Description
Darmont 1927ca Type “Darmont Spécial” 1090cc OHV water cooled V-twin three-wheeler chassis # C28457 engine # 50525
Darmont was a French automobile manufacturer, based at Courbevoie in the Paris region and active between 1919 and 1939. In 1919 Roger and André Darmont concluded an agreement with the British Morgan factory to build that car under licence in France. This was to avoid to pay the high import duties on a finished car. They originally purchased the essential parts such as chassis, engines and bevel boxes from Morgan but quickly set up to source them locally. By 1922 the car was made more or less entirely made in Courbevoie. The manufacturer remained faithful to their three-wheeler formula until 1935, when they launched the V-Junior. With the outbreak of the Second World War Darmont production stopped.
At the end of 1926 a new model, the Darmont Spécial, was brought out. It was powered by Darmont’s own 85x96mm bore x stroke engine -actually a copy of a Blackburne engine- but now in a water-cooled version and fitted with a Solex carburettor. Company adverts claimed a top speed of around 150km/h. Final drive is with double chains.
The machine we offer here comes with an amazingly detailed amount of history in the form of partly handwritten accounts of the life and times of a beloved cyclecar, adorned with many photos and documents. She was acquired by a Dutch enhousiast in June 1961 from a garage owner in Plainfaing, in the Vosges area (receipt to the amount of 300 Francs in the history file) and stayed in the same family till recently. The original chassis number is 1337 but for re-registering in The Netherlands a new number was provided, probably because the original number couldn’t be found. The Darmont was restored upon acquisition and regularly used in runs of the Dutch Pioneer Automobile Club. She took part in the 1100 km long Amsterdam-Paris Amsterdam Rallye that was organised in 1968. Twelve years ago it was decided to embark upon a second restoration to keep the machine technically and optically in good shape; one of the improvements made was the fitting of electronic ignition. A set of photos of this restoration is available. The info files comprises various magazine articles, photostats of Solex carb instructions and adverts and the 293-page book “Darmont Morgan”. This year several extensive runs have been made and the Darmont proved to be a good starter and fine runner. (video available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mOuQIPfcTI)