French Influences, Lombardy Results Arra Cq

FRENCH INFLUENCES, LOMBARDY RESULTS D t the turn of the century the automo One such impresario was Alexandre Darracq, who clause, so rather than leave this new light industry he bileA and the industry it gave rise to were found himself with a fortune when his internationally knew and the future he saw, he started making bicy ARRACQ brought forth by two kinds of individuals: famous bicycle company, Gladiator, was bought out cle parts. And a lot of them. Having put together a the inventor and the impresario. by the early transportation consortium of the infa deDion powered tricycle the year before selling Gladi The inventors were men like Benz work mous Adolphe Clément. ator to Clément, he decided to further pursue pow ing with Horch, and Daimler with Maybach At the turn of the Twentieth Century a knowledge ered personal transport. His first effort was an of Germany, and the Marquis de Dion with of, and experience in, precise machining was the route interesting one. He took the basic tenets of his quality Bouton in France. These men addressed the that lead to the self propelled personal transportation bikes and integrated one of Millet’s delicate five cylin problems of internal combustion transport industry. The two industries that required the knowl der radialconfiguration rotary engines into the rear at a time when the solutions hadnʹt even edge and provided the experience were the manufac wheel. The rear hub was the fixed crank, while the names. ture of guns and sewing machines. As a young cylinders rotated the wheel. Its Millet patent twist Benz was of course the creator of the first draftsman Darracq set foot on both paths. He made handle bar grip and fender fuel tank added to the in complete vehicle that could be called an au his way from drafting table to shop floor; first novation. Response was tepid. He then repositioned a tomobile. Daimler began by building sta through the arsenal at Tarbes, then at the firm of vertical single midframe and was met with more in tionary engines for factory and marine Hurtu. His progress was marked by a sewing ma terest, but not on the scale he was accustomed. applications, significantly increasing indus chine of his design being awarded the gold medal at He then hired the innovative French personal trans trial efficiency. De Dion and Bouton, by solv the Paris exposition of 1889. Spread out before him in port designer Leon Bollée. The hope being that Bollée ing many of the contemporary problems of the halls of the historic exposition was the machine would build on the success of his horizontalsingle ignition, were able to develop the first en age, presented in product detail and public reaction. cylinder threewheeler. Darracq’s intent was to by gines capable of turning at 1,500 rpma dis It had its impact. pass the ubiquitous three wheel stage and go right to tinguished effort. These smalldisplacement, Two years later, with partner Jean Aucoc, they set four. highoutput French engines powered cost up Gladiator bicycles. Gladiators were of the new It was quickly discovered that Bollée’s concepts did effective and (relatively!) reliable vehicles generation of same size wheel bikes that we know not transfer well to four wheels. With its fivespeed that almost literally defined the role of the today. We are left many examples of their success belt drive, dated hottube ignition and inadequate automobile in society. By 1910 this French from acclaimed international sporting success and steering mechanism for two wheels, rather than one, firm was the worldʹs largest automobile, sales on a scale as yet unseen, to sensational promo the new Bollée’s Voiturette earned a reputation as a lorry and bus manufacturer. tional posters of timeless Art Nouveau quality. masterpiece...of bad design. The technical achievements of these men Five years later Adolphe Clément came calling with Shaken but undaunted by this failure, Darracq and their very distinct solutionswere li checkbook in hand and a twentytwo million franc hired his second designer, Ribeyrolles. Focusing on censed to create the foundation of Europeʹs stock flotation in mind. Clément’s 1896 consolidation more conventional, yet still progressive, French prac motor industry. Then came the turn of the and capitalization of Gladiator, Clemente and Hum tices of design and manufacturing, Société A. Darracq impresariosthose who began to establish ber was an industrial strategy not lost on the forty one entered the automobile manufacturing business with manufacturing operations in country after year old Darracq. Darracq took his £10,000 payout, great expectations. country, taking into account the demograph let’s just call it 7.2M BPS* (2014), and built one of the Ribeyrollesʹ solutions for the 1901 Darracq 6.5 HP ics, geographic aspects, and infrastructure of finest precision machining operations on the Conti covered the spectrum of contemporary French engi potential markets. nent in Suresnes. The buyout had a noncompete neering, from accepted convention to illadvised ex *These calculations are project valuation that take into account real estate, labor, materials acquisition and processing in 1886 France. 