1948 VAP3 Engine & Wheel
Engine number 27340
Worldwide postage at cost on this particular auction item
This is a recent acquisition, and it’s quite a remarkable find because it has all the hard-to-get bits with it, ie its original levers and the original sprocket.
I thought I’d add it to the sale. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll soon have it mounted on a period French cycle and use it for some of my Cyclemaster Museum displays this summer. But in the meantime I’ve left it as it is in these photos because it would make it easier if someone overseas fancies it – without a bicycle, I can post it abroad easily and cheaply and the buyer could mount it on a period bicycle themself.
This early VAP engine was one of the first ‘moteur auxiliare’ models in production in postwar France, and was one of the most popular. Note that, unlike the VAP4, the VAP3 is not chain driven, and it has a magneto not a flywheel.
Although there is no clutch on this model, there is a lever to pull the engine up, and this works as well as a clutch.
The engine is untested, but was running before it was removed from its donor bicycle.
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Pictures: thanks to the excellent website http://cyclovap.free.fr/ which is the online home of the VAP engine.
