Messerschmidt microcar brochure

Sorry, not sure of the year but here's a leaflet for the Messerschmidt microcar range. Looks like it was translated and printed in Germany from the look of the models in the pictures and the occassionally wayward spelling.

Messerschmidt brochure page 1.

Messserschmidt brochure page 2.



Seal Sociable sidecar with steering wheel

Here's an unusual photo. It's a Seal Sociable. Made from 1912 to 1924 in, presumably, very limited numbers. It must have seemed like a logical idea at the time - most big v-twins were made to haul sidecars so why not combine the two together and allow rider and passenger to sit side-by-side?

It is powered by a JAP v-twin and at least one survives, in the National Motorcycle Museum. Strangely the sidecar in this picture is on a different side from other pictures I have seen. They must have made left and right hand versions.

The machine might be a studio prop as was popular at the time, but it would have been quite an expensive device for a studio to own. Perhaps this couple are in fact the proud owners.

Seal Sociable posed photo.

Raleigh Safety Seven on a family holiday

Not the finest quality picture but worth showing. This is how family holidays used to be in the thirties, that is if you were lucky enough to get that much time off and luckier still, you were the proud owner of a Raleigh Safety Seven. The trailer is a nice touch, presumably a necessity if you wanted to go on a camping holiday with a Safety Seven and family. It's a fairly professional looking job. The wheels even seem to match the Raleigh's.

I remember living in Earlsfield, South London, fifteen or so years back in a thirties build ex-council maisonette. The couple downstairs had lived in there since the building was new. They let me park my Bantam in their front garden rather than see me leaving it out on the street. The chap would regale me with tales of family holidays in the fifties with him and his wife plus three children travelling down to Dorset on their Panther combo. The jouney would take them something like nine hours! Easy to forget that motoring from town to town was once an adventure and far from the norm.

Raleigh Safety Seven on holiday.

Messerschmitt Roadster collectors card

This is trawling the depths of nerdery. A card given away with Ewbanks of Pontefract liquorices. It reads...

"The 'Roadster' offspring of another famous firm, is the three-wheeled version. It has an air-cooled 191cc engine fitted in the rear, capable of 65 m.p.h. Seats two and one child (small) tandemwise."

You would think that they were trying to sell microcars rather than scooters, 65mph!! two adults and one child!! Did they ever set eyes on one of these devices?

Messerschmitt convertable gum card.

The Whitwood Monocar

Another brochure from the 'archive'. This time for the 1935 Whitwood Monocar. From the early days of motorcycling the concept of a two-wheeled car was one that caught the imagination of the more maverick motorcycle designers. It is remarkable the persistance with which these design concepts appeared given that the buying public was almost without exception unresponsive to the idea.

The Neracar did reasonably well post Great War and then in the thirties the Francis Barnett Cruiser and several models in the Coventry Eagle range provided a watered down version of the concept. Postwar, although not the massive seller the company had gambled on, the mighty LE Velocette shifted reasonable numbers in a long production run.

The concept of a two-wheeled car however remained a lure even up until the eighties with the Qasar, Voyager, et al. It could even be said that they were all proved right in the end with the current vogue for super scooters...

The Whitwood was made in Portsmouth at the OEC factory and had the same mechanicals as the OEC Atlanta Duo. It seems it was offered for only two years and I have not heard of any survivors. Interestingly it was offered with 150, 250, 500 and 1000cc engine sizes, the 1000 presumably being a bit of a beast and the 150 Villiers version no doubt very woeful (particularly if ordered in the three seater option!)

1935 Whitwood Monocar brochure page 1.

1935 Whitwood Monocar brochure page 2.

1935 Whitwood Monocar brochure page 3.

1935 Whitwood Monocar brochure page 4.

1935 Whitwood Monocar brochure page 5.

1935 Whitwood Monocar brochure page 6.

DOT Motorcycle Truck

Immediately post war folks were desperate for transport, in most cases the cheaper the better. The DOT Motor Cycle Truck demonstrates just how desparate they were. Mind, if you were a delivery boy used to pedalling around a three wheeled delivery bicycle then the DOT would probably seemed to have been delivered from on high should your employer have blessed you enough to have bought one. I have ridden both the pedalled variety and the DOT motorised and I can testify that peculiar and slightly shoddy as the DOT is it really isn't too bad and is a massive upgrade from the bicycle. Considering that back in the day many of the delivery boys would have only just been in their teenage years the the delivery bicycle would nowadays be thought of as child cruelty. I rode one that was carrying no load; difficult on the flat and painful uphills, fully loaded one can only imagine what it would be like...

Originally launched with a 122cc Villiers 9D twin port engine the later model as shown below upgraded to a 197cc 6E model engine. They offered it in several different truck styles, from the basic open layout that was used predominently by market gardens and dairys to the van layout and there was even a rickshaw version.

There are a few survivors around and though it seems strange to modern eyes the concept of a motorcycle truck was once a popular one. After all it did carry some logic, a lot cheaper than a car and back then most working people were familiar with two wheelers but had no experience of four. Over in America both Harley and Indian offered variations on the theme though in reverse with a motorcycle front end and a car type rear. The Harley version was considered good enough that it was still being used by US police departments through 'till the seventies.

DOT motorcycle truck brochure page 1.

DOT motorcycle truck brochure page 2.

DOT motorcycle truck brochure page 3.

DOT motorcycle truck brochure page 4.