Mini-Comtesse on eBay

[Big Al]

Well that's interesting as this part of the booklet is clearly stamped Mini Comtesse. I do not speak French but have a mechanics vocabulary, just as I do in German. To me that is a bit of a clincher.

It is also most useful to folk like Barry as it contains a statement of conformity so I put it up first to show I have not forgotten him and his need for info towards registration too.

What is coming across is that there are several versions of these cars. A state confused by the Acoma sharing models as we get bigger. It is also clear that they used both Sachs and Motobicane engines. How you tell if you have the right engine in the right body I have no idea. Best answer is to find more documentation and prove this lot I have found so far is not the only set of models made. On the face of it the Steven car sounds very basic (early?). Did not look for a date on this book yet.

Did they make kit ones for self assembly?

Cleaned up and better copy of this doc now attached.

[Barry]

Hurrah, I made it work! So this is the official answer from the book.

Running across from left to right we have.

E - Decompressor
B - Starter Motor
F - Horn
C - Lights - 3 position switch Top - Turn in a clockwise direction
                                            Mid - Parking Lights
                                            Bot - Dip
D - Indicators
K - Wiper motor
G - Speedo
H - Ignition/Charging light
A - Contact, so I assume ignition switch
S - Choke, Ah you see, you were making assumptions!

There are no mole grips or bits of string involved, though its all good fun.

No mention here of the one or two pull cords. Clearly one is a gear control. Would the other put the muscle power into drive mode? Perhaps it is to hang yourself while waiting to get to the top of a big hill. Maybe more will be revealed on attempting to convert the rest of the images into a form that publishes.

Switch F/C, lights and horn, seem common to other machines so there is a vague clue as to how that works.

Good Hurrah, but Wong car.
Mine has no decompressor, wiper motor (its hand motivated), or speedometer,  and Has only a rightmost mounted indicator light for the ignition.
My centrally mounted steering wheel only makes obvious the choking assumption that this is more likely a 4wheeled model without a pull handle actuated up gear change or choke.

It does look a bit wrong as it appears to be right-hand drive.  Pretty sure the Mini comtesse was always one seat in the middle, however, before the four-wheel Super comtesse there was a three wheel two seater which looked like the Super comtesse and had the steering on the right (see Denis site microcarfan).  Lets call it a Comtesse for now.

http://www.microcarfan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=26

[Big Al]

Another bit of paper for Mini Comtesse.

So the info I have put up is therefore likely to be the two seat Comtesse or smallest Acoma. That might be so as there is a further picture of another car associated to these pages I found along with the above, Confusing 'innit?  One of your sites pics clearly shows the one side of the dash controls on that version.

Improved version now put up.

[Barry]

Another bit of paper for Mini Comtesse.

So the info I have put up is therefore likely to be the two seat Comtesse or smallest Acoma. That might be so as there is a further picture of another car associated to these pages I found along with the above, Confusing 'innit?  One of your sites pics clearly shows the one side of the dash controls on that version.

Confusing but we will get there in the end.  Need to see a nice complete Mini comtesse.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Hold everything everyone, before we all end up going round in circles. It sounds like Steven's car may be the rarer, basic model of three-wheeled Mini Comtesse, (Model 730). Mine was the more common "De Luxe" Model 730E. Does yours actually have an electric starter Steven or does it start on a rip-cord? The lack of a speedo & non-electric windscreen wiper screams basic 730 to me, with the possibility that the rip-cord starting engine has been replaced with an electric start version.

 Also, the later, more "upright" three & four wheeled versions (Model 770) were also called Mini Comtesse's, from about 1975-1979 later to become "Super Comtesse" from around 1979, but look totally different.

 Then don't forget the badge-engineered Willam Cyclo 49, which was the original Model 730 Mini Comtesse built under Lambretta-Willam license into the 1980s in "narrow" single-seat form, and "wide" two seat form (the latter not to be confused with the aforementioned two-seat Model 770 Mini-Comtesse). Plus don't forget the CEDRE electric versions of model 730....

  I think I'm going to have to do a spotters guide to the cars of Acoma, 1972-1984....

[Big Al]

A clean and reasonably original looking single seat Mini Comtesse. Is it me or is that a decompressor I can see running in behind the plug. Having looked I can confirm there is a basic model with a pull start as Stuart has said. There are images but they will not download. That same run of info has pics of the rear chain for the muscle power. Then the one with electric start.

[Big Al]

This is a look inside the two seater version that might well match the dash image for the booklet I found elsewhere.

[Big Al]

This is the inside of a four wheeled Acoma. So you have three out of a minium of four optional interiors, I suggest. The info is out there if you look for it.

[Big Al]

Here is a general pic of the pull start version. The pull start is on the engine inside the bonnet. I cannot see how it could operate through the bulkhead by rope with the engine turning so far.

[Big Al]

More of the booklet I found in reproducable form, I hope.

[Big Al]

And the rest of it plus a bit on the three wheeled cheese version with its model number, hopefully that will slide into Stuarts spoters guide with rest of this stuff.

[Barry]

Noticed that the yellow car is probably a William Cyclo - a wide Mini Comtess built by licence by Willam with two seats - it is just a bit wider - see the headlight position.
The passenger seems to have two foot operated pedels  for 'moped' law conformity (and for additional acceleration by pedal power perhaps)
There foot pedals are also found on the Super Comtess passenger side although the Driver is on the left.

See how some of the controls of the Willam cyclo are on the left and the steering on the right - strange in France with left hand drive roads

There is only room for one foot either side of the bulkhead on a Mini Comtesse so I doubt it has pedals like the later cars.

The Three wheel, two seat Acoma Comtesse (orange) looks like the four wheel Super Comtesse.

[Big Al]

As with two seat cheese flavored Acoma Comtesse to Super Comtesse we have Flipper to Flipper 2.  More stable plus minor enhancements. Is there a Norsja Tiger lurking out there?

What to say about wrong side steering. Marketing for 'Madam La Poste' so she gets out onto the footpath? Right sort of colour. Not a commercial though. Do not know enough about French postal services to know if they ran a first class/telegram type service in the '70's. Another strange hole in the law concerning pedal power?

[steven mandell]

There is only room for one foot either side of the bulkhead on a Mini Comtesse so I doubt it has pedals like the later cars.

My Minicomtesse shows no signs of being non original except for the singular extra pedal on the left that passes backwards under the floorboards and connects to nothing.  I believe that the only reasonable explanation for this was that it was a single push pedal attached to a now missing gear and chain mechanism of some sort.
any one got pics of this?
Didn't Stewart mention that he also had a choke at the other end of a rubber gripped dash mounted  pull handle also?
If so, mine is an early example of an entirely original car missing its pedal powertrain and needing a new clutch and a "castelated" piece that retains the clutch to the crankshaft.
Anyone know a good parts source for these please?

[Barry]

My Super comtesse has two pedals on the passenger side.
Each uses a bicycle chain and a freewheeling cog (from the back wheel of a bicycle)
The chain goes over the cog and back on itself to a long spring attached to the chassis.
Pressing your foot down pulls the cog round and moves the back wheel - against the long spring.
Taking your foot off of the pedal allows it to return vi the spring force.  The cog freewheels in the return direction.

This would work OK with one Pedal but obviously better with two (and a passenger operating them).

I will take a few photos of the car I have at home but the chains have been removed.
The freewheeling cog would be a good place to connect an electric motor for a bit of a boost when required.



The Flipper has a similar set-up

Sachs Engine should be fairly easy for spares they are used in loads of vehicles.

The very early version of the Mini Comtesse is thought to be extinct!  no castor wheels for the inevitable roll during cornering and only one access door.