Build One!

The Fauchet is fun to drive, seats two medium adults snugly with room in the back for sports gear, groceries, or a child in the rumble seat. It is built by the "stitch & glue" method and goes together fast! After a little finishing work with a burgundy stain, some cream paint, varnish, it looks beautiful!  The body is monocoque: it is strong, light and stiff without any metal frame to weld. The whole body is built of three sheets of 1/8" plywood plus some very small wood braces to hold the suspension, and strips along the top of the cockpit. With an electric motor in the back wheel it can cruise along comfortably, even up hills. It is road legal in most states and provinces as an electric bicycle. An umbrella will keep the rain off, or invent a convertible roof yourself! The front suspension is made of bicycle front shocks, bits of tubing sawed from scrap bicycles, and held together with fiberglass. The rear suspension is from an electric scooter.

HISTORY

Charles Mochet ceased building gas cars in the twenties and thirties and moved forward with pedal powered “Velocars”. Constructed of plywood, and with an open bottom over a steel tube frame, they were light enough to be pedaled by two adults carrying groceries, and even small additional family members. During WWII they were used by the French resistance; gasoline was appropriated by the Nazis, and freedom rides on pedaled wheels.

So far the plans are just photos of the build, with dimensions on them. Contact me!

BACKSTORY

The only known surviving example of the Fauchet was discovered in a dusty tunnel under the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver BC. Believed to be part of a short production run in 1912, it was lovingly restored to its former beauty and running condition. The Fauchet design was well ahead of it's day, with features such as propulsion by human muscle and renewable energy. The Fauchet speaks to us from the past with a lightness of heart and a lightness of tread.

True? No, not really, but might it have been!