Topic: SOLVED: Djetset 1080 - 1921 Leyat Helica

[Djetset]

LOMBARD?

No.

[Allan L]

Let's try a real eccentric: Harris-Léon Laisne - or perhaps just Léon Laisne.

[Djetset]

Let's try a real eccentric: Harris-Léon Laisne - or perhaps just Léon Laisne.

Going truly eccentric is a very good direction to take, though sadly it's not Léon Laisne, but do stick to the bizarre 

[luisps]

Don't looks to me very eccentric but let me say MORRIS-LEON BOLLÉE

[nicanary]

Induco ?

[Allan L]

They don't come much more eccentric than the Lafitte, which had  a three-cylinder radial engine mounted in a hinged cage, which was tilted by the driver to engage and vary the ratio of the friction drive to the rear wheels.
Perhaps it was one of those.

[Djetset]

Don't looks to me very eccentric but let me say MORRIS-LEON BOLLÉE

No, too conventional I'm afraid.

[Djetset]

Induco ?

Induco was also too 'ordinary' with production too late into the 1920s.

[Djetset]

They don't come much more eccentric than the Lafitte, which had  a three-cylinder radial engine mounted in a hinged cage, which was tilted by the driver to engage and vary the ratio of the friction drive to the rear wheels.
Perhaps it was one of those.

Technically the Lafitte was rather unconventional, but still not as unusual as the Puzzle car.

[nicanary]

Surely not a Leyat ?

[fromwien]

Berliet?

[Djetset]

Berliet?

Not a Berliet, because...

[Djetset]

Surely not a Leyat ?

It surely is a Leyat; the roof lining of a friend's 1921 Helica that I was lucky enough to sample recently (possibly one of the strangest machines I've ever experienced, and I've experienced a lot of very strange machines in my time  ).

Here's an image of the car itself, plus me sitting in the back taking the Puzzle photo of the wooden roof lining.

Well done Nicanary, a well-deserved point to you.

[nicanary]

I'm not really sure I'd want a trip in one of those. Still. we've all got to go some time.

(It was only your kind clues that lead me to it. I was thinking along the lines of a low-volume plodder with proprietary engine that had been converted to a shooting break.)

[Allan L]

I'm not really sure I'd want a trip in one of those.

At least it's a closed car - some were open so you had to sit in the slipstream and its hoovered-up rubbish.
As a former aeronautical engineer I never understood the idea that using a propellor to propel a car (or railway vehicle) could be worth considering, when driving the wheels directly is easier and more efficient.

[Djetset]

The power/force from the Leyat's propeller is staggeringly strong, and the wire-pull motor starting procedure is both scary, complex and hilarious. Driving with very vague rear-wheel-steering is also rather frightening, more akin to steering a forklift truck than a passenger car. It all creates a very unusual but memorable experience though, but not one I plan to repeat in a hurry .

[Allan L]

Oh yes I'd forgotten the rear-steering and its natural instability.
M Leyat was one of those people who, whenever there was a choice, unerringly chose the wrong way.

[Djetset]

Oh yes I'd forgotten the rear-steering and its natural instability.
M Leyat was one of those people who, whenever there was a choice, unerringly chose the wrong way.

Indeed. Rather worryingly, Marcel Leyat achieved a scary 106 mph (171 km/h) at Montlhery in 1927 in one. The mind boggles!!

After the Helica, Leyat went on to devise a pioneering system to teach the blind how to play the piano.