De Luca-Daimler

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De Luca-Daimler was a Naples- based Italian automobile manufacturer that produced vehicles for the Italian market and for export to Great Britain between 1906 and 1910. The company emerged from a cooperation with the British Daimler Motor Company .

history

The company goes back to the Società Anononima Carmine De Luca, which - depending on the source - was founded either in 1850 or 1870 by Carmine De Luca in Naples. She initially dealt with the manufacture of armaments, including cannons and torpedoes.

At the beginning of the 20th century the number of automobile manufacturers in Italy grew rapidly; In 1906 there were already 30 factories. Carmine De Luca saw automobile production as a profitable line of business and decided to expand into this area. In order to avoid the high costs associated with the independent development of automobiles, existing designs from other manufacturers should be adopted. The choice fell on the luxury car manufacturer Daimler Motor Company, which had been producing high-quality vehicles with sophisticated technology in Great Britain since 1896.

In the spring of 1906, the Società Anonima De Luca-Daimler was founded, up to then the southernmost automobile plant in Italy. The main shareholders were Salvatore, Vincenzo and Raffaele De Luca, the sons of Carmine De Luca. The company's president was Roberto De Sanna and Carmine De Luca was the managing director. Giovanni Pagliano and a British engineer working at Daimler acted as technical directors. De Luca-Daimler had a 60,000 square meter factory shop and is said to have 800 employees.

Automobile production started in 1906. Three of the brand's vehicles were shown publicly at the motor shows in Milan and Turin the following year and received positive coverage. The company was not able to establish itself sustainably. The sales figures did not develop as well as expected. The reason given for this is the Italian economic crisis, from which the country suffered from 1906, as well as the sharp rise in raw material prices from 1909, which had a negative effect on automobile production. In addition, from 1909, Daimler cut back imports of De Luca vehicles to Great Britain. In 1910 De Luca-Daimler stopped automobile production again. It is not known how many vehicles the plant produced in total.

The models

De Luca-Daimler did not manufacture all of the cars themselves. Only the chassis were made in Naples. Technically they corresponded to the designs of the British business partner and were only slightly modified. The company obtained the engines directly from Daimler. These were four-cylinder engines with displacements of three to ten liters and an output of 16 to 60 hp. They were given the type designations 16/24 HP, 28/40 HP, 32/55 HP and 42/65 HP. In contrast to the British version, the Italian 16/24 HP had a cardan drive , while the larger models, like the British Daimler, had power transmission via chains. In 1908 De Luca-Daimler produced a model with a gasoline-electric drive under the name Auto-Mista . Finally, from 1909 onwards, the company - like its British parent company - used slide motors that had been developed by Charles Yale Knight and which had been brought to series production shortly before.

The bodies of De Luca-Daimler were independent. Their style was adapted to the Italian taste. De Luca-Daimler did not manufacture the bodies themselves - as was common at the time. Rather, the superstructures were mostly made by the long-established Neapolitan body manufacturer Bottazzi.

De Luca-Daimler in motorsport

In April 1907 a De Luca Daimler took part in the Targa Florio . The driver was Domenico Masino. He crossed the finish line in thirteenth place, 24 minutes behind the winner.

literature

  • Antonio Amadelli: Un posto al sole. Una marca d'automobili italo-inglese sotto il cielo di Napoli . History of the brand in: Auto d'Epoca, issue 10/2008, p. 62 ff.
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , pp. 163 .
  2. ↑ Auto d´Epoca issue 10/2008, p. 63.
  3. ↑ Of the 30 automobile manufacturers in 1906, 13 were in Turin and seven in Milan. The remaining small businesses were each located north of the Po . See Auto d'Epoca issue 10/2008, p. 63.
  4. ^ "Amministratore" according to Italian law.
  5. ↑ See Auto d´Epoca issue 10/2008, p. 65.
  6. ↑ Auto d´Epoca issue 10/2008, pp. 66, 68.
  7. ↑ a b Schrader, Linz: Automobilenzyklopädie.
  8. ↑ Auto d´Epoca issue 10/2008, p. 65.
  9. ↑ Results of the Targa Florio of 1907 on the website www.teamdan.com ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 5, 2011). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.teamdan.com