Zust (originally Züst) was an Italian car manufacturing company operating from 1905 to 1917. The company was founded by engineer Roberto Züst, an Italian industrialist of Swiss origin, who owned a precision tool manufacturing plant at Intra, near

Lago Maggiore Lake Maggiore (, ; it, Lago Maggiore ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh Maggior; pms, Lagh Magior; literally 'Greater Lake') or Verbano (; la, Lacus Verbanus) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest la ...

(formerly the Guller & Croff iron

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

). Züst experimented with prototypes of cars from around 1900 on and in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1905, he founded the Zust company for manufacturing cars and commercial vehicles. His first models were huge and expensive machines propelled by four-cylinder engines from 7432 cc (454cuin) to 11308 cc (690cuin). These were joined by a slightly smaller 5-litre (305cuin) model in 1908. A Zust 28/45 HP participated in the

1908 New York to Paris Race The 1908 New York to Paris Race was an automobile competition consisting of drivers attempting to travel from New York to Paris. This was a considerable challenge given the state of automobile technology and road infrastructure at the time. ...

and finished third. Giustino Cattaneo (later of

Isotta Fraschini Isotta Fraschini () was an Italian luxury car manufacturer, also producing trucks, as well as engines for marine and aviation use. Founded in Milan, Italy, in 1900 by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo, Antonio, and Oreste Fraschini, in 19 ...

) worked for him. In 1906 Züst decided to also make smaller cars, so with his five sons he founded a new company known as

Brixia-Zust Zust (originally Züst) was an Italian car manufacturing company operating from 1905 to 1917. The company was founded by engineer Roberto Züst, an Italian industrialist of Swiss origin, who owned a precision tool manufacturing plant at Intra, I ...

in the city of

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

. (Zust and Brixia-Zust are often confused). Due to financial problems, Brixia-Zust closed down in 1912; the Milan factory was sold and production of Zust cars concentrated in Brescia, where production continued until 1914. The last new models, the 15/25 HP or 2S 365 (2592 cc/158cuin) and the 25/35 or S305 (4712 cc/288cuin), appeared in 1913. On October 1, 1917, the company was taken over by

Officine Meccaniche Officine Meccaniche or OM was an Italian car and truck manufacturing company. It was founded in 1899 in Milan as Società Anonima Officine Meccaniche to manufacture railway rolling stock and car production began in 1918. It disappeared as s ...

of Milan, who continued to make the S305 until 1923 under their own name.

Brixia-Zust

Brixia-Zust (originally Brixia-Züst) was an Italian car manufacturer also founded by engineer Roberto Züst, owner of Zust of Milan, and his sons. The company was situated in

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

; Brixia is the antique

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for Brescia. The company made racing cars that participated in

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

, an open road race in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. The most interesting model was the ''10 hp'' in 1909, propelled by a three-cylinder 1495 cc engine. Car production ended—due to financial difficulties—in 1912. In 1918, after

took over the Zust company, the Brescia facilities were used.

References

External links

* http://www.targaflorio.info/zust.htm *For Brixia-Zust: ** http://targaflorio.info/brixiazust.htm (in Italian) ** https://web.archive.org/web/20040703151451/http://www.ideahobby.it/DB-Auto/brixia_zust.html (in Italian) {{Portal, Cars, Italy Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Italy Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1905 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1917 Milan motor companies Italian companies established in 1905 1917 disestablishments in Italy