Spain's forgotten cyclecar: David

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Regular PreWarCar correspondent Francisco Carrión Cardenas has just had his first full-length feature published in The Automobile magazine. Sticking to a subject close to home, he has told – for the first time in English – the full story of the forgotten David cyclecars from Barcelona. The brainchild of Catalan medical student Jose Maria Armangué and his brothers, the cars came about almost by accident. A keen bobsleigh pilot, they built a wheeled bobsleigh-like contraption for use in the Spanish hills. These downhill racers became immensely popular, and as they grew in sophistication so too they grew in weight.

Tired of dragging the cars back to the summit after each run, Armangué fitted a small motor to his vehicle, and thus, the David was born. Production began in 1912 and continued, in much improved form, into the early 1920s. After the cyclecar craze had died out, the David factory built novel electric cars and, after the second World War, three-wheeled microcars. To read the full story of this fascinating and little-known endeavour, pick up the December issue of The Automobile, which is out now.

 

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