Darracq

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Darracq SS ("Sans Soupapes: Ventilless") 20/28 CV Coupé-Chauffeur from 1907 in the Cité de l'Automobile - Musée National - Collection Schlumpf

Automobiles Darracq SA was a French motor vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq .

Company history

Paul Baras on a Darracq during the Ardennes voyage in 1903
Darracq from 1924

Perfecta

Henri Béconnais in a Tricycle Perfecta with a Soncin single-cylinder engine (1899).

With part of the considerable profit he had made from the sale of his Gladiator bicycle factory , Alexandre Darracq opened his new company in the Paris suburb of Suresnes . The company started under the brand name Perfecta with the production of electrically operated motorized carriages. The Coupé Type C was designed as a taxi with the electric motor in the rear and an underslung suspension. However, it has not been proven that such vehicles were actually used as taxis. In addition, frames for bicycles, tricycles, motor tricycles and quadricycles with a built-in motor were created ; Before the introduction of a separate category of motorcycles, the latter were also considered automobiles. Soon those bicycles came with a five-cylinder - radial engine designed by the designer Millet , which were marketed with little success.

Société A. Darracq

Between 1898 and 1901, Darracq manufactured Voiturettes under a license from the French car manufacturer Automobiles Léon Bollée . From 1900 the company manufactured vehicles with front-engined engines. The Darracq automobile company flourished; The “Flying Fifteen” produced in 1904 was a top-quality car and helped the company win ten percent of the French market.

In 1902, Alexandre Darracq signed a cooperation agreement with Adam Opel AG to manufacture vehicles in Germany under the brand name Opel Darracq . The cooperation lasted until 1907, when production of the 8/9 PS was stopped. In 1905 Darracq expanded to England and founded the A. Darracq Company with a capital of £ 650,000 . In 1906 the company expanded to Portello , a suburb of Milan in Italy . A license with Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan, succeeded in founding the Societa Italiana Automobili Darracq (SIAD) . Business was not particularly good, however; Darracq closed it again in 1909. The new company Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili , ALFA for short, took over the production facilities and a few years later became known under the name Alfa Romeo .

An old share from Darracq Spain

In 1907 Darracq founded the Sociedad Anonima Espanola de Automoviles Darracq in Vitoria , Spain, with a capital of four million pesetas .

The company began to take part in car races because it was able to achieve a high level of publicity in this way. Paul Baras set a new land speed record with a Darracq in Ostend , Belgium , on November 13, 1904 at 167.248 km / h . On December 30, 1905, another Darracq vehicle set a new brand: Victor Hémery drove in Arles , France , with his V8 Special at a speed of 175.44 km / h. As can be seen on a British poster, a Darracq was measured at a speed of 197.06 km / h in 1906. Darracq automobiles won the Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island in 1905 and 1906 and the Cuba race in Havana . Notable drivers of this time were u. a. Vincenzo Florio , who founded Targa Florio two years later , Louis Chevrolet , Victor Hémery and Louis Wagner .

Darracq-Serpollet steam omnibus of the Metropolitan Steam Omnibus Co. (1907)

In 1906 Darracq acquired Frank L. Gardner's shares in Gardner-Serpollet . A factory for the production of Darracq-Serpollet commercial vehicles was built next to the factory in Surêsnes . However, his partner Léon Serpollet died in February 1907. Production continued quite successfully for a number of years, with the British market proving to be accessible.

In 1913, Alexandre sold Darracq due to British financial interests when Owen Clegg moved to the Paris headquarters as managing director. During the First World War , the Darracq works produced various goods essential to the war effort. At the end of the war, in 1919, Darracq took over the English company Clement Talbot . The models were then marketed as Talbot-Darracq . In 1920 the company was reorganized and became part of the Sunbeam Talbot Darracq (STD) merger. In 1935 it was bought by the Rootes Group .

Movie

In 1953 the film Die fierige Isabella (original title Genevieve ), shot by the director Henry Cornelius, was mainly about a Darracq 12 CV from 1904. The extremely successful film created a great deal of interest in the restoration of old cars. During the restoration of the vehicle, an incorrect radiator of the larger 15 CV was used for this model.

  • The original vehicle from the movie

  • Darracq 1904 Genevieve vvr.jpg

  • Lettering on the original vehicle

  • Chassis from the Schlumpf Collection

literature

  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. Dutton Press, New York, 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 .
  • GN Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI, 1979, ISBN 0-87341-024-6 .
  • Jacques Rousseau: Guide de l'Automobile française. Éditions Solar, Paris, 1988, ISBN 2-263-01105-6 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georgano: Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 1973, p. 176.