Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory to Adolpe Clément, Darracq began operating from a plant in the Paris suburb of Suresnes. The company started with a Millet motorcycle, powered by a five-cylinder rotary engine, but shortly introduced an electric brougham, and in 1898 a Leon Bolleé-designed voiturette tricar. This proved a débâcle: the steering was problematic, the five-speed belt drive "a masterpiece of bad design", and the hot tube ignition crude, proving the £10,000 Darracq had paid for the design a mistake.