In the 1930s, Frenchman Charles Mochet and his son Georges made these amazing pedal-powered cars (quadricycles), with bicycle-sized wheels and lightweight aerodynamic bodywork. The popularity of these little cars declined as cheaper powered cars became available, but rose rapidly during WW2, when petrol became almost unobtainable.

After the war, when the French were tired of pedaling, Georges started designing and producing motorized vehicles, based on the pedals-only, wood-bodied Velocar Type H, which already had the flat vertical “cut off” rear ready to accept a fuel tank. It was a small matter to delete one set of pedals and to fit a windscreen as standard to create the “Moteur” version (shown above). There was no separate starter, one simply pedaled off and engaged the motor.

You can find a lot more Velocar information and images in the Microcar Museum, on the (German) mochet.org website, and on Wikipedia.

[tags]Velocar[/tags]