Darracq

Automobiles Darracq S.A.

Fate	sold to A.Darracq & Co Ltd in 1913
Founded	1896
Headquarters	Suresnes, France
Key people	Alexandre Darracq, founder
Industry	Automotive
Products	Automobiles

Darracq 6½ HP 1901

Darracq Coupé Chauffeur (Town Car) Model SS 20/28, 1907, 4 cylinder, 28.5 PS (21.0 kW), 4728 cc (288.5 c.i.), 70 km/h (43 mph), Cité de l’Automobile – Musée National – Collection Schlumpf, Mulhouse, France

Darracq 1924

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

History

Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory to Adolpe Clément, Darracq began operating from a plant in the Paris suburb of Suresnes. The company started with a Millet motorcycle, powered by a five-cylinder rotary engine, but shortly introduced an electric brougham, and in 1898 a Leon Bolleé-designed voiturette tricar. This proved a débâcle: the steering was problematic, the five-speed belt drive "a masterpiece of bad design", and the hot tube ignition crude, proving the £10,000 Darracq had paid for the design a mistake.

In 1900, the company produced its first vehicle with an internal combustion engine. Designed by Ribeyrolles, this was a 6.5 hp (4.8 kW/6.6 PS) voiture legére powered by a 785 cc (47.9 cu in) single, and featured shaft drive and three speed column gear change. While not as successful as hoped, one hundred were sold. In 1902, Darracq signed a contract with Adam Opel to jointly produce vehicles in the German Empire under licence, with the brand name "Opel Darracq".

The Darracq automobile company prospered, such that, by 1903, four models were offered: a 1.1 litre single, a 1.3 l and 1.9 l twin, and a 3.8 l four. The 1904 models abandoned flitch-plated wood chassis for pressed steel, and the new Flying Fifteen, powered by a 3 l four, had its chassis made from a single sheet of steel. Its exceptional quality helped the company capture a ten percent share of the French auto market.

In 1905, the company expanded to Great Britain, incorporating the A. Darracq Company (1905) Limited with a capitalization of £650,000. In 1906 the company expanded to Portello, a Milan suburb in Italy. They established Società Italiana Automobili Darracq (SIAD) through a license arrangement with Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan. The business did not do well and Darracq shut it down in 1910. A new partnership, Anonima Lombardo Fabbrica Automobili (ALFA), acquired the business, which in 1914 was taken over by Nicola Romeo, who created Alfa Romeo. In 1907, Darracq formed Sociedad Anonima Espanola de Automoviles Darracq in Vitoria, Spain with a capitalization of 1,000,000 pesetas.

Like other automobile makers in this era, such as Napier, Bentley, and Daimler, Darracq participated in motor racing, and Darracq's drastically stripped-down voitures legére garnered publicity. A 1904 effort to win the Gordon Bennett Trophy, however, was disastrous: despite entries of identical 11.3 l cars built in Germany, France, and Britain (per the Trophy rules), Darracq scored no success. Paul Baras drove a Darracq to a new land speed record of 104.53 mph (168.22 km/h) at Ostend, Belgium, on November 13, 1904. A 1905 racer was more promising. Fitted with a 22.5 l overhead valve V8 made from two Bennett Trophy engines mated to a single crankcase, producing 200 hp (150 kW/200 PS), making it one of the first specialized land speed racers, and on December 30, 1905, Victor Hémery drove this car to a speed of 109.65 mph (176.46 km/h) in the flying kilometer at Arles, France. The V8 was shipped to Ormonde Beach, Florida (then host to numerous land speed record attempts), where it was timed at 122.45 mph (197.06 km/h) in 1906 to win the title "1906 King of Speed"; this was not enough to hold the land speed record, however, which went to a Stanley, the Rocket, at 127.6 mph (205.35 km/h). On return to Europe the car was sold to Algenon Lee Guinness who set many records over the next few years until the car was retired in 1909 with a broken piston. This V8 Special(see full story at [1]) was rebuilt in 2005 using its original engine which had survived mostly intact.

Darracqs won the 1905 and 1906 Vanderbilt Cup at Long Island, New York, both credited to Louis Wagner in a 100 hp (75 kW/100 PS) 12.7 l racer. Darracq also won the Cuban race at Havana. The company's final racing victory was the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup. Competition efforts did not stop entirely, however. In 1908, Darracqs came second, third, and seventh at the "Four Inch" Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, and in 1912, Malcolm Campbell entered a former works Darracq at Brooklands.

A venture into steam buses designed by Leon Serpollet did not prove successful; only twenty were sold, and the company lost money on the project.

In 1907, Darracq became interested in aviation, and by 1909 were building light aeroengines, used by Louis Blériot and Alberto Santos-Dumont.

Returning to an 1898 idea by Alexandre Darracq to build low-cost, high-quality cars, much as Henry Ford was doing with the Model T, Darracq introduced a £260 14–16 hp (10–12 kW; 14–16 PS) model in 1911. These, at the founder's insistence, would all be cursed with the Henriod rotary valve engine, which was underpowered and prone to seizing. It proved disastrous to the marque, and Alexadre Darracq resigned.

In 1913, Alexandre Darracq sold out to British financial interests led by Owen Clegg, who relocated to the Paris headquarters to take over as the Managing Director of the company. Clegg, designer of the proven Rover Twelve, sensibly copied the Twelve for Darracq's new model. The factory at Suresnes was retooled for mass production, making it one of the first in the industry to do so. The 16 hp (12 kW/16 PS) Clegg-Darracq was joined by an equally reliable 2.1 l 12 hp (8.9 kW/12 PS), and soon the factory was turning out sixty cars a week; by 1914, 12,000 men rolled out fourteen cars a day.

During the First World War, the Darracq factory was converted to the production of various war materials.

After the War, the prewar 16 hp (12 kW/16 PS) was the top-selling car in Britain. It was joined by a new 4.6 l V8 featuring four forward speeds and, from 1920, four-wheel brakes. Despite these innovative features, it did not sell well.

In October 1919, Darracq took over Clément-Talbot and Talbot models were then marketed as Talbot-Darracqs. In 1920, the operation was reorganised as part of the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq (STD) conglomerate and in 1935, the company was purchased by the Rootes Group. Darracq ceased to be a distinct marque, instead becoming a badge-engineered Sunbeam.

In 1953, a British film directed by Henry Cornelius, titled '"Genevieve", featured a 1904 Darracq as its centrepiece. The highly successful film sparked a huge increase in vintage automobile collecting and restoration.

Preservation

A few examples survie in the UK;

• A 1904 Darracq-Arbel reg no. VC 4 is one rebuilt from the remains of a rolling chassis found in the Forrest of Dean.

See also

• List of French car marques

Notes

Sources

• Northey, Tom, "Land-speed record: The Fastest Men on Earth", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 10, pp. 1161–1166. London: Orbis, 1974.
• Setright, L.J.K. "Opel: Simple Engineering and Commercial Courage", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles, Volume 14, pp. 1583–1592. London: Orbis, 1974.
• Wise, David Burgess."Darracq: A Motor Enthusiast who Hated Driving", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles, Volume 5, pp. 493–494. London: Orbis, 1974.
• Wise, David Burgess."Vanderbilt Cup: The American Marathon", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles, Volume 21, pp. 2458–60-4. London: Orbis, 1974.

External links

• The Darracq site of the British Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq register
• The Darracq V-8 world record car history and restoration

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