Topic: Solved NIC#99 - SCAP Type Y engined special

[nicanary]

Please tell me the year, make and model, or one point.

[nicanary]

Experts?

[AlexFrance]

Is it a French cyclecar?

[nicanary]

Is it a French cyclecar?

Yes.

[AlexFrance]

It's apparently a SCAP, type Y, from 1919. However, I found it on the website of a SCAP specialist who says the car doesn't look like any repertoried model of that brand. It seems to be a mix of a SCAP engine from around 1923-24 and SCAP radiator, and a La Perle chassis.

[nicanary]

It's apparently a SCAP, type Y, from 1919. However, I found it on the website of a SCAP specialist who says the car doesn't look like any repertoried model of that brand. It seems to be a mix of a SCAP engine from around 1923-24 and SCAP radiator, and a La Perle chassis.

You have given me the answer I was looking for. The point is yours. However, your comments are interesting - I don't know much about French cyclecars of that period, and I think there is a good chance that the SCAP specialist is right, and the caption for the image I found was wrong. A very good chance! I set the puzzle after finding the photo whilst looking for something else, and like most people I assumed that the website had hard facts. We all know that the internet can mislead.

If anyone can tell me more, please join in.

[nicanary]

AlexFrance has contacted me by PM with a link to the SCAP specialist and his comments. It is interesting reading. Basically no such car as this was ever built by SCAP - it appears to be, as Alex says, a SCAP Type Y engine fitted onto what could well be a La Perle chassis, which in turn had been supplied to them by Malicet et Blin. No way was it built in 1919 - SCAP didn't start making cars again until 1920, with the Type L.

My guess is that this car is what we call in the UK a "bitsa" - bits of one car, and bits of another. It's powered by SCAP, because the motor has the maker's plate, and the radiator suggests that make as well, but the model wasn't ever made. It has been called a Type Y because it has a Type Y engine.

My apologies for setting a puzzle I hadn't researched properly. I have amended the puzzle title accordingly. And well done to AlexFrance for an excellent piece of detective work!