As Europe tried to recover from World War II, manufacturers began producing small cars to satisfy the need for personal transportation. There were cycle cars, micro cars, bubble cars. They were cheap to build and buy, and they were economical to drive. As manufacturing was re-established and “real” cars began coming off the assembly lines, more people turned to larger, more comfortable automobiles. Sales of micro cars fell off – until the 1970s, when there was a resurgence of interest in micro cars, especially in France. The resurgence was likely caused by the gas crisis in the middle ‘70s, but it continued for quite a while, again, especially in France.
The French government allowed anyone over the age of 14 to drive moped-engined vehicles without a driver’s license, safety inspection, or registration plate. The vehicles were restricted to 50-cc engines and a maximum speed of 45 kmph (27 mph), and they had to have at least one pedal that could be used to move the vehicle if the engine wasn’t working. Without that pedal, it was no longer a moped, and the driver/rider had to have a driving license. By the mid-1980s, there were 30 manufacturers in France producing 50 models of small, economical cars, or voiturettes. One of those manufacturers was Societé d’Exploitation et d’Application des Brevet (SEAB), located in the Villejuif suburb of Paris.
SEAB was run by a WWII ace fighter pilot, Roland Paulze d’Ivoy de La Poye. His company was focused on the use of plastics. The company produced a variety of products, but they also built the bodies for the Citroén Mehari, so they were familiar with at least that aspect of auto manufacture. SEAB took the next step to become a voiturette manufacturer in 1978 when they first showed the SEAB Flipper 1. It was followed by a Flipper 2, also known as a Donky, and a Flipper 3 before they stopped production in 1984. The two later Flippers were fairly conventional, small, front-wheel drive micro cars. Flipper 1 had some conventional design elements, but it was anything but conventional in other ways.
Conventional elements of the design of Flipper 1 included a 47-cc Sachs air-cooled, two-stroke engine producing 3 bhp and driving the front wheels through a two-speed automatic transmission. It was small, only 234 cm (about 92 inches) in length, narrow, and slow. What makes the car particularly interesting is how they produced the body and why the car needed no reverse gear.
Rather than mold the body shell in its entirety, SEAB built the plastic body in two halves and bonded it together. The car, as a result, had a chassis-less monocoque shell. The most fascinating design element, though, was the lack of a reverse gear. It needed no reverse because the entire engine and suspension could be turned 360° with the steering wheel. If you wanted to reverse, you just turned the steering wheel so that the engine and suspension rotated 180° and drove off backwards. If the car was too close to a wall to be able to turn away normally, just turn the steering wheel until the engine and suspension reached 90° and drive off to the left or right. In order to make this work, all wiring and plumbing ran through a large sleeve at the top of the engine to keep binding at a minimum. The exhaust is very short and is simply attached to the engine. You don’t want to turn the wheels more than 360° because of the chance of kinking the wires and lines.
There seem to be two stories about how the car got its name. In his book, Bubblecars and Microcars, Malcolm Bobbitt says the car was constructed by Flipper Sarl in Villejuif, although that name seems a bit odd for a French firm or individual. The second story is more fun – that it was named after a famous television porpoise. In fact, it is the second story that is correct. It seems that SEAB was quite successful in developing packaging for products like shampoo. That allowed de La Poye to create the Antibes Marineland for large marine animals. The car was named “Flipper” because he loved porpoises, and the most famous porpoise was the TV star.
This particular Flipper resides at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee (www.lanemotormuseum.org). Occasionally, the museum invites members to an event where they can drive some of the more unusual cars in the collection. This particular evening, the cars available were the Flipper 1 and a Peel Trident. Driving the Flipper was a trip. Two and a half turns of the steering wheel would send the car off at 90°. Five turns and you went backwards. A piece of tape on the steering wheel allowed me to count the number of turns. I only tried it while relatively still, but when movement by the car at 90° or 180° is still surprising. Driving the car was smile-inducing even though it’s not very comfortable, its straight line performance is lacking, and its handling is adequate only for its speed – you really don’t want to take it out in Nashville traffic. Its two-speed automatic transmission worked well, steering was reasonably quick, the brakes did their job, and the suspension kept the car upright during turns, so it did what it was intended to do. But it is such an odd creation, that you have to laugh while you drive it. We each got to drive it around the museum building and back lot. My opinion is that it was a fine solution for French country towns and even the tight streets of Paris neighborhoods.
Thanks to Jeff Lane for allowing museum members to experience some of his cars and to Claude Gueniffey for finding this car for the museum and for providing some of the fun facts for this article.
