Fisson 8HP Tonneau Panhard style
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Car producer : |
Fisson |
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Model: |
8HP Tonneau Panhard style |
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Year: |
1898-1899 |
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Type: |
Tonneau |
Louis Fisson founded the company in 1896 at 14 rue Maublanc in Paris and began building automobiles and in 1899 ended the production.
The first model had the engine in the rear and was similar to the German Benz . The different body structures offered optional space for two, four or six people. One vehicle took part in the car race from Paris to Marseille and back in 1896 .
A further developed model looked more like the more modern Panhard & Levassor . A two-cylinder engine with 2920 cm³ displacement , which was mounted in the front of the vehicle, provided the drive. The transmission had four passages.
At the end of the 19th century, when Panhard & Levassor, De Dion Bouton, Darracq and Peugeot accounted for the lion's share of the young, flourishing motor industry, a few small manufacturers were also trying out their luck, including Louis Fisson in Paris. In 1896, he entered one of his cars, for a certain Monsieur Ferté, into the Paris-Marseille-Paris race, equipped with a Benz engine. Following an accident, he was unable to prevent Mayade's victory in a Panhard. Fisson continued to build Benz-style cars with horizontal cylinders and took part himself in the Paris-Dieppe rally in July 1897, finishing 9th in class. 1898 was a turning point, as Fisson began constructing cars powered by a "Panhard style" vertical twin-cylinder engine, exhibiting his new creation at the Paris Motor Show that year. In April 1898 Fisson lodged a patent for an "improved vertical" engine, a two-cylinder unit with electric ignition. The car into which an engine of this type was fitted closely resembled a contemporary Panhard-Levassor; but retained a number of Benz features, notably being left-hand drive.
A lone example was exhibited at the annual Salon du Cycle et de l'Automobile in December 1898 about which The Autocar correspondent commented: "The whole of the mechanism is concealed, and this gives a particularly neat appearance to the carriage". Nevertheless, few cars were made and Fisson disappeared from the motoring scene some time in the following year.
