Monday Mystery: a veteran racer at Rétromobile!

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'It was in the mid-nineties when I discovered an almost bare wooden triangular frame standing upright against the wall of an obscure old-car workshop in the inner city of Amsterdam. The frame had just a few attachments — enough to awaken my interest.

After asking what it was, I was told it came from an early “car.” It had been purchased in France and brought to Amsterdam by an antiques dealer many years earlier, with the intention of taking part in the London to Brighton Run. That never happened. The car was dismantled for transport and stored in two places.

After showing my interest in buying the lot, things went amazingly fast. The owner brought the seat, axles, engine, scuttle, and water tank to the shop, and a price was soon agreed upon. What had I done...? No rims, an incomplete engine, incomplete all over — and no plans to work from. Was it even eligible for the London to Brighton Run? Would I be able to put it back together? And what exactly was it?

I did a mock-up to see how it might look. The engine was made by AutoMoto — a 600cc single-cylinder engine with a water-cooled head. It has an automatic inlet valve, opened by the suction of the piston. The transmission is a simple three-pulley system: the operator just had to choose the right one before take-off. There is a wooden/leather/steel cone clutch to disengage the engine from the driven rear wheel. The drive belt has a V-shape and is made from stacked leather layers riveted together with bronze rivets.

For identification, I had only a printed business card of the maker nailed to the side of the bodywork. It simply read: “J. Defrance Automobiliste Constructeur”, with “Quintenas” — a small town in the Ardèche, France — handwritten underneath.

Now it has been in my possession for so long, resting in a place not ideal for it, that it is time to take it out again. It will be on show at the PreWarCar.com / PostWarClassic.com stand at the 2017 Rétromobile Show in Paris.'

Words and pictures by Jan Stellingwerf

Update October 2025: This article was originally published on February 5, 2017. During the Retromobile show in 2017, the mystery tricycle was sold and went to the United States. In October 2025, it was offered again at the RM Sotheby’s Hershey auction as a c.1902 Automoto Tricycle and sold for $15,600.

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