Peugeot Quadrilette

[Ian Wegg]

For those who struggle to copy and paste:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185833221045? <removed>

Sorry to rathole but you should be careful when you copy a URL straight out of your browser. All that stuff after the ? is data, some of it pertaining to you.

If you want to link to an eBay item just copy up to the end of the item ID.  e.g.: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185833221045

[Mike Costigan]

Forum on Peugeot Quadrillette.  I had hoped that these rumours would cease re the Austin Seven's alleged origins. Stanley Edge was most indignant that this was featured in John Woods booklet and elsewhere, as he claimed that he never said this to anyone.  Further, he explained that although rough details of all small cars were published in the contemporary Magazines, he had in fact never seen a Peugeot before drawing up the Seven. As I'm one of many who believe that History should be Fact, please be careful what you print.  Cheers,  Bill Sheehan

Whilst it's entirely possible that Stanley was unfamiliar with the Peugeot, I find it hard to believe that Sir Herbert didn't know every last detail of it. As a confirmed Francophile Sir Herbert could hardly have failed to be aware of the established product of one of the leading French manufacturers; when he asked Stanley to produce a list of cars to study it's likely that he qualified that request with the premise 'like the Peugeot'. I can also imagine Sir Herbert saying 'we can do better than that'!

[Ruairidh Dunford]

An article that compares the two designs will be factual - I for one hope nothing will be imagined to embellish and titillate, however plausible it may be in the writers’ heads.

[Tony Press]

An article that compares the two designs will be factual - I for one hope nothing will be imagined to embellish and titillate, however plausible it may be in the writers’ heads.

Such as "I find it hard to believe that Sir Herbert didn't know every last detail of it."

Sorry esteemed past editor 

[Erich]

I think it would be incorrect to assume that at the very least, whatever Stanley's knowledge of the Peugeot might have been, Sir Herbert would have known about the car. As an engineer, he would have exposed himself to engineering ideas of the day, especially in the automotive world and either used and modified, or discarded ideas he saw as lacking or unnecessary. That's what fascinates me about that period of automobile design. Engineers were trying different ideas. That the Seven got so much right, at such an early time, is remarkable. It had four wheel brakes. Unlike the Model T, it had a "real" gearbox. Just my two pence worth.

Erich in Mukilteo

[David Stepney]

If memory serves me correctly, I believe that Henry Ford got his designers to come up with a transmission that was both foolproof an easy to use, given the difficulties encountered with operating the gearboxes of the day.

[mopetta]

I picked up my Quadrilette yesterday. It‘s an early car with no electricity. Complete, but did not run for some 50 years. I need to get some Blockleys and hope after a carb cleanup and a set of new spark plugs the engine runs ?

   

[Reckless Rat]

Don't do anything to the engine until you've drained the sump and put some clean oil in it!

[Tony Griffiths]

I'd very much second Reckless Rat's opinion - in fact, I'd go further and suggest it would be a very good idea to remove the sump and clean out all the muck that will have settled to the bottom over the last 50 years. That, of course, assumes that there is oil in the sump. I recall a 1932 saloon that had been standing for at least ten years; the dipstick showed the oil to be as-new, but when the sump was removed that there was a thick layer of black dirt in the bottom.

[Reckless Rat]

That's what I meant!