1934 French Eccentric Voisin C25 Aérodyne.
Gabriel Voisin was a mechanical genius who marched to his own drums, and started his Aero buisiness, Avions Voisin in 1905 and produced prominent WW I planes for France.
In 1919 he started producing cars using Knight-type sleeve valve engines at Issy-les-Moulineaux, an industrial suburb to the southwest of Paris. Former student of the Fine Arts School of Lyon and enthusiast for all things mechanical since his childhood, Voisin's uncompromisingly individual designs made extensive use of light alloys, especially aluminum. The characteristic Voisin style of 'rational' coachwork he developed in conjunction with his collaborator André Noel. Noel prioritized lightness, central weight distribution, capacious luggage boxes and distinctively angular lines. The 1930s models with underslung chassis were strikingly low. Always producing limited quantity unusual cars for the well to do, like so many companies whose income required 'the wealthy' in the worsening world wide Depression, he went officially bust in 1945, after spending the early war producing war machinery.
In the early 1930s, Gabriel Voisin could not pay all of his draftsmen any more and a young creative engineer named André Lefèbvre quit, recommended by Gabriel to Louis Renault. Lefèbvre finally entered Citroën where he led three particularly significant car projects: the Traction Avant, the 2CV and the DS, using a lot of Gabriel's lessons. Old Gabriel left a big footprint of unique ideas, though few actual cars.
Double click on the image to enlarge for details.
AS ALWAYS....COMMENTS & INVITATIONS with AWARD BANNERS will be respectfully DELETED!
1934 French Eccentric Voisin C25 Aérodyne.
Gabriel Voisin was a mechanical genius who marched to his own drums, and started his Aero buisiness, Avions Voisin in 1905 and produced prominent WW I planes for France.
In 1919 he started producing cars using Knight-type sleeve valve engines at Issy-les-Moulineaux, an industrial suburb to the southwest of Paris. Former student of the Fine Arts School of Lyon and enthusiast for all things mechanical since his childhood, Voisin's uncompromisingly individual designs made extensive use of light alloys, especially aluminum. The characteristic Voisin style of 'rational' coachwork he developed in conjunction with his collaborator André Noel. Noel prioritized lightness, central weight distribution, capacious luggage boxes and distinctively angular lines. The 1930s models with underslung chassis were strikingly low. Always producing limited quantity unusual cars for the well to do, like so many companies whose income required 'the wealthy' in the worsening world wide Depression, he went officially bust in 1945, after spending the early war producing war machinery.
In the early 1930s, Gabriel Voisin could not pay all of his draftsmen any more and a young creative engineer named André Lefèbvre quit, recommended by Gabriel to Louis Renault. Lefèbvre finally entered Citroën where he led three particularly significant car projects: the Traction Avant, the 2CV and the DS, using a lot of Gabriel's lessons. Old Gabriel left a big footprint of unique ideas, though few actual cars.
Double click on the image to enlarge for details.
AS ALWAYS....COMMENTS & INVITATIONS with AWARD BANNERS will be respectfully DELETED!