![quiz #396 JS Sport]()
In last week's quiz we only showed you a ‘plaquette’ with ‘Voiture J.G.S.’ and still some of you knew to which car this once belonged. We had three participants with the correct answer: the French J.G. Sport of the 1920s. It was built by monsieur Jean Goupy who drove his little sporting machines during several races.
Jurymember Stuart Penketh wrote: “The JG Sport was a French cyclecar, manufactured from 1922 until 1923. Founded by M. Janvier in 1922 in Paris. In 1923/24 production ended, 3 vehicles only were made. Drive was provided by a Ruby four-cylinder ohv engine, ("AS" block), with a 57 mm bore and 95 mm stroke giving a 972 cc displacement. Chain drive, with a 6 speed gearbox.”
The most detailed information on the J.G. Sport can be found in the september 1975 issue of the French journal Le Fanatique de l’Automobile. This invaluable source of information on cars (not only French!) was founded in the 1960s by the well-known French connaisseur Serge Pozzoli who somehow succeeded in unearthing an impressive amount of facts and data for all those small French car makers of the 1920s. Serge explains in his short article on the JGS that the car had a friction transmission, which explains the remarkable number of speeds. As you can see from the pictures the JG Sport had a front wheel suspension system which resembles that of the better known Sizaire-Naudin. The wheel base was only 2.05 meter and the car was able to attain 95 km/h.
Occassionally Serge Pozzoli was also able to give information directly from the builders of the cars. He had met M. Goupy in the 1960s who then told him that he had only built three cars and that he still owned a ‘modernized’ Sénéchal cyclecar. This may explain another remark given by Stuart Penketh: “The engine no. (DS 2908) tag conflicts with an engine no. quoted for a 1924 Senechal TS2 cyclecar, which used similar Ruby engines. See the following link. I can only assume this engine was found and substituted into the Senechal during its first refurbishment.”
In the december 1968 issue of Veteran and Vintage Magazine one can find that an Englishman had imported this car from France. Possibly he had bought it from M. Goupy himself or from one of his relatives.
Correct answers also came from Poisson (who referred to the book ‘French vintage cars’ of 1964 by John Bolster, a good source for this kind of cars) and from Kieran White. Both have been winners twice before. Yet in our view Mr. Poisson came up with better detail. So we congratulate him twice. Once for winning. And another time for becoming jury member!
(text Fons Alkemade; the ID-plate as shown in last week's quiz is owned by Christophe Marchal)
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