De Dion Bouton Type E 'Vis à Vis' 1900

The De Dion Bouton Type E ‘Vis à vis’ 1900 was one of the first French automobile in so called large production. In 1900, De Dion Bouton produced some 500 cars and three thousand two hundreds gasoline engines. The automobile was just starting to take a place in the crowded horse carriage traffic. Automobile was still expensive and scarce.

The Vis à Vis  was produced at 2.920 units between 1900 and 1902. It has a single cylinder engine and transmission placed at the rear.

The car is already equipped with what will be known as the “De Dion rear axle”; the differential is fixed to the chassis while a solid transversal tube holds parallel camber for both wheels. There are universal joints at both the wheels and the differential. The wheels are forced by the transversal tube to stay parallel even when one of the wheel goes over a bump.  This technology will be applied in several automobile with front engine and rear wheel drive including sports racing cars till 1960s. It was an improvement over the rigid axle especially because of less un-suspended mass.
 A radiator was installed at the front under the luggage compartment itself under the front opposed seat.

Wallpapers : De Dion Bouton Type E 'Vis à Vis' 1900 (click on image to enlarge)