Thursday Trivia

Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars!
This week’s question: What current automaker started out as the Nineteenth Century bicycle maker Laurin & Klement?
If you think you know the answer make the jump and see if you’re right.

You’d be surprised how many famous names in the Automotive industry started out making something else. Studebaker originally built covered wagons while Pierce, of Pierce Arrow fame, got its start building of all things, bird cages.
A lot of care companies started out a little closer to home, building motorcycles or scooters, with perhaps the most notable of those today being Honda. Other companies have also started out on two wheels, but in a more basic form, that being bicycles.
One of those original bicycle makers was Laurin & Klement which was founded in the last decade of the Nineteenth Century and which would go on to be purchased by, and then become the automotive arm of, one of the world’s largest arms makers. And it all began when one of the company’s founders received a rude reply from a German bicycle maker.
From Skoda Auto:

It all began in 1894, when Václav Klement, a bookseller by trade, saw reason to complain about shoddy workmanship with his new bicycle. The fairly rude response of the producer prompted Klement to repair bicycles himself, teaming up with cycle mechanic Václav Laurin, since December 1895. In the first years, Laurin & Klement build and repair bicycles under the Slavia brand name…
In 1925, fusion with the Škodaworks Pilsen was accomplished, marking the end of the Laurin & Klement company.

Not content with bicycles, Laurin & Klement’s first motorcycle – or Motocyclette – was introduced in 1898. That model, which had its small one-lunger mounted on the handlebars and driving the front wheel, proved both dangerous and unsuccessful. Later models carried various singles, vertical and V-twins, and even inline fours in a more traditional fashion. As the company made a name for itself in both bicycles and motorcycles it seemed a natural step to move to automobile production which they did in 1905 with the introduction of the Voiturette A. That makes Laurin & Klement the seecond oldest auto maker in Czechoslovakia after Tatra.
The name wouldn’t last that long however, as in 1925 Laurin & Klement was bought out by Škodaworks Pilsen becoming the arms maker’s automotive arm, Škoda Auto. Škoda today is a wholly owned subsidiary of the German conglomerate Volkswagen. Considering how the company started, that’s a bit of an ironic twist of fate. VW however has seemingly not been rude to Škoda since taking over.
Image: Sterba-Bike.cz