An extremely rare 1899 Phebus Forecar, possibly one of the last remaining examples of it’s kind. Manufactured by Noe Boyer et Cie, a French company who made Phebus tricycles, quadricycles and automobilettes.
It has an air-cooled Di Dion Bouton 2 1/4hp engine, with Di Dion Bouton being one of the largest engine manufacturers at the time. It’s a 4-stroke engine with push rods on the outside and atmospheric valve for inlet.
It arrived from a deceased estate, it did used to have water-cooled cylinder head and electric starter mechanism but looks like the previous owner had changed it back to an air-cooled head and handle start. We are going to keep the air-cooled head but put an electric starter motor back on just purely for ease.
Being VCC registered means it has competed in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run a few times, we believe the last time was in 2017. It also has the benefit of an earlier start time at Hyde Park.
Sported in green livery with black vinyl seats it really is a rare find, it also comes with a ‘mother-in-law’ fold away seat at the front for an unfortunate passenger to ride right up front.
It is in need of recommissioning work as it has stood for a few years and could do with a good overall restoration to bring this unique veteran car back to life. It comes with V5C document, VCC Vehicle Identification and Certificate of Eligibility and sundry other paperwork.