SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: Éts Robert de Rovin

Origin: Saint-Denis, Seine, France

Production: 800

Motor: Rovin 2-cyl., 4-stroke

Displacement: 425 cc

Power: 10 hp

Length: 10 ft.

Identification No. 1309

The Rovin D3 first appeared alongside the popular roadster-bodied D2 at the Paris Show in the fall of 1948. Mechanically, it was the same, but it was now clothed in an elegant pontoon-fendered Art Deco style body. It had become a “real” car with actual doors, and its sophisticated, water-cooled, two-cylinder motor lifted the new Rovin model out of the sea of two-stroke cyclecars populating French roads. The Paris Show cars had close-set headlamps integrated into the body on both sides of the grille strips, but these did not meet French regulations, and the production models had separate high-mounted lamps. The attractive body style would remain to the end of production, nearly a decade later. The lamps were finally integrated into the body in 1954.

Rovin cars are difficult to date by appearance, as detail changes were made progressively rather than according to distinct models. This unrestored project car is likely a D3 model because its suicide doors were current for the entire model run, but the rear-hinged doors overlapped briefly into the D4 model, which had front-hinged ones. It also lacks the D4’s bumper overriders, but it does feature a rare accessory cast-aluminum luggage rack.