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Gobron-Brillié : des automobiles extraordinaires pour des personnages hors du commun
À l’époque des grandes innovations techniques, vous serez peut-être intéressé par le moteur à pistons opposés d’Eugène Brillié. Avec Gustave Gobron, il développa ce concept singulier avant de fonder ensemble la marque Gobron-Brillié. Le moteur destiné à leurs automobiles de luxe fonctionnait avec un piston à chaque extrémité de chaque cylindre et sans culasse. Non pas à plat comme un moteur boxer, mais monté verticalement. Le principe avait déjà été aperçu sur d’autres moteurs auparavant, mais il s’agissait peut-être de la première application dans une automobile. Et les performances semblaient loin d’être mauvaises. L’une de leurs voitures équipée de ce moteur serait même devenue la première automobile au monde à dépasser les 150 km/h, avant d’être chronométrée à plus de 100 mph (161 km/h) quelques mois plus tard.
Le système dut néanmoins poser certains problèmes, car dès 1904 Gobron-Brillié revint à des architectures moteur plus conventionnelles. Reste-t-il aujourd’hui des exemplaires de ces mécaniques ? Cette photo montre une voiture de 1907. Bien qu’elle soit équipée d’un moteur quatre cylindres plus traditionnel — peut-être même la version 11 litres de 75 ch —, nous la trouvons tout aussi fascinante. L’image provient des archives du Musée hongrois des technologies et des transports et montre la Gobron-Brillié d’un certain Jenő Baruch. Héritier d’une compagnie pétrolière, il aurait mené une vie de playboy flamboyant, dépensant une grande partie de la fortune familiale dans les chevaux et les automobiles. En 1928, Baruch se suicida, dit-on, « pour échapper à des problèmes devenus de plus en plus graves ». Tragique destin.
Cette photographie du superbe landaulet fut cependant prise à une époque plus heureuse. Dotée d’une carrosserie réalisée par le carrossier budapestois Kölber, la voiture participa durant l’été 1907 au Herkomer Tour, la célèbre épreuve organisée par l’empereur allemand reliant Francfort à Munich, Vienne puis retour à Francfort. Que devint-elle ensuite..?
Texte : Jeroen Booij
Photo : Musée hongrois des technologies et des transports, avec nos remerciements à Pál Negyesi
Publié:
lundi mai 25th, 2026
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Commentaires
Bob King
02 Juin, 03:33
Ariejan Bos
01 Juin, 22:45
Sorry, the comment function doesn't seem to work. So, as for the Nagant-Gobron car: the engine photos show clearly the standard double acting two-cylinder engine as used also in the Gobