The little car you can drive in France without a licence

If you are planning on driving in France, beware - one could be heading straight for you at the next roundabout. Carolyn Brown, who lives part of the year in Brittany, has a cautionary tale about a very small car.

Losing one's driving licence in the UK is a serious matter - expensive and, to say the least, very inconvenient.

But in France, no licence? No problem. You can simply go shopping for a VSP a voiture sans permis - a small two-seater car that anyone aged 14 or over can take out on the road with as little as four hours' experience behind the wheel, sometimes not even that.

It's impossible to say how many there are as no official figures exist. It is what the French call a chiffre noir - an unknown quantity.

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The Mercans also have a similar concept, the "Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle" which is basically an electric golf cart. You can't take them on the highways(!) but can nip down the shops in them. Even they aren't stupid enough to completely remove all restrictions on licensing though.

And of course, it wasn't many years ago that we had a bizarre concept from Sinclair that didn't quite manage to take off (C5??).....

I've got a car without a licence Ligier 500cc twin diesel, auto-transmission via rubber belt. Does a good bit more than 40 kph tho'. And of course I have a licence.

Having recovered several of these things back to the local Aixam dealer, I would suggest that they make Reliants look like high quality, high performance, long lasting, good value engineering. Yes, they really are that bad!

I wonder what they would make of them at DOVER ?? No licence required and no registration number (for the radar ?).

My brother had something like that for a while, with a tiny Kubota 3-cylinder 2-storke diesel engine. It even had electric windows.

I think he thought it was a Rolls Royce after his MZ.

Neil

These have been around for ever in France. Often based on motorbikes originally but I think several of the big names, even Porsche have made them for executives' children.

In the USA there isn't much call for a small car like that as you can bet a V8 Corvette at 16 (yes used to know someone who got it for his 16th birthday) and in some rural states I think at 14 for going to school only (I have been driven around by a 14 yr old in a 500HP tractor although tempered by the 15 ton rain trailer but mostly on the farm in Illinois)

Is 2-storke the power rating? Sounds puny whatever it is!

There are a couple of VSPs running around our village here. Dreadful things that sound as if they are powered by lawnmower engines. Having to drive one after having your licence taken away for driving offences is a good punishment though!

Russell.

2-stroke; the lowest form of mechanical life

I remember something like that in the 1980s when in France, a kind of 3 wheeled tuk-tuk loaded with carrots and potatoes and needing 10,000 revs just to get it doing a few MPH

Loads more entertaining to watch than a boring car

That's a bit unfair - aren't some of the biggest piston engines in the world (in ships) 2-strokes? And I'm very fond of the GM Detroit supercharged 2-stroke Diesel in my Chamberlain Super 90 tractor too Not to mention my Field Marshall 2-stroke semi-diesel.......... John.

These cars can be driven in the UK at the age of 16.....yes 16. The driver has only to take the CBT test and theory tests usually done on a moped.

They are restricted to I believe 40 or 45 kph and have a maximum weight restriction. The vehicle class is Lightweight Quadricycle. If you doubt me then Google really is your friend on this one.

remember Scoda cars in the 60's,70's etc - and look at them now ! The screw may yet turn for micro cars - computer guided personal transport ???
BobH

it was tongue in cheek. I agree, Foden, ERF, Commer 2-strk diesels were tops

Not forgetting the amazing Deltics.

Edited By V8Eng on 05/01/2016 11:17:45

My favourite 2 stroke was a Hewland (might have been Arrows) kart engine, 100cc direct drive, 16000rpm, Castrol R mix all on slick tyres with your bum less than an inch off the tarmac, far too much fun !

Andy

I think you are being a little unfair to the Ligier. Mine has an aluminium chassis and abs body, chassis is like new. Diesel engine with cam driven injectors, what's to go wrong? Mine is UK reg. as a car, road tax same as most small cars and needs a normal licence to drive it.

Can see something like these in Alicante province where I stayed with friends and probably all over Spain. They were seemingly mostly driven by elderly farm workers since they did not need a licence for them. Other EU countries?