Darracq
Encyclopedia
Alexandre Darracq
Alexandre Darracq was a French automobile manufacturer.Born Pierre Alexandre Darracq in Bordeaux, France, of Basque parents, he trained as a draftsman at the Arsenal in Tarbes, in the Hautes-Pyrénées département...
.
Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory, Alexandre Darracq began operating from a plant in the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian suburb of Suresnes
Suresnes
Suresnes is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The nearest communes are Neuilly-sur-Seine, Puteaux, Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Cloud and Boulogne-Billancourt...
. The company started by building electric motor carriages until 1900 when they produced their first vehicle with an internal combustion engine. The Darracq automobile company prospered and the 1904 "Flying Fifteen" was a production model of exceptional quality that helped the company capture a ten percent share of the French auto market.
In 1902, Alexandre Darracq signed a contract with Adam Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
to jointly produce vehicles in the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
under the brand name "Opel Darracq." Three years later, the company expanded to the Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
, incorporating the A. Darracq Company (1905) Limited with a capitalization of £650,000. In 1906 the company expanded to Portello
Portello, Milan
Portello is a district of Milan, Italy, part of the Zone 8 administrative division of the city, located north-west of the centre. It is best known as a car-manufacturing area, as it used to house facilities of Alfa Romeo , Darracq, Citroën, and Fiat. The district also includes one of the major...
, a Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
suburb in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. They established Società Italiana Automobili Darracq (SIAD) through a licensing with Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan. The business did not do well and Darracq shut it down in 1909 but a new partnership called Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (A.L.F.A.) acquired the business which a few years later was called Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...
. In 1907, Darracq formed Sociedad Anonima Espanola de Automoviles Darracq in Vitoria, Spain with a capitalization of 1,000,000 pesetas.
The company began competing in auto racing as a way of gaining publicity for its products. Paul Baras
Paul Baras
Paul Baras was a road racing cyclist and racing driver from France. He competed in several early Grand Prix motor races, and held the world land speed record between November 1904 and January 1905....
drove a Darracq to a new Land speed record
Land speed record
The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
of 104.53 mi/h at Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, on November 13, 1904. Another new world record was set by a factory built Darraq special on December 30, 1905 when Victor Hémery
Victor Hémery
Victor Hémery was a champion driver of early Grand Prix motor racing who was born in Sillé-le-Guillaume, France, Sarthe, France. In 1904 he joined Automobiles Darracq S.A. as their chief tester and helped prepare cars to compete in that year's Gordon Bennett Cup...
drove his V8
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
Special to a speed of 109.65 mi/h at Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The V8 was shipped to Ormonde Beach Daytona where it was timed at 122.45 mi/h in 1906 to win the title "1906 Speed of King". 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 http://www.isdm.co.uk/darracq/index.htm) was rebuilt in 2005 using its original engine which had survived mostly intact. Darracq vehicles won the 1905 and 1906 Vanderbilt Cup
Vanderbilt Cup
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing.-History:An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held at a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The announcement that the race was to be held caused...
at Long Island, New York in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n race at Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
. Notable drivers who raced Darracqs were Louis Chevrolet
Louis Chevrolet
Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was a Swiss-born American race car driver of French descent, co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911 and later, the Frontenac Motor Corporation in 1916 which made racing parts for Ford's Model T.-Early life:Born in 1878 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a center of...
, Victor Hémery
Victor Hémery
Victor Hémery was a champion driver of early Grand Prix motor racing who was born in Sillé-le-Guillaume, France, Sarthe, France. In 1904 he joined Automobiles Darracq S.A. as their chief tester and helped prepare cars to compete in that year's Gordon Bennett Cup...
Louis Wagner
Louis Wagner
Louis Wagner was a French race car driver who won the first ever United States and British Grands Prix. Wagner was also a pioneer aviator.Wagner was born in Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Seine-Saint-Denis...
and Vincenzo Florio
Florio
'Florio' is the surname of a prominent Sicilian family who started many lucrative activities involving above all the exportation of Sicilian products in the nineteenth century.-Florio winery:...
, who later founded the Targa Florio
Targa Florio
The Targa Florio was an open road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973...
.
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. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Darracq factory was converted to the production of various war materials. The War ended in 1918 and in 1919, Darracq took over British Talbot
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque that existed from 1903 to 1986, with a hiatus from 1960 to 1978, under a number of different owners, latterly under Peugeot...
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.
In 1953, a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film directed by Henry Cornelius
Henry Cornelius
Henry Cornelius was a South African-born film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed five films between 1949 and 1958.-Biography:...
and titled Genevieve
Genevieve (film)
Genevieve is a 1953 British comedy film produced and directed by Henry Cornelius and written by William Rose. It starred John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall as two couples comedically involved in a vintage automobile rally...
, featured a 1904 Darracq as its centrepiece. The highly successful film sparked a huge increase in vintage automobile collecting and restoration.