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		These are your ancestors' 3-Wheelers.

		Gallery V024

My thanks go to Philippe Orain in France for this photo of his father's Trois rous. Phillipe writes:

I visited today the 3-wheelers pages and I'm amazed by the production of such vehicles.

However, one is missing in the vintage page; it's my father's "Trois roues". I know how difficult it is to gather pictures coming from the whole world.

So I send you an old picture of it and some news about the story of this vehicle.

The aim of the construction was to provide a transportation vehicle for my Father and two passengers.

It has been possible because English bikes and side-cars where lived on the French beaches at the beginning of WWII.

When German army invaded west France, the English soldiers had to ship back and left much vehicles on the shores.

My father kept a Triumph three cylinders bike and waited until the end of the conflict to rebuild the engine stocked in oil (not to be found by the German soldiers).

At that time, many duralumin (from aircraft industry) parts where easy to find and cheap to buy. The engine was the Triumph three cylinders and the wheels were also Triumph, but were too weak on strong curves

Inspired by aeronautical profile NACA240015, my father decided to make an "all duralumin" body with classic opening doors and hidden projectors.

The car has been built between 1947 and 1948. It has been sold in 1949 to a French man, and lost till then. We don't know even if it still exists. The paint was marine blue.

The weight was (empty) 500lbs, the max speed about 70 mph, at the cruise speed of 50mph the consumption was near 5 litters per hour.

The roads after WWII were so bad that the testing of the car was very difficult to improve.

A little glimpse the car had no top but at 28 mph the rain couldn't enter in the car, pushed out by the air gliding around the car body.

Till the next, keep safe drive slowly…