la licorne

Never heard of it before but she's sure a looker!

I like the style of the website, particularly the dramatic closeup on the home page is very refresing after so many very straight-camera shots, normally used for classic cars. And the prancing graphic is very sweet. (Licorne = Eenhoorn = Unicorn btw).

The home page seems to take longer to load than normal - are some of the images a bit big?

Was Right-hand-steering really normal in France in the 1900s? I was told (by a Dutchman, IIRC) that driving on the right was invented by Napoleon.

Do you know what happened to the 'La Licorne' name?

Anyway it looks a fantastic restoration - the car looks new! How's the hire business going?

Thanks for sharing it

Andy

Ma ou e la dame?

Depends what you want to know. I have a fair bit of info regarding the history of the make. In 1899 J Corre made m/cycles, trikes and quads, and was also an agent for DeDion, Renault and Peugot. He made his first car in 1901. It had tubular frame a 3hp single cyl water cooled DeDion engine at the front, with a 3 speed g/box and shaft drive. The name La Licorne was not adopted until 1907, but only generally applied after 1909. from 1937 onwards they started to buy Citroen bodies. In fact, the 1938 11CV was almost completely made from Citroen parts. It had a Citroen FWD engine adapted for RWD, with a La Licorne bonnet and radiator. I have more detailed info if it's of any use. Mike.

Thanks Andy for your comment, I will try to reduce the size of the images a little, but its difficult to find a balance between quality and size. I dont really know that much about left and right hand steering, i was told that in those days,itwas more important to look what was on your right side because there wasn't that much traffic,so driving was already done on the right side of the road,with the steering wheel on the right side as well. (when anybody knows more.....) About the La Licorne name,the company stopped in 1948,and Ettore Bugatti bought the factorys. Nowadays on the same spot is a part of the Renault company located. I'm working on a complete translation of the site in Englisch but it's not that easy and also a lot of work. I already have some translation finished,when you want to know more i can send it to you.

Best regards,

Gerard.

"Andy Beck" schreef in bericht news:40ba3f32$0$25322$ snipped-for-privacy@news-text.dial.pipex.com...

It was quite common for posh (for want of a better word) European cars to have right hand drive right up to the 1930's. Indeed I don't think Ettore Bugatti ever made a left hand drive car. Lancia laid out the Dilambda (4 litre V8) for lhd around 1928 or so because they were going to build some in the USA for the American market, but that came to nothing so they were all made in Italy with right hand drive.

It is the usual story that Napoleon initiated driving - or riding - on the right, either because he used to get on his horse from the wrong side or because he wanted to leave a visible sign of his having conquered a country. Probably the latter.

Ron Robinson

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Gerard Kroon" saying something like:

That's a good looking old car.