Velocar
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Velocar was the name given to pedal-powered vehicles in the 1930's by Mochet et Cie, Puteaux, Seine, France. Charles Mochet was the maker of minimalist, pedal-powered cars (quadricycles), mainly two-seaters, built on a tubular-steel chassis with bicycle-sized wheels and lightweight aerodynamic bodywork. The popularity of these little cars declined as cheaper powered cars became available, only to rise rapidly when petrol became almost unobtainable during WW-2, 1939-1945.
Charles Mochet's stroke of genius was to make what was the first performance Recumbent bicycle, or vélo couché, using a design which was based on half of a Velocar. This brilliant machine, called by the factory the 'Velo-Velocar', or 'V-V' for short, broke many world cycling records before being banned from competition by cycling's governing body, the UCI. at the behest of the makers of standard upright cycles.
Although road and track versions were built between 1933-1939, as well as a simplified road version called the 'Velorizontal', and record-breaking continued in non-cycling categories, the Recumbent impetus was lost until the re-discovery of the Mochet designs in the 1970's. Charles Mochet died suddenly in 1934 just after the UCI ban and the business was carried on by his son Georges, making mainly powered microcars from 1945.
[edit] References
- 'Mochet: Minimalisme sur roues' Hermann Bruning, Editions Cépadues, Toulouse, 2000.
- 'Bicycle of the Future, The Cycles of the Rue Roque de Fillol.' Bob Cordon Champ, 'The Boneshaker' (Journal of the Veteran-Cycle Club) 2004.
