De Riancey

De Riancey was the experimental French automobile marque associated with engineer Henry de Riancey and engine partner Paul-Louis Gévin. De Riancey's motorized and steering avant-train was patented on 31 December 1895: an enclosed pivoting front tractor containing the engine, clutch and direct gear drive could replace the horse ahead of an attachable rear axle and body. A complete De Riancey–Gévin voiturette was documented by 1898, making it an unusually early front-wheel-drive design. Baudry de Saunier described a 180 kg mechanism/car, while later reports give 230 kg, 2.5 CV and conflicting 3,500- or 5,500-franc prices; those source-specific claims are not forced into a false single specification. The Société Anonyme des Automobiles De Riancey was formally organized on 18 March 1899 with 350,000 francs, offices at 3 place Daumesnil in Paris and a later assembly workshop at Levallois-Perret. Corporate life therefore begins in 1899 while the marque's documented vehicle activity begins in 1898. The firm then offered a more conventional front-engine, rear-drive 5 CV light car weighing a little over 400 kg. Its proprietary horizontally opposed twin used a distinctive linkage, and buyers could choose two-seat, dos-à-dos or occasional-seat bodies. It appeared at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition. A final two-seat Type B was shown in January 1901, rated 4¾ HP/5 CV and reported at 38 km/h loaded for 4,400 francs. Incorporation papers mentioned one prototype and ten cars in process; later histories estimate roughly ten or eleven cars in total, with one survivor in Switzerland, but no factory ledger supports an exact model split. Liquidation followed in 1901. A Belgian Snoeck license to the front-drive system is recorded but production is unconfirmed and not counted as De Riancey output. Three catalog rows preserve the materially different avant-train voiturette, conventional 5 CV and final Type B. Body choices, concours appearances and the detachable motor axle itself are not multiplied into models, and unrelated Riancey family names remain excluded.

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