The French Salmson sportscar.
I've three photographs featuring the Salmson light car, built in the 1920s. Firstly, this front end shot of a Salmson alongside a verge, with a chap sucking on his pipe - this photo took a while to identify, but eventually I found a photo of another car with this distinctively styled radiator grille in a reference book on cars. The fact that this photo was taken in Paris ties in with the Salmson's French roots.
Can anyone positively identify the exact model of French sporting voiture we've got here, seen in France during the 20s or 30s?
Two more Salmson photos materialise
Thanks to Nigel and his wife for allowing me to post the next two photos on the site, again showing a small fabric-covered Salmson in the pre-war years, this time in England though. These photos were discovered in an old family album. It took a little while to identify this car too, the cross bars on the grille are just about visible, but the shape of the grille is different than on the Salmson above. At first it was thought that it could be an Amilcar, but it was later identified as a Salmson VAL3.
The Salmson company pre-dated the production of eponymous motorcars by some years, being better known in early years for producing industrial pumps, followed by aero engines. Their first car was in fact a licence-built British cyclecar (a GN), which first hit the road in 1919, shortly after WW1. The first car of their own design appeared a couple of years later, powered by a 1086cc engine. A slightly later car produced by the firm, a cabriolet version of the S4 series, may be found on this page.
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