PAST IMPERFECT:French designer Léon Bollée built a tricycle in 1895 which was then at the cutting edge of technology, writes Bob Montgomery
AT THE end of the 19th century the growing band of motoring pioneers included a number who favoured the unusual three-wheeled design of Leon Bollée. These enthusiasts were the equivalent of today's Ferrari and Porsche enthusiasts, such was the regard they had for the performance of the little Bollée tricycle.
Bollée's father Amédée had a bell foundry and engineering shop at Le Mans and from around the year 1873 was building steam road vehicles. He had three sons, Amédée, born in 1867, Léon, born in 1871 and Camille, the youngest. Before he was 19, Léon had invented a calculating machine for which he was awarded a Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1889.
Both Amédée and Léon built cars independently of each other and together with brother Camille, formed a racing team. Léon also raced a tricycle, but in 1893 his doctor diagnosed a weak heart and told him that he must not ride his tricycle again. So Léon set about motorising his tricycle. The result was to prove the most famous of any of the products of the Bollée family, and was to find its place in the history of motoring as the first "performance" car.
This machine had two wheels at the front and a single wheel at the rear with the passenger carried up front. A horizontal engine drove the rear wheel and had a remarkable method of changing speed by a lever that moved the drive-belt from one set of pulleys to another. The three-wheeler was a tremendous success, and before long, no self-respecting motoring sportsman could afford to be without one of these speedy Bollée cars.
So successful were they that the financier HJ Lawson bought the English manufacturing and patent rights in 1896 for £20,000 - a vast sum in 1896. That year, Bollée produced special racing versions of the three-wheeler fitted with two engines, one each side of the rear wheel. These were entered in the Paris to Marseilles race of that year, and proved fast but unreliable.
By the early 1900s Bollée was a very rich man and could easily have retired but continued to design cars and to experiment. He built a four-wheel light car, the design rights of which he sold to Alexandre Darracq. A 20hp absolutely silent four-cylinder car followed and again he sold the manufacturing rights, to an English syndicate for £42,000.
In 1908, Wilbur Wright selected Le Mans as the venue for his demonstrations of the Wright Flyer. While there he discussed with Bollée a suitable engine for the craft. Léon became friends with Wright and asked him to stay in his home where the two did a great deal of experimental work together.
Bollée died in 1913 but his wife, an able businesswoman, carried on the business for 10 years until it was acquired by WR Morris (Lord Nuffield). Today, the three-wheelers produced by Bollée are much prized by collectors and are to be seen at events for early cars all over the world.