Impéria Automobiles was a

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 languag ...

manufacturer of automobiles, active between 1906 and 1948. Its factory in Nessonvaux,

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

had a rooftop test track since 1928.

History

Impéria was a

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

manufactured from 1906 until 1948. Products of the Ateliers Piedboeuf of

, the first cars were designed by the German Paul Henze. These were four-cylinders of 3, 4.9, and 9.9 litres. The next year, the company moved to Nessonvaux,

Trooz Trooz (; wa, LiTrô) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On July 1, 2012, Trooz had 8,432 registered inhabitants, of whom 4,199 were male and 4,233 female. The total area is 24.00 km² which gives a pop ...

municipality, and began production in the old

Pieper Anciens Etablissements Pieper was a Belgium, Belgian arms manufacturer established under the name Henri Pieper in Herstal, Belgium in 1884 (some sources, 1866), by Henri Pieper. In 1898, it was renamed to Nicolas Pieper, and it became the Ancien ...

factory. Impéria produced a monobloc in 1909. In 1910, the company merged with

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 ...

. The Nessonvaux factory began producing

Abadal The Abadal was a Spanish car manufactured between 1912 and 1923, named after Francisco Abadal. Considered a fast luxury car, it was closely patterned on the Hispano-Suiza and offered in two models. One had a 3104 cc four-cylinder engine while th ...

s under license as Impéria-Abadals from about 1916. In 1921, it built three

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 ...

5.6-litre straight-eights. These were quickly replaced by an ephemeral ohc 3-litre 32-valve four-cylinder which had a top speed of . This was followed by an 1100 cc slide-valve 11/22 hp four designed by Couchard, one of the first cars ever built with a

sunroof A sunroof is a movable panel that opens to uncover a window in an automobile roof, allowing light and fresh air to enter the passenger compartment. Sunroofs can be manually operated or motor driven, and are available in many shapes, sizes and styl ...

. Its engine rotated

counterclockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...

, and its

transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission *** ...

brake also served as a

servo Servo may refer to: Mechanisms * Servomechanism, or servo, a device used to provide control of a desired operation through the use of feedback ** AI servo, an autofocus mode ** Electrohydraulic servo valve, an electrically operated valve that c ...

for those on the front wheels. In 1927 a six-cylinder of 1624 cc appeared; this had been available in three-

carburettor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...

Super Sports form from 1930. In 1925, the company hired

Louis de Monge Louis de Monge (Vicomte Pierre Louis de Monge de Franeau) (1890–New York, 25 July 1977) was a notable Belgian engineer. He is mainly remembered as the designer of the Bugatti Model 100 racing aircraft. Career He was interested in aircraft from h ...

as chief research engineer. Some of his work included torsion bar suspension and automatic transmissions. De Monge left in 1937 to join

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars w ...

, where he would design the Bugatti 100P racer plane. Around and on top of the factory buildings, there was a

test track Test Track is a high-speed slot car thrill ride located in World Discovery at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The ride is a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that General Mot ...

over 1 km long. The track was built in 1928. The only other rooftop test tracks were on Fiat's

Lingotto Lingotto is the name of a district of Turin, Italy, as well as the name of the Lingotto building in Via Nizza. It once housed a car factory built by Italian automotive company Fiat and today houses the administrative headquarters of the manufact ...

plant, opened in 1923, and Palacio Chrysler in Buenos Aires, opened in 1928. Over the course of four years, Impéria took over three other Belgian car manufacturers: Métallurgique (1927),

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

(1929), and Nagant (1931). From 1934 until the company folded it built mainly front-wheel-drive Adlers with Belgian-made coachwork. The company merged with

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...

in 1934, but they split in 1939. In addition to its production in Belgium, Impéria made a number of cars in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

; these were assembled at a factory in

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

. From 1947 to 1949 Impéria built its last model, the TA-8, which combined an

Adler Trumpf Junior The Adler Trumpf Junior is a small family car introduced by the Frankfurt based auto-maker, Adler early in 1934. The Adler Trumpf had by now been available for two years, and the Trumpf Junior was conceived as a similar but smaller car which woul ...

-type chassis with a Hotchkiss engine originally intended for the

Amilcar Compound The Amilcar Compound is a front wheel drive car with unitary body/chassis introduced shortly before World War II by Amilcar after their takeover by Hotchkiss. It was designed by the famous French engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire. Slow start The ...

. After 1948 Impéria assembled

Standard Vanguard The Standard Vanguard is a car which was produced by the Standard Motor Company in Coventry, England, from 1947 until 1963. The car was announced in July 1947, was completely new, with no resemblance to the previous models, and, designed in 19 ...

s under license and also built a unique convertible version. After Standard decided to set up a new factory in Belgium, the factory was left without work and had to close doors in 1957.

In popular culture

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

's 2004 novel ''

The Final Solution The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi Germany, Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final ...

'', set in 1944, the Anglican vicar drives a Belgian Impéria.

2009 revival

The Imperia GP was going to be sold in 2013. The car was designed by Denis Stevens. The Imperia GP roadster would have had power-hybrid motorization technology developed by Belgian research company Green Propulsion. Preorders were open in 2008, but many design changes and re-prototyping, with concomitant rescheduling, were announced between 2009 and 2015, when the company's illiquidity was brought to the commercial court. A takeover proposal of luxury cars converter Carat-Duchatelet was refused by the court which declared the bankruptcy.

References

*David Burgess Wise, ''The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Automobile''

External links

History of the company

ImperiaGreen Propulsion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Imperia (Car) Car manufacturers of Belgium Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Belgium Hybrid electric vehicles Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Companies based in Liège Province History of Liège Province