Definitely the gentleman about town…

• 

Throwback Thursday! Back in 2017, we published this image in our online magazine. Until this day we have not been able to find out who this smartly dressed gentleman is racing the Léon Bollée. Two suggestions were made, namely Léonce Girardot, one of the famous Panhard-drivers and Paul Jamin. Let`s have another look at this coloured image from 1898. Can anyone confirm it is one of the two aforementioned men?

A sophisticated man on a Léon Bollée Voiturette

The problem with pre-war photographs of cars is that you can very rarely find anything in colour – unless you go right back to 1898! This coloured image from that date shows a Léon Bollée Voiturette – but of a rather curious type. Although clearly being piloted by a dapper gentleman in the streets of the city, it is in fact, according to the caption, a ‘type de course‘– or racing version.

Léon Bollée first marketed a three-wheeled vehicle, notable for its use of pneumatic tyres, in 1895. The horizontal engine was designed by his brother Amédée. He called it "Voiturette" and registered the name.

On 14 November 1896, he participated in the first London to Brighton Emancipation Run with a tandem and finished first – with Camille Bollée, on the same type of vehicle, in second place. Just like in the case of the Brighton Run Voiturettes, most contemporary photographs of these vehicles show a two-seater, with the driver in the same position as we see here, but with the passenger perched rather dangerously in front. Indeed, the nickname for this arrangement was “Le Tue Belle-mère” – or “The Mother-in-Law Killer” – which is amusing but not very polite.

This single-seater version, supposedly for racing, got us researching whether indeed it was used in competition. And we found an example: an image from the April 1898 Critérium des Motorcycles – or Motorcycle Heat – showing the driver Wilfrid, and stating that in 1899 he was winner, again in this same type of vehicle, of the June 1899 Critérium des Voiturettes.

However, the gentleman in our picture doesn’t look at all like Wilfrid – so it remains a mystery as to how a racing Léon Bollée came to be the mount of this smartly-dressed man about town.

Words by Peter Moss. Photograph courtesy of the Richard Roberts Archive.

Aggiunga un commento...