Barreiros (industrial company)

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Corporate headquarters in Barreiros ( Madrid ).

Barreiros was a Spanish industrial company founded by Eduardo Barreiros . The main business area was the production of engines and bodies for trucks and tractors .

In 1945 Eduardo Barreiros bought a bus line that his father owned in Ourense ( Galicia ). He then founded the company B arreiros E mpresa Co nstructora, SA (BECOSA). In the province of Orense he made contacts with the public road administration, for which he manufactured spare parts and utensils for road construction. In the following years he decided to convert gasoline engines into diesel engines , which gave him a secure economic and financial basis to found Barreiros Diesel in 1954 with a capital of 10 million PTA. There he manufactured an average of three units of the EB-6 engine a day with Barreiros technology (for use in trucks from 5 to 7 tons). He acquired an area of ​​initially 20,000 m² in Villaverde near Madrid . There he founded the company C ompañía A nónima de B ombas, SA (CABSA) to manufacture injection pumps and electrical equipment.

In the following years Barreiros produced dynamos , starters and regulators there . After that, he also made generators , welding machines and electric brakes for trucks. At that time, Barreiros was manufacturing tractors under license from Hanomag .

Barreiros truck in Fuerteventura

In 1957 Barreiros won a competition in Portugal in a tender for 300 trucks for the Portuguese army against English, American and French competitors. This front hood with a total weight of 5 tons already had four-wheel drive and was offered under the name " el abuelo " (= the grandfather).

In 1962, Barreiros allied with Chrysler to produce Dodge and Simca cars. Here Barreiros offered a surprisingly large for in those years little motorized Spain Model range of: In addition to in Germany as Simca 1000 known rear-engine model that was offered in Spain under the name Simca 900 Special with 950 cc, Barreiros offered the as Simca 1100 known Frontantriebler with a 1200 cc engine originally only offered in Spain by Barreiros. In addition, Barreiros had a Dodge, which was powered by an in-house 3.7 liter engine. Since 1973 this Spanish Dodge has also been offered in Switzerland . For Spanish taxi operators , Barreiros offered a variant of the Dodge with a Barreiros diesel engine, which, however, had less driving comfort and driving culture than the original petrol model. In 1965 and 1966, Barreiros produced a small series of the Crown Imperial sedan on behalf of Chrysler , a representative vehicle that had previously been manufactured by Ghia in Italy.

In the years that followed, the brands achieved unprecedented sales figures that were associated with sales of PTA 7 billion. The NAZAR company in Saragossa was taken over, in which the majority of the manufacturing elements for road construction machines , tractors and buses were concentrated. A pioneering auto finance company was founded with a capital of PTA 100 million with a 60% stake by Barreiros.

In 1967 Chrysler acquired the majority of the stock corporation, but initially left the management to the Barreiros family. By 1969, Chrysler had further increased its stake. Barreiros lost his influence in the company. That year Chrysler completely absorbed its Spanish subsidiary.

The Dodge Dart was manufactured in Spain from 1963; here the later Dodge 3700

Barreiros continued to produce solid diesel engines, trucks and buses. Articulated and articulated trucks were practically unknown in Spain until the 1980s. But like the Spanish competitor Pegaso , Barreiros had a heavy forward control model , a four-axle vehicle whose two front axles were already steered and which was offered both as a flatbed truck and as a tipper. The vehicles and engines were so solidly built that it is still possible to find Barreiros trucks and tractors in Spain today.

When the Chrysler concern got into economic difficulties in 1978, it sold all of its European activities to the Peugeot concern . The Barreiros Diesel SA truck brand was integrated into the Renault Group and thus disappeared for good.

Although Barreiros contributed a lot to the improvement of diesel engine technology, as well as many vehicle elements of heavy machinery, he did not receive the recognition he deserved for his work. In the 1980s, Barreiros, who had not had his own company for several years, applied with his own modern diesel engine design to a competition in Cuba , which he won under the supervision of the British Lloyd's Register .

Web links

Commons : Barreiros  - collection of images, videos and audio files