In Museo Automovilístico de Málaga staat deze Helicron 2 tussen de auto’s met alternatieve aandrijftechnieken. Volgens het bordje is hij vlak na de Eerste Wereldoorlog gebouwd en was het toen nodig voor de vele vliegtuigmotoren een tweede leven voor te vinden. Volgens mij is dat een zelfverzonnen onzinverhaal. De auto is in 1932 door Marcel Leyat in Frankrijk gebouwd, dus 14 jaar ná het eind van die oorlog. Bovendien waren vliegtuigen in de Eerste Wereldoorlog voor zover ik weet helemaal niet zo algemeen? Hoe het dan wel zit? Geen idee. Helpt u mee? Wie meer van deze auto weet wil ik hierbij van harte uitnodigen iets in het reactieveld hier onder te plaatsen (Of als je graag wilt dat je reactie na een halve dag al niet meer terug te vinden is: ergens op sociale media).
In een reddit-topic wordt het volgende gezegd door DdCno1: “This is a Leyat Hélica, produced between 1919 and 1925, not a “Helicron” and certainly not from 1932 either.
The engineer behind this, Marcel Leyat (who was also an early aircraft pioneer – go figure) came up with the idea in 1911 and built he first production car in 1919 (he famously traveled to the front in WW1 in his prototype, which must have been a sight to behold). Back then, cars were ridiculous gas guzzlers, several times less efficient than today, so you have to compare it to cars from that time, not modern cars and certainly not the theoretical efficiency of different drive train configurations.
This vehicle could travel faster than virtually anything else on the road (170kph (106mph) – supercar territory at the time), while needing only 6l/100km (39 US mpg, 47 UK mpg), a fraction of other contemporary cars, not to mention other cars that fast. It only made 30hp from a less than 1l (or 60 cubic inches) engine in its most powerful configuration, yet it was simultaneously one of the fastest and most efficient cars of its era. It’s gas mileage in relation to performance is comparable to modern cars. That’s an astonishing achievement. The 2015 car I’m driving is 15kph slower and needs half a liter more per 100km. Even the 8hp 2-cylinder version that was initially produced reached 80kph, which was about average for a car in 1919, while needing only 4 to 5l/100km.
There are several reasons why this car was so efficient. First of all, weight. The Hélica is made of plywood without the need for a separate frame, so even the largest and most powerful passenger version only weighs 250kg (551lbs). It doesn’t have a transmission, it doesn’t need a differential, it doesn’t need strong axles and brakes don’t have to be particularly powerful given the low weight. Mechanical simplicity was one of its big advantages. This lightweight plywood body is also very aerodynamic, at a time when few car makers even knew what a wind tunnel was.
Why did it fail? It had a high top speed, yet it lacked the stability required for such a fast vehicle. While the top speed was impressive, acceleration was comparatively glacial. Low weight in combination with a bouncy suspension, as well as the weight being almost all in the front and the rear axle being used for steering meant that it was very tricky to control. If you’ve ever been close to a propeller aircraft, you probably noticed how loud it was, so imagine a number of those going down a busy city street. It also had the tendency to randomly catch on fire, which ain’t great if you are sitting in an all-plywood contraption. The danger to pedestrians wasn’t even that big of a deal, since every car of that time would be almost guaranteed to be deadly to any person unlucky enough to be run over by it. Not to mention, at least some examples of this car were equipped with a protective mesh, so it seems like the manufacturer was aware of the issue.
In the 1920s, when most of the 30 Hélicas were built (of which two have survived to this day), the general shape of the automobile had already been agreed on. Gasoline engine in the front, driving the rear axle through a drive shaft, propelling some kind of more or less enclosed body on a frame. Almost every car manufacturer had transitioned to this layout pioneered by Renault, so a quirky French inventor with his fast and efficient, yet dangerous little car that looked like a plane with its wing cut off had a hard time competing. Leyat didn’t have the capital to create a large factory (or advertise it – his primary way of advertising it was racing it down busy streets with his company name and contact information on the side) and since there was little demand for a car that’s more or less guaranteed to kill you, it’s unsurprising it wasn’t successful.”
De jaartallen in deze reactie komen meer overeen met wat ik in de literatuur kan vinden, zoals “guide de l’automobile francaise” en de Beaulieu encyclopedie. Wat ik begrijp was Leyat vooral een uitvinder. Hij vond een manier uit om propellers te lamineren, waardoor hij waarschijnlijk in voertuigen geïnteresseerd raakte. Hij was kennelijk ook nogal muzikaal. Aan de andere kant, een soortgelijk voertuig staat in het “Lane Motor Museum”, waar ook van 1932 gesproken wordt en ook dezelfde naam genoemd wordt.