Not in the encyclopædia: whatever is this mysterious three-wheeler?

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Writer Chris Rees has authored a few books on three-wheelers. In his encyclopaedic Three-Wheelers A-Z (a real gem if you still need any ideas for Christmas), he starts with an interesting introduction when he writes: “there is a very good reason why the photographer’s tripod has three legs... Three is the smallest number required to create a stable self-supporting structure. Exactly the same is true of cars. With the exception of gyroscopically-assisted two-wheelers, and possibly wheel-less hovercars, three wheels is all that’s required for a stable ‘footprint’ that won’t fall over. Armed with this fact, you may be surprised that the world is not populated with three-wheeled vehicles. Instead the people of the planet are, by and large, transported by four-wheeled cars and two-wheeled motorbikes. Three-wheelers have almost always occupied a shadowy corner in the territory of transportation.”

That’s a fascinating outcome, isn’t it? Although the vehicle in this beautiful picture shows its fourth wheel rather prominently, it certainly is a three-wheeler. The lady must be tiny as she doesn’t even seem to be able to look over that bonnet. Note the pretty Art Déco mascot near the aero windscreen. And what’s that horn behind it? Just a Klaxon?

What's more, despite being armed with Rees’s books, we couldn’t quite figure out what exactly this three-wheeled vehicle is. A Morgan or Darmont (the Morgan built under licence in France) would be the obvious suggestion, but we’re not quite so sure about that. Some pictures of Coventry Victor three-wheelers, made in their namesake city, show similar-looking plating over the chassis, which we couldn’t find on Morgans, Darmonts or BSAs. Any ideas?

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: Alex Broad
 

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