c. 1925 – Sandford TS | Autoworld 2026 | Auction & Motion | 10th Oct 2026

• Chassis No. 1304
• French vehicle registration document 
• Vehicle sold without a roadworthiness test

“An incredible piece of history, in a moving original condition”

Malcolm Stuart Sandford (1889–1956), a former motorcyclist in the early 1910s, set up a business in Paris around 1920 dealing in surplus military motorbikes. He also became an agent for the Darmont-Morgan tricycle car brand, a vehicle he also drove successfully in races in his spare time.

Around 1922, he founded his own brand, Sandford, with his friend Raymond Gueret, a former mechanic at Darmont, to build a three-wheeler of his own design. A far cry from the archaic and primitive Darmont-Morgan models of the time, he used water-cooled four-cylinder engines (1,095 cm³ Ruby OC-type four-cylinder overhead-valve engines), coupled to a proper gearbox.

The Sandford tricyclecar also stood out for its distinctive appearance, characterised by its seemingly endless fuselage, reminiscent of a small aeroplane, which quickly earned it the nickname ‘the aeroplane of the road’ – a moniker soon adopted in the advertising of the time. Fewer than 200 Sandfords were built, including a few four-wheeled models. At the time, a three-wheeled Sandford cost almost twice as much as a Darmont!

The example illustrated on these pages is a transitional model: it does not yet have the low-slung chassis, but already features a separate gearbox (rather than an in-axle gearbox with an external selector lever). One also notes the impressive diameter of its exhaust and its lowered bodywork: it is the only known example to have a radiator with a crank handle housing.

This Sandford appears to have spent the vast majority of its life in the Toulouse region, as evidenced by its original registration document, dated 1931, in the name of François Cassé. He sold it in… 1998 to a car enthusiast from Toulouse, who kept it until 2025. This Sandford, in its incredible and intriguing original condition, appears to have been driven. And it will be up to its next owner to allow it to come into its own once more, following a skilful mechanical restoration.