A Century of People Cars

Homepage lightauto.com A Century of People Cars A history of the lightweight car and its impact on the progress in personal transport and mobility in Europe and Asia List of Chapters The Revolution in Personal Transport in Europe Origins of the Lightweight Car Early Days 1910 to 1916 Post War Progress 1918 to 1929 Consolidation 1930 to 1939 Rebuilding 1945 to 1955 Diversity 1955 to 1969 Maturity 1970 to 1979 Conformity 1980 to 1989 Sophistication 1990 to 1999 The Revolution in Personal Transport in Europe What is the definition of personal transport? I think it is a means of transport that an individual has at their command at any time to travel were ever they wish. Many forms of transport have been used for that purpose throughout the ages. The horse with or without a carriage or other wheeled vehicle was the most commonly used of various animals to provide a means of transport. The boat in one form or another has been used for the same purpose on water. With the advent of railways their have been private trains, but usually such a conveyance was for heads of state and the fabulously rich.From the beginning of the development of powered flight most forms of aircraft have been used for personal transport by a very small percentage of the population. The entire above has limitations in one form or another, from range of operation, area of use or predominately high cost of ownership and running costs. When introduced the bicycle was a relatively low cost innovation that provided personal transport to a great number of people and still does for millions through out the world. But it still requires the use of our legs that had been used for !1 Homepage lightauto.com walking, the universal form on personal travel for the majority of mankind up to that time. Although it enabled the legs to be used in more efcient manner it only had a limited range unless the rider was very fit.The horseless carriage, electric, steam or internal combustion engine powered, added a new dimension to personal transport when introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. Initially as expensive to own and use as the horse drawn carriage, the horseless carriage was again the preserve of the rich.The bicycle fitted with an internal combustion engine was relatively inexpensive compared to the motorcar of the period. Those early motorcycles were mechanically primitive with no gearbox and a belt drive between the engine and the rear wheel. The engines fitted To the early motorcycles were of low power.This was usually sufcient as the poor roads and crude chassis design limited performance. The motorcycle provided transport at a cost that many could aford and was the first form of powered personal transport that a great number of young men and some times young women aspired to. The motorcycle has grown in sophistication during a century of development and the lower powered machines, the mopeds and motor scooters still provide personal transport to tens of millions of people around the world.After the motorcycle had demonstrated its potential to provide low cost transport, enterprising designers produced machines that were almost as light but more stable, these were the motor tricycle and the motor quadricycle, in essence three and four wheeled motorcycles and as was the motorcycle of the period, all technically unrefined. These were developed to provide a more comfortable form of transport and the results were the try-car's and quadricar's, These machines were devoid of bodywork but were more substantial than the tricycle and the quadricycle and reflected the advances made in motorcycle design. The solo motorcycle can accommodate the rider and often a passenger as well. This was satisfactory until the passenger wanted a more comfortable means of transport or there was more than one passenger to carry. In the first half of the twentieth century the motorcyclist could choose to fit a sidecar to his motorcycle to accommodate his passengers. In Britain this was known as a motorcycle combination and it was less expensive to purchase and use than the small cars of the day and were popular with the family man of modest means up to the 1950’s. tricycle’s, quadricycle's try-car's and quadricar's had been produced for about a decade straddling the turn of the nineteenth century.The try-car and the quadricar cost about half that of the light cars of the time the Voiturette. They proved too crude to provide an acceptable means of personal transport and soon disappeared from the motoring !2 Homepage lightauto.com scene to be replaced by machines with a similar mechanical basis, the cycle-car this time fitted with a body, The voiturette’s had been the first light cars and were contemporary with cycle derived machines mentioned above. At first fitted with single and twin cylinder engines marginally larger than those fitted to motorcycles and with various chassis and transmission layout but fitted with a body. Engine size and complexity grew in time as did the almost standardisation of the "System Panhard" chassis format (Front engine and rear wheel drive). By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century the voiturette had become a reliable relatively low cost practical form of personal transport for two to four persons. The cycle-cars whether with three or four wheels was an ultra light car that usually owed more to motorcycle practice than the design of larger cars. Cycle-car’s had been produced in a progressive level of refinement for thirty years from 1910 until the beginning of the Second World War. Such famous names such as Morgan, AC the makers of renowned Cobra started out making cars classified as cycle-car’s. When first defined in 1912 the classification cycle-car referred to all cars with an engine capacity of 1100 cc or under and a maximum weight of 327 Kg. But is usually associated with the less sophisticated designs in that class. Due to the low power output of the engines fitted to the vehicle types mentioned previously, a maximum of two persons was the normal capacity. Low initial cost plus low running costs were the big attraction for all of them. The cycle-car’s available in 1914 ranged in price from £60 to £200 and running costs were around a penny a mile.The more conventional of the ultra light cars, those that were miniature's of the large cars of the day and the designs that had evolved from the earlier voiturette proved more enduring than the cycle-cars providing reliable low cost transport to an increasing number of motorists for their personal use.In the last century between nineteen fifty and the early sixties there was a revival of the cycle-car theme in form of the microcar. Again relying on motorcycle sourced engines and transmissions and some input from the aircraft industry. The microcar provided a stepping stone from the motor cycle to the car and with advent of the minicar the latest manifestation of the ultra light car; the microcar faded away.As the cost of owning a car fell, the various forms the ultra light car, mini-cars like the BMC Mini and Fiat 600, utility cars such as the Citroen 2 CV and the Renault 4, light cars such as the VW Beetle and the Kadett from Opel and many others were produced in increasing number becoming a predominant form of personal transport in Europe reducing the use of the motorcycle to young and !3 Homepage lightauto.com the recreational rider by the later half of the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twenty-first century the motor car as personal transport has become a World wide phenomena with the light car continuing to fulfil that role for an increasing number of people.As the engine sizes and weight of the small car seems to increase with each new model. I have selected a cars length as it's limiting factor for inclusion in the text and have taken four metres as that limit, it being the maximum length of the Supermini cars in production at the time of writing, the beginning of the twenty-first century. This fits in well with my perceived view of the small car without excluding any one of importance. Origins of the Lightweight Car The lightweight car was a result of social and engineering advances, It was a popular development that was to give mobility to all levels of society and helped to change our world for good or ill in a way that the large expensive car could never have done. Across Europe, Japan and increasingly in Asia tens of millions of people have improved their way of life with the help of the light car. The light car has never been successful in Africa, or the Australian outback with their undeveloped roads. Also rural North America in the first half of the twentieth century for the same reason. Rugged heavy vehicles proved superior, but where there are properly paved roads it is equal to the task of providing transport at a reasonable cost. The earliest cars were expensive and unreliable, in time reliability was improved but costs remained high. The potential of the car as a replacement for the horse and trap was becoming clear, but cost was an obstacle. A simple cost efective form of car the Voiturette was evolved to carry out this roll. Usually fitted with a single cylinder engine of between 400 cc and 1000 cc.This was at the turn of the century and by 1910 the Voiturette had matured into the light car, with multi cylinder engines, shaft drive and a chassis layout similar to the large cars of the day.

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