 2 A Décapotable of 1956 kept the front door but replaced the big rear window with a soft folding section and had a removable roof panel.source 1source 2 The Écrin, the “jewel box” of 1957, had a teardrop hardtop with sliding side windows and a panoramic rear window, hydraulic telescopic front dampers, more sound-proofing, armrests, a glovebox and a radio; its engine gave 10.5 bhp, it was claimed to reach 95 km/h (59 mph), a figure the study itself doubts, and it cost 380,000 F. About 500 were built, and several of its refinements reached the ordinary car for 1957.source 2source 4 A one-off Sport had a fixed front door and sides cut away to step over.source 2

None of it saved the firm. Production ended in January 1958, after 7,115 cars; the Weiner museum says Budin closed for financial reasons.source 4source 2 VELAM itself lasted until 1961, when it built a prototype for Kaiser-Ilin of Israel, the TA 6: a six-seater 3.30 m (10 ft 10 in) long with an air-cooled 640 cc twin.source 5 What became of the TA 6 has not been found.

Few survive, the Weiner museum said, and no count has been found.source 4 Its car appears in Andrea and David Sparrow’s More Bubblecars & Microcars Colour Family Album, and when RM Auctions sold the collection in 2013, a 1956 VELAM made $37,375.source 4source 1 The record car survives. It was shown at Rétromobile in 2018, and the study says it was registered and driven on the road, and now carries a different registration.source 5source 2 No club devoted to the VELAM is known.