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Info on F.L. Automobiles Paris and Ron Birketts Sports model ?


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#1 arttidesco

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Posted 31 January 2014 - 20:28

Over the last couple of years I have come across Ron Birketts F.L. Sports on several occasions, but never met the him.

00_IMG_7973sc.jpg There seems to be precious little information about the FL Automobiles Paris marque on the net beyond FL being a sort of phonetic way of spelling Eiffel as in Tower. I gather that the marque was created by Societé Générale des Voitures Automobiles Otto in 1909 after several vehicles bearing the Otto name had been built up until that time. 02_DSCN9627sc.jpg

 

From this French ad I gather a Mr. Frennaye made an agreement to build a 4 cylinder 2.4 litre FL's under licence from a chap called Serex with Landaulet, Double Phaéton, Coupé de ville, Torpédo body options.


05_DSCN9431sc.jpg

Wondering if anyone can tell me anything about Ron Birketts car which is listed as a 3 litre with the DVLA and in the programmes for events I have ? 

 

Any further info about FL would also be appreciated apart from the ad for the 1911 Torpédo and Ron's car the only photo I have found of an F.L. is in this linked period ad.

 

Relevant answers maybe credited and used in a forthcoming blog.

 

Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.



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#2 Tim Murray

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 06:54

I'm not sure if this helps much, but here's the entry on Otto cars written by Brian Laban in The World Guide to Automobiles:

 

The Société Générale des Voitures Automobiles Otto of Paris was the first company to import Otto engines to France, originally as stationary units. The first Otto free-piston engine was designed by self-taught inventor Nikolaus August Otto, from Cologne, based on Lenoir's earlier work, and the Otto engine was in production in a factory at Deutz, across the Rhine from Cologne, by 1872.

 

In 1875, under the direction of Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, Otto's annual production exceeded 600 units. By 1876 Otto had turned to making a true four-stroke engine, although he ultimately failed to gain a patent on the principle, and by 1878 the engine had become a great commercial success.

 

By the time the Société Générale des Voitures Automobiles Otto introduced its first cars at the Paris Show in August 1900, it had been building Otto engines under licence for over 20 years. Two models were shown, with front-mounted 7 and 12hp vertical twin engines (although another contemporary report lists them as 6 and 10hp models, respectively of horizontal and vertical type). The company announced that it did not intend only to build Otto-engined models but also planned to use the Diesel motor, for which it had secured the French manufacturing rights.

 

By February 1901 the company had moved from the Rue de la Convention to the Rue Lacourbe and in that month showed four cars in Paris, two horizontal twin-cylinder engine 10hp models and two vertical four-cylinder 20hp models, with steel reinforced wood frames. Electric ignition was standard, but with an Otto magnetic device as an option.

 

At the end of 1902 the company offered a much modified vertical single-cylinder 10hp model with engine speed regulated by a variable exhaust valve. This gave much more flexibility than was then common, with engine speeds from 250 to 2000rpm claimed.

 

In 1909, after several years of building models broadly similar to the earliest types, Otto introduced a model called the FL, phonetically after the French pronunciation of Eiffel, the engineer and his famous tower. The FL was a fairly ordinary four-cylinder 12/ 16hp model which was joined by a six-cylinder 18/24 in 1912 but few were made because of World War I and Otto stopped car production in 1914.

There's a similar, but briefer, entry on Otto by Nick Georgano in his Complete Encyclopaedia of Motorcars. There are photos of Ottos in both books, but none of the FL model.



#3 arttidesco

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 10:13

Thanks Tim :up:



#4 VeloceGT

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 13:13

Here I found a photo of an F.L. 12/16 HP: http://gallica.bnf.f...91149.r=.langFR



#5 Steve L

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 15:13

There is a small piece about the rebuild of Ron's car in The Automobile magazine October 2001 issue.

 

If you PM me with your email address, I'd be happy to send you a scan of this.

 

The article also refers to a preceding note in the December 1998 issue about when the car was first found, but I cannot lay my hands on this at the moment.  I'm sure you could find a copy on eBay though.



#6 arttidesco

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 15:36

Most grateful VeloceGT, interestingly the F.L. in that photograph appears to have the headlights removed.



#7 arttidesco

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 15:41

There is a small piece about the rebuild of Ron's car in The Automobile magazine October 2001 issue.

 

If you PM me with your email address, I'd be happy to send you a scan of this.

 

The article also refers to a preceding note in the December 1998 issue about when the car was first found, but I cannot lay my hands on this at the moment.  I'm sure you could find a copy on eBay though.

 

Thanks Steve PM for you :clap:



#8 VeloceGT

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 16:35

I've got a copy of Dec 1998 Issue of The Automobile and can send you a scan of the reffered note also. Just send me your e-mail.



#9 Steve L

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 16:41

I've got a copy of Dec 1998 Issue of The Automobile and can send you a scan of the reffered note also. Just send me your e-mail.

 

Scan of my article sent.

 

VeloceGT - I'd be grateful to be sent a copy too please.   I'll PM you.  Thanks!



#10 arttidesco

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 17:31

Thanks Udo just PMed you :up:



#11 VeloceGT

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 20:52

Sent mail to both of you.



#12 arttidesco

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 23:08

Sent mail to both of you.

 Danke schoen :up:



#13 Tuboscocca

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 23:13

 Danke schoen :up:

..and the rest???  I'm interested too. Is it possible to 'insert' the article here??Or does this offend copyright laws??

 

Thanks Michael , in the valley of information-darkness.. :cry:


Edited by Tuboscocca, 01 February 2014 - 23:13.


#14 arttidesco

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Posted 02 February 2014 - 00:39

..and the rest???  I'm interested too. Is it possible to 'insert' the article here??Or does this offend copyright laws??

 

Thanks Michael , in the valley of information-darkness.. :cry:

You have mail/PM  ;)



#15 Tuboscocca

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Posted 02 February 2014 - 11:17

You have mail/PM  ;)

Thanks!!!



#16 arttidesco

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Posted 02 February 2014 - 16:08

Thanks!!!

Your welcome :up:



#17 VeloceGT

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Posted 02 February 2014 - 16:37

Yes, I think it would offend copyright laws. But for the "rest" I'll try to summarise the note in the Finds & Discoveries section of the December 1998 issue if The Automobile:

 

It says that a 1908 F.L. four seater tonneau is known to be still existent and owned by a George King in Sidney and that the chassis of another, apparently without engine, had been disovered in Nottinghamshire which is owned by Ron Birkett. The author reports that the cars that were sold by the english agents R M Wright & Co of Lincoln had an F.L. badge on the radiator that wore the words Floreat Lindum = Flower of Lincoln which also matches to th F.L. abbreviation. He tells that all F.L.'s wore the words "Licence Serex" but no make "Serex" is known. He refers also to an article in The Motor of 26th July, 1910 that would say that the F.L. was designed by one M Serex and that would describe the same technical layout as Ron Birketts chassis.


Edited by VeloceGT, 02 February 2014 - 16:38.