Items starting with V

VAZ is a Russian auto maker that began producing cars, in collaboration with Fiat, in the late 1960s. The Model 1111, commonly branded for export as a Lada Oka, was developed out of a need to replace the simple and cheap ZAZ Zaporozhets, the Russian “People’s Car”. It was to be the car that “every factory worker can afford”.

Although Barberon & Meunier first patented the retro-direct system in 1869, the gear system was further developed and refined by other companies, including Manufacture at the turn of the century.

The Velorex was developed in Czechoslovakia in 1936 by two brothers who ran a bicycle shop.  After WWII, automobiles were very scarce and expensive, and the brothers realized the Velorex would be a cheap, affordable car for the masses.  They used a Jawa motorcycle engine, wheels, and brakes.

Piaggio was founded in Italy in 1884 as a business that made luxury ship fittings.

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Gabriel Voisin was a major manufacturer of airplanes during World War I. The end of the war saw him with a large fortune and an equally large factory, but a very small market for airplanes. In 1919, he decided to become a car manufacturer and acquired a ready-made engine design–a 3969cc sleeve-valve four which had been considered and turned down by Citroën as unsuitable for mass production. Voisin remained faithful to the sleeve-valve principle for the rest of his career as a car maker. Voisin built lightweight cars using techniques learned in his years as an aircraft designer. The type C28 “ambassade” body design was inspired by the art-deco period and was the last model Voisin was personally responsible for.

The Volkswagen Beetle is a car we are all familiar with.  More than 20 million were sold.  While the name “Porsche” is associated with expensive cars, Ferdinand Porsche had a life-long interest in a small car that an average working person could afford.