Perhaps reacting against his father’s total commitment to steam transport, young Léon Bollée saw greater potential in the internal combustion engine and designed his first such powered vehicle, a tandem two-seater, three-wheeler as early as 1895.

Production was based at Le Mans and the single-cylinder, air-cooled, 650cc engine developed 3hp, giving these machines an amazingly fast turn of speed.

Three forward speeds were standard and the tubular frame owed much to bicycle manufacturing methods.

Bollée’s significant invention in this machine was the driving wheel axle carried by levers pivoted on the frame of the vehicle, allowing the movement of the axle backwards or forwards to increase or release belt tension for gear changing.

The engine was mounted horizontally with radiating cooling ribs and ignition was by hot tube using an oil-fired burner, a similar system to that of Panhard-Levassor.

Contemporary motor racing driver, Charles Jarrott, in his standard work, “Ten Years of Mo...