17 perimentation. The cast iron 785cc fixedhead, single notable sales volume of one thousand units by 1902. These twins were to set a design standard for Dar targeted directly at the American luxury market. cylinder engine, with its atmospheric overhead inlet The ingenious marketer then capitalized on his racq’s future engines. They were side valve, which British capital focusing French engineering on an ex valve and side exhaust valve, was mounted up front product’s strengths by sailing to the US with several was only natural in the market at this time, it was the panding market of affluent Americans. Can promo just ahead of it scuttle mounted brass coolant tank. cars and introducing them as New Yorkʹs first petrol dual cylinder monolithic iron cast block that was to tion be far behind? The little vertical single was connected by a cone taxi cabs. While in the U.S. he established a sales oper live on. It soon evolved to the twin block 3.8liter four. It was not. Fresh capital simultaneously powered a clutch to a separate threespeed transmission and set ation based in Pennsylvania. This spoke volumes All these models shared the column shift and solid comprehensively assault on every area of competi in a metal tube type chassis. All this owed much to de about his operation having reached an economy of rear axle and were updated with pressed steel frames. tion. The distinctly nationalistic Gordon Bennett Tro Dion in engineering and to Panhard in layout. Innova scale while many were still trying to figure out how to The threeliter fourcylinder ‘Flying Fifteenʹ had a phy offered Darracq a unique opportunity. Cars from tions included a engineer, much frame pressed from a single sheet of steel, which, at his three associate factories in England, France and remote gear less effectively the time, was considered a masterpiece of metal form Germany were prepared under individual national change produce, automo ing. banners. mounted on the biles. A product, David ScottMoncrieff, in his bookVeteran and Ed Here Ribeyrolles took the opportunity to use the steering col productionlicens wardian Motor Cars bring these Darracq’s into clear competition arena for engineering experimentation. umn, and an ing agreement focus with his comment: “Darracq was among the earli Using his twin cylinder iron casting design he engi open propeller with Opel of Ger est manufacturers to establish representation in this coun neered a dual block inline four of impressive dimen shaft to a many further ex try (UK) and he was advertised widely in the English sion. The cylinders were square at 140mm bore & straightbevel panded his motor journals of the time. Probably the two most popular stroke. The crank geared single cam activated vertical live rear axle – international pres models were the 12hp (1.3L) twocylinder immortalized by lifters that operated the overhead valves. With a full at a time when ence in 1902. He the film ‘Genevieve’, which, selling at under £200 delivered up displacement of 11.3 liters they were rated at chain drive was had now returned in England was outstandingly good value, and the ‘Flying 100hp. They all had the Darracq drive train, frame a largely un the Darracq name Fifteen’. Bob Gregory’s car, which I used to drive in the and column shift. They wore simple aluminum sheet questioned in to the business early Thirties, is a fine example. The car which cost, when bodies that wrapped the rear fuel tank, the seats and dustry section of Gordon new, well under £500 complete, would show a clean pair of scuttle. A long louvered hood was held in place by standard. Of the Bennett’s newspa heels to almost anything but a sports car in 1932, when it three leather straps and led forward to the vertical ra experiments, pers on both sides was already twenty eight years old!” diator. The tires were shod on artillery wheels. perhaps the of the Atlantic. To circumvent certain French corporate finance and Complex preparation was not a guarantee of suc most unfortu To demonstrate tax law in 1903, A. Darracq & Co. Ltd. was set up in cess. Only one of the cars made it through the indi nate was a that his cars were England. From his new London headquarters he set vidual national trials and onto the main competition. handleveroperated band brake in the rear axle, quick as well as durable he set his sights on competi out to do a little stock manipulation of his own.

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