Displacement About Velorex
Velorex is a small three wheeled car produced from the 1950s until 1971 in Solnice, Czechoslovakia.
History
Since 1936, brothers FrantiÅ¡ek (1914) and MojmÃr (1924) Stránský, owners of a bicycle repair shop in village ParnÃk near ÄŒeská TÅ™ebová, started with the design of a small and cheap three-wheeled car, inspired by three-wheelers from Morgan Motor Company. In 1943 they built the first prototype using steel tubing wrapped by dural sheet metal and employing parts of bicycles (later, of motorcycles). They named the vehicle "Oskar" (kára na ose, car on pivot).
In 1945 the brothers built the first batch of cars, using leather cloth instead of sheet metal as the bodywork. Three vehicles were powered by motorcycle engines ČZ 150 cm³, three with PAL 300 cm³ (6 HP) and six with Jawa 250 cm³. The price was about 1/4 of the cost of a typical motorcycle.
Car industry of post-war Czechoslovakia was not able to provide sufficient number of vehicles for its citizens, resulting in long waiting periods and quotas. Several models of small cars had been built either by amateurs or in small series (e.g. Kreibich, TRIGA Tripolino, JAB).
