Greg O’s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection; Strange and Unusual Cars #5- The 1922 ‘Mauve sur Elfe’
Years later after Howard Kroplick received the Helck Family Collection, we are still finding surprising items deep in the files.
This time, we've come across a small box titled 'W.F. Bradley' containing about a dozen and a half photos of some of the most unusual cars ever seen. Starting in 1903, the year of the ill-fated Paris-Madrid race, W. F. Bradley began his career as a talented automotive journalist. He not only followed the Gordon Bennett Cup races and the French Grands Prix, but went to America to take part in the Glidden Tours, the first long distance reliability trials held in the USA. He also saw the start of the amazing New York-Paris Race and the beginnings of American track racing on Long Island and at Indianapolis. There is no doubt that a preeminent automotive painter and historian such as Helck would know of a journalist with the stature of Bradley.
I am slowly beginning to uncover what some of these unique automobiles are, but information on most of the autos is very difficult to ascertain due to their rarity and uniqueness.
Greg O.
The next 3 photos in the series are these two unusual cars and this post focuses more on the category they fall within versus the cars themselves.
The 1920's saw two things in particular, a popular French course and hill climb, and a new genre of automobile.
La Course de côte de Gometz-le-Châtel (Trans; The Gometz-le-Châtel Hill Climb) was a motor race held twenty-five kilometers southwest of Paris, in a town of nearly 600 inhabitants named Gometz-le-Châtel. Starting in 1911, A motorcycle event, known as the Gometz-le-Châtel hill climb, organized by the Autocycle-Club de France was an immediate success running various sizes of motocycles, also including tri-cars and smaller vehicles called 'carts'. The course was successfully run again in 1912, but then went on hiatus until it came roaring back in 1920 with 97 motorcycle and tri-car entries.
The 1921 race saw an increase in vehicle categories with engine sizes separating the motorcycles, additional categories for motor bicycles and motorcycles with sidecars, and a brand-new genre of automobile that started around 1910, but had become extremely popular in the 20's
Automobiles were still very expensive in the 20's with the alternative being the less expensive motorcycle. To bridge the gap between car and motorcycle, a much lower priced automotive genre was introduced called the 'cycle-car'.
These small vehicles were 300-800 pounds usually with 2 riders either side-by-side or one in front of the other. There were a handful of three-wheelers, but most cycle cars were 4 wheels with a small V-twin motorcycle engine for propulsion.
The cyclecar above and to the left, was one of the more popular cyclecars in the race in 1922.
It was called the 'Mauve sur Elfe' (Trans; The Purple Elf). Other than a handful of photos found online, very little information is known about this micro-racer, but sure does look like a fun, little go-cart to throw around the course.
From 1921-1927 the familiar Morgan 3-wheelers were very popular as well as very successful in the Gometz-le-Châtel races.
Of the myriad of cyclecar manufacturers in the 20's, only one has survived to modern times. The Morgan Motor Company started in 1911 producing their V-twin 3-wheelers until 1939.
From 1932-1952, Morgan built the larger, Ford-powered F-Series three-wheelers, an updated version of the previous models with seating for four for some models.
Morgan expanded to more traditional sports cars over the years. In 2011, they introduced the incredible Morgan Aero 8 (Series I-V) with a hand-hammered aluminum body over a wooden Ash frame and steel chassis.
In 2011 the Morgan Motor Company also announced that they would re-launch the 3-Wheeler at the Geneva Motor Show. The 3-Wheeler was initially said to have a Harley-Davidson Screaming Eagle V-twin engine and a Mazda 5-speed manual transmission. It was estimated to deliver 115 hp at the rear wheel.
Seen here, a modern, 2013 Morgan 3-wheeler as tested by Car and Driver magazine.
The Mauve sur Elfe at speed on La Course de côte de Gometz-le-Châtel.
Other Mauve variations
Coming up; more strange and unusual cars from the Helck/Bradley photo box.
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