Sizaire et Naudin was a French

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

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

located on the northern side of central Paris, at 52 rue Victor-Hugo in

Courbevoie Courbevoie () is a Communes of France, commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region of France. It is a suburb of Paris, from the Kilometre zero, center of Paris. The centre of Courbevoie is situated from the ci ...

, between 1903 and 1921.

The company

Sizaire-Naudin was founded by two brothers called Maurice (1877–1969) and Georges Sizaire (1880–1924), in partnership with a family friend, Louis Naudin (1876–1913) in 1903. The partners had already experimented with a car in 1902 or 1903 but it was not until 1905 that the light "voiturette-style" cars were offered for sale, and shown at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

in October of that year. In 1912 the Sizaire brothers left the company following disagreement with an investor. Their participation in the automotive business was far from ended, however, and in 1913, with the help of F. Berwick, the London-based UK importer of

Corre La Licorne Corre La Licorne was a French car maker founded 1901 in Levallois-Perret, at the north-western edge of central Paris, by Jean-Marie Corre. Cars were produced until 1947. The names The first cars were named Corre, but racing successes by a driv ...

cars, they obtained finance in London for the launch of a new automobile manufacturing company called Sizaire-Berwick. Sizaire-Naudin continued for a further decade without them.

The cars

The first cars were basic single

cylinder A cylinder () 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 infinite ...

vehicles with

independent front suspension Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in ...

by sliding pillars and a transverse

leaf spring A leaf spring is a simple form of spring (device), spring commonly used for suspension (vehicle), suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, e ...

, identical to earlier

Decauville Decauville () was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow-gauge track fastened to st ...

s. A unique

gearbox A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...

used an integral 3-speed differential – 3 straight cut pinions brought to bear in turn on a single large straight-cut crown wheel. Orders were good and the company received backing to move to larger premises from bicycle importers Hammond et Monnier who soon afterwards sold the firm to the Duc d'Uzes and from 1907 the family crest appeared on the radiator surround. By 1911, the single-cylinder format was regarded as outmoded. After the departure of the Sizaire brothers the technicians at the business switched to a four-cylinder engine, initially using a bought-in 1847 cm³

Ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th cent ...

unit, but did not result in significantly increased sales. After the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

, production restarted with a new company, Société des Nouveaux Établissements Sizaire et Naudin, making Ballot-engined cars based on prewar designs. The manufacturer took a stand at the

Motor Show An auto show, also known as a motor show or car show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is attended by automotive industry representatives, dealers, auto journalists a ...

in October 1919 to exhibit a four-seater

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

" bodied Type D car with a wheelbase, and powered by a four-cylinder 2292 cm³ engine. This was listed by the manufacturer at 24,000 francs. In spite of an attempt to re-enter racing at the International Voiturette Cup of 1921, the directors called in the liquidators later that year.

Racing

Sizaire et Naudin enjoyed great success, p. 81 in early

voiturette A voiturette is a miniature automobile. History ''Voiturette'' was first registered by Léon Bollée in 1895 to name his new motor tricycle. The term became so popular in the early years of the motor industry that it was used by many makers ...

races with rules which limited cylinder bore but did not specify stroke length. This success lasted from 1906 to 1909, with some presence in racing until 1911., p. 106

References

{{Reflist Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1903 1921 disestablishments in France Brass Era vehicles 1910s cars 1920s cars French companies established in 1903 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1921