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GALLIC INNOVATION AUTOWISE PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, Maurice and Georges Sizaire made their automotive mark with hyphenated -Naudin and -Berwick. Today in Part 2, they get wacky with the latter and then settle down on their brotherly own. Rolls-Royce isn’t completely forgotten, though.
The Sizaire-Berwick Wind Wagon. It’s difficult to imagine what Maurice Sizaire had in mind with the armed, armored, aero-propelled oddity that became known as the Sizaire-Berwick Wind Wagon.
Alas, its 110-hp Sunbeam aero engine was utterly unprotected and its forward-firing machine gun had only a narrow field of fire. Plus, imagine its service in North African desert warfare.
Sizaire Frères. Nick Georgano’s The Complete Encyclopedia of Motor Cars lists Sizaire Frères in business for themselves from 1923 to 1931, first in Courbevoie, on the north side of Paris, then in Belgium. It’s likely the Vintage Sports Car cutaway is of the Sizaire Frères 4RI (as in 4 Roues Indépendantes), also known as the Sizaire Frères 11CV.
Wikipedia says, “The car was powered by an advanced 1993-cc 4-cylinder engine with a maximum output listed as 50 HP and incorporating an overhead camshaft. The car was exceptional for its time in featuring independent suspension on all four wheels. By 1927 approximately 900 of these cars had been produced.”
Georgano cites that the “4RI was capable of almost 70 mph. A 16-valve sports version of this advanced version was listed in 1926.” Lockheed brakes arrived in 1928.
“In 1929,” Georgano notes, “production ceased in France, but Georges Sizaire began small-scale manufacture in Belgium, where the car was known as the Belga Rise.”
You’ll notice that by 1934, Belga took the litigation-related vee out of the Sizaire radiator design, added its own spirit sans wings, but resisted any Pantheon slats. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023
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