Description

1956 Avolette Tourisme (de Luxe)
In the Mid-50's Egon Brutsch sold the license for building his three-wheeled vehicles to the Cessna aircraft distributor for France, named Societe Air-Tourist. Not satisfied with merely reproducing the open three-wheeler, they designed their own vehicle with a tubular body frame. Construction took place in an aircraft hangar near the Paris airport. The Paris Salon of 1955 saw the introduction of five versions of their egg-shaped doorless vehicles.

The suspension by Neidhart was rubber-in-torsion; the steering was by flexible cable. This example, the 200 SC, (S for Sachs, C for coupe), uses the familiar Messerschmitt motor with a swing axle driving the single rear wheel. The upper shell was reinforced with a simple tube cage and the fenders protected with polished aluminum casings, which were also used as step-plates.

The Avolette was available in five different versions, all with single-cylinder, 2-stroke motors and 3 or 4 wheels. The Competition Deluxe utilized a differently styled fiberglass shell. There was a connection to the Societe France Jet, in 1958, producing Brutsch's V2N design.

Numerous accessories were available at extra charge, including the forward-tilt hardtop, luggage carrier, hubcaps, and windshield wiper, all to be seen on this car.

Manufacturer: Societe Air Tourist, Paris France

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This was one of the vehicles sold at the Bruce Weiner Microcar Auction in February 2013. Website owner Harry Kraemer has all of the sale data from that auction in his Market Watch section of his Wheels & Wings site Flymall.org. See link below for the data.

Click here for auction sale report