Topic: La Ponette 7CV cyclecar, France 1909-12

[grobmotorix]

Who knows this cycle car?

[grobmotorix]

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[grobmotorix]

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[Wendax]

French?

[grobmotorix]

Yes.

EDIT: NO, it´s italian!

[nicanary]

La Ponette ?

I think it is - I've just found other photos of it. 1911 11CV model.

[grobmotorix]

Now we have a problem.

It is NOT french but italian.

I have mixed it up, because the names of those two cyclecars are almost identical.

I´m quite sure you meant the correct one.

So I´ll LOCK it for you!

You´re almost there.

Just change the correct letter and it´s your point!

[nicanary]

Now you have me confused. I admit that I do not specialise in veteran cars, so I can only use information that's available to me. (I recognised the car because I had selected another model of that marque for a puzzle of my own only yesterday!)

I thought you would question the model I put in my answer, because that car looks a lot smaller than 11CV.  It is registered P6471 and I have found two other photos of it on the internet, and both claim it is a La Ponette - one site is a well-known one run by a member of AP, and the other is a French-language site for enthusiasts. The latter is the one that states that it is an 11CV, but I think that model is actually an 8CV, built from 1909 to 1911. Georgano says that it is 827cc, but the Wikipedia site claims 697cc.

Now you tell me that it's Italian! There's no mention in Georgano, but I wonder whether it was also made in Italy under licence?

[grobmotorix]

I stick to my words.

To my best knowledge and based upon several original sources, i am quite sure that the french La Ponette.

It is italian and the name is almost identical just change the last letter into an italian style one and this is your point...

I have a photo of the french La Ponette - it is a completely different car.

[nicanary]

I've got 2 choices. I'll go for La Ponetta.

[grobmotorix]

Leave out the "la" and take the second option... 

[nicanary]

Leave out the "la" and take the second option... 

Ponetti?

(I still can't work out what this car is - the La Ponette was built by a M. Granvaud in Chevreuse, Seine-et-Oise, and this car really does look like one of those.)

Here's my French La Ponette.

[Allan L]

Not wanting to intrude on a locked thread, but can I say that's the photo in Georgano too.

[grobmotorix]

O.K., now this seems to be another proof, that even original sources might not be trusted.

My source, two following 1912 car magazines, claims that the first photo is the french La Ponette
and the second one is the italian Ponetti cyclecar.

So maybe they mixed them up despite the fact that they obviously tried to inform their readers which one is which.
Or maybe not...?

In any case you´ve deserved this point!

[Wendax]

At least the car which they call a La Ponette surely is one according to a well-informed French cyclecar site.

[nicanary]

In 1912 La Ponette ceased production of the smaller car (the puzzle car with the scuttle-mounted radiator) and began making a more conventional car with an 8CV Ballot engine, which I believe is the model pictured as a La Ponette above. The car pictured as a Ponetti is of a marque not mentioned in Georgano, and in my opinion (for what that's worth) is an earlier La Ponette built up to 1911. I have no idea why the period magazine would call it something different, unless the older model was then being built in Italy under licence, and the marque name had been changed to something which sounded more Italian.

[grobmotorix]

Good thoughts indeed.

I always wondered why an italian car named Ponetti looks so french...

Your explanation is completely accepted and the title is changed.

[Allan L]

There's one for sale at present and it looks like this:


Full details here:
http://www.prewarcar.com/index.php?option=com_caradvert&view=ad&section_id=1&id=98115&Itemid=432

[grobmotorix]

Thank you.

So I guess there never was an italian Ponetti cyclecar...