The Rolux was a French

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

manufactured from 1938 until 1952. The product of a

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

company better known for making the

New-Map New-Map is a former French manufacturer of Motorcycle, motor-bikes and later, of Microcar, small cars and delivery vehicles. The business of powered vehicle production was instigated by Paul Martin at the bicycle plant that had been founded by his ...

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

, the

light car The term light car is used in Great Britain since the early part of the 20th century for an automobile less than 1.5 litres engine capacity. In modern car classification this term would be roughly equivalent to a subcompact car. There are numero ...

, also sold as a New Map, had a single-cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke, 100 cc engine made by Fichtel and Sachs. The engine was mounted behind the driver with chain drive to the back axle. The body was an open two-seater with no doors. In 1947 production moved to

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...

, and the company was renamed as Société Rolux, and the car became the Rolux VB60 or Baby. In 1950 the engine, now by Ydral, grew to 125 cc and a 175 cc version, the VB61 was also introduced. A proposed closed car was shown in 1946 but never reached production. Car manufacture stopped in 1952 after about 300 were made, but the company, renamed to Société de Construction du Centre and moving to Puy de Dome, continued making motorcycles and some small 3-wheeled vans.

Nick Georgano George Nicolas "Nick" Georgano (29 February 1932 – 22 October 2017Nick Georgano
Alvis Archive Bl ...

(editor) ''Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile'', HMSO, London

References

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External links

1945 Rolux Baby
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France Goods manufactured in France Vehicles introduced in 1938 French companies established in 1938