The French Société Parisienne came up in the end of 1899 with this vehicle, powered by a one-cylinder DeDion-Bouton engine. The engine, the transverse two-speed gearbox and the rigid front axle mounted on a frame that could pivot around the steering center line. She was called the „Victoria Combination“ and should have been manufactured in total about 400-500 times. Maybe not the first, but quite surely one of the earliest front-wheel drive vehicles on the continent.
With the authorisation of Bibliothèque national francais, gallica.bnf.fr.
Text and photos compiled by motorracingistory.com, translated by DeepL.com
Cycle & Automobile, Vol. 4, No. 25, June 24, 1900
THE VOITURETTE „VICTORIA COMBINATION“
TODAY we are going to tell our readers about a small car that deserves special mention and particular praise for both its elegance and the quality of its components and performance.
We are talking about the “Victoria Combination.”
It is easy to talk about it, as it is one of the few that has long attracted public attention, so we will only briefly discuss its structure and address a commercial idea that we are convinced will not displease our readers, all of whom are Agents. Merchants, Representatives, whose real meaning we will summarize in one word: Traders!
To trade, you need funds, a lot of funds, and sometimes that is not enough. That is why, always guided by the desire to be useful to our readers, in this article we will explain a way to make some profits without spending any money.
It’s tempting, isn’t it? But before going into further detail about our process, we would like to give you a glimpse of the Voiturette that is currently of interest to us all.
The “Victoria Combination” pictured here is owned by the Société Parisienne, 10, avenue de la Grande-Armée, in Paris.
It made its appearance about two years ago, when no other light motor-driven vehicle existed. Its success was immediate, and its popularity has continued to grow, justified by its genuine qualities.
Since then, successive modifications have brought it to where it is today, and from being perfect at the outset, it can now be said to be incomparable.
Mr. Couturier, the friendly director of the Société Parisienne, understood from the outset that it was not worth spending time and money on the laborious research required to create a new engine, believing that the money spent and the time lost in development would be better spent on the various improvements that are always needed in a new creation. He was not wrong in this, and so he adopted the Dion engine, which needs no introduction and is known and appreciated by all drivers without exception.
The “Victoria-Combination” is an elegant little two-seater car, weighing 150 kilos.
The bodywork is built by Maison Alfred Belvallette, one of the biggest names in Parisian coach building.
The special tires are manufactured by Maison Gallus, the leading French brand. They are mounted on Westwood rims, genuine Westwood branded rims.
The extra-strong, top-quality tires feature quadruple reinforcement. They must be kept very well inflated. The carburetor is a Longuemare system, patented by S.G.D.G., with constant level and double heater, with automatic fuel supply.
This carburetor improves engine performance by a good quarter of horsepower. All of the gasoline is used automatically as needed by the engine.
It is preferable to use commercial mineral gasoline at 700°.
This carburetor is resistant to vibrations and does not malfunction on cobblestones or rough roads. It performs equally well in winter and summer, and carburetion adjustment is very simple.
Once carburetion has been adjusted at the start, it does not need to be changed during the journey. The tank holds 5 liters of gasoline, enough for a 100-kilometer trip, and 1 liter of oil.
S. G. D. G. patented gear shift, including crank-start engine, clutch and disengagement without dismounting, and climbing all hills.
As we can see, it is a compact vehicle with simple, easy steering that can be driven by anyone.
Its price is very affordable, in short, for anyone who wants to represent it, it becomes an easily recommendable investment.
In the provinces, some dealers may not be sufficiently concerned about the profit they can make from selling cars, for two reasons: the first is inertia or routine, and the second is a lack of available capital to permanently display a microcar in the store because they cannot afford to buy one.
We can only lament the first reason, but as for the second, we have thought of making it easier for our readers, if not to purchase, then at least to benefit from each of the cars sold by them, if they had had a model in their store, and here’s how.
When, based on reputation, not on hearsay but on proven facts, one is assured of the excellent performance of a vehicle, the work of an intermediary is simplified, and any good salesperson has no difficulty in praising a product to a customer, highlighting its advantages and demonstrating its modest price.
This is easy and makes the product all the more attractive and reliable in the customer’s eyes, as the salesperson appears to be disinterested in the praise they give to a product, such as a small car.
By doing this, if they are smart, they can make a profit without spending a penny, as we mentioned above, and we will explain how.
In general, any individual wishing to purchase a car seeks out information, preferably from the closest source, from those who are likely to be able to provide it due to their profession, namely agents, representatives, and bicycle and car manufacturers. In the absence of models on display, unable to judge de visu, armed with this information, they head to Paris — when you’re spending $3,000 on a car, you don’t skimp on the cost of a trip — and the buyer goes to the very source of manufacture to discuss prices and make their purchase.
That is why Cycle et Automobile Industriels, always striving to be useful to its readers, wanted to find out whether it was possible to spare the intermediary, in a word, the agent, the profit he would have made from a small car sold by him, but which he cannot deliver to his buyer because he does not have at least one model.
We have been completely successful, at least as far as the Victoria Combination car from the Parisian company is concerned.
After explaining to its director the difficult situation facing the agent from an automotive point of view—on the one hand, purchase prices requiring a very large down payment, and on the other, the many factors that each agent must consider when guiding a customer in the purchase of a small car—we obtained the following result, which none of our readers will fail to appreciate at its true value:
„Any agent who has brought or believes they have brought a customer to purchase a Victoria Combination car will only have to send a letter to the Société Parisienne, 10 Avenue de la Grande-Armée, Paris, with the name of the customer, and the full discount will be sent to them if the designated purchaser takes delivery. „
In this way, our readers are assured of being rewarded for their efforts in selling this car, and now that the agreement has been finalized with the Société Parisienne, we urge them to agree on the discount that will be allocated to them as well as on any details that may be of interest to them.
The loyalty of the Société Parisienne has been well known since its founding, which was not so long ago, as it was created by its current director in 1875; it is therefore a guarantee for our readers of the commitments that will be made.Cycle et Automobile Industriels would like to thank, on its own behalf and on behalf of its readers, Mr. Couturier, who understood the benefits for agents of opening up this new commercial horizon and agreed to this interesting combination, which we could call a Commercial Combination, parodying the name of his Victoria Combination car.
F. Laine.