The Abadal was a Spanish

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

manufactured between 1912 and 1923, named after Francisco Abadal. Considered a fast luxury car, it was closely patterned on the

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...

and offered in two models. One had a 3104 cc four-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

while the other had a 4521 cc six-cylinder engine. Soon after the inception of the Abadal line, the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

company

Impéria Impéria Automobiles was a Belgium, Belgian manufacturer of automobiles, active between 1906 and 1948. Its factory in Nessonvaux, Liège (province), Liège had a rooftop test track since 1928. History Impéria was a Belgium, Belgian automo ...

began building Abadals under license as Impéria-Abadals. In 1916 Abadal acquired the

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

agency, and Barcelona-built Abadals after that year had Buick power units and featured custom coachwork. These cars were called "Abadal-Buicks". M. A. Van Roggen (formerly of

Springuel The Springuel was a Belgian automobile manufactured from 1907 until 1912. The company called Societe Anonyme Automobiles des Springuel was founded by Jules Springuel-Wilmotte in Huy Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wa ...

) took over the Belgian operation soon after, and built around 170 more Impéria-Abadals. Among the models produced were a 2992cc 16-valve four-cylinder

OHC An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...

sports model and three prototype 5630 cc straight-eights. The company ceased automobile production in 1923. Francisco Abadal (nicknamed ''Paco'') was a

salesman and racing driver in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. He began this enterprise in 1912, and upon its cessation became an agent of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

in Spain. General Motors' plans in 1930 related to a prototype named the ''Abadal Continental'' never materialised. File:A1143638.JPG, Abadal 25 HP 1914 File:Abadal-Buick 1923.jpg, Abadal-Buick 1923

Gallery

File:A1143638.JPG, A1143638.JPG File:Abadal 25 HP 1914.JPG, Abadal 25 HP 1914.JPG File:Abadal 25CV (47293044411).jpg, Abadal 25CV (47293044411).jpg File:Abadal detail (46569872714).jpg, Abadal detail (46569872714).jpg File:Abadal Grille (32351291667).jpg, Abadal Grille (32351291667).jpg File:Abadal-Buick 1923.jpg, Abadal-Buick 1923.jpg

Abadal Y-12 aero-engine

Abadal also produced the Abadal Y-12 aero-engine, a multiple bank in-line engine with twelve cylinders in three banks of four arranged in a Y.

References

{{Commons category, Abadal vehicles Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Spain Vintage vehicles Companies based in Barcelona