1923 - Zedel Torpedo Type P 15 cv

To be sold without registration papers
Chassis : 2885

Elegant Torpedo
Type P big engine capacity
Formerly the 4th biggest french car manufacturer.

The Zedel company was founded by Ernest Zürcher and Herman Luthi in 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and specialises in the manufacture of motorbike engines and spark plugs. Since its customers were mainly French, the company decided 10 years later to relocate to Pontarlier in order to avoid high export taxes. A new automobile factory was then created there. Until the First World War the business was flourishing and Zedel offered a wide range of models. In 1924, Gérôme Donnet, who had made a fortune manufacturing seaplane for the French Navy, wanted to diversify into the automobile sector and bought the Pontarlier factory, which was then in financial difficulties. The brand was thus renamed Donnet-Zedel. In 1926, the company acquired the Vinot & Deguingand factory in Nanterre and opened an ultra-modern plant in 1928. The vehicles leaving this production unit would simply bear the name Donnet. The outdated Zedel factory in Pontarlier closed its doors in 1929. The great crisis of the same year plunged the company into serious financial difficulties that led to its bankruptcy in 1934. The factory was then bought by Fiat, which set up its French subsidiary Simca.
Bought in the 1970s, this car would be, according to the correspondence written between the owner and the Club Donnet Zedel in the 1980s, a unique Torpedo-bodied version at Barry's in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1923. Again, this is a rare Type P of large displacement which differs from the 11 hp models by its larger dimensions. Another specimen of which one would have lost the trace was also bodied in Landaulet or coupé de Ville at the same period. For a long time used for weddings and other gatherings of vintage cars, this car was finally stored in a dry place and on the road about ten years ago. Complete and with a nice patina, we were able to make sure that its engine was not blocked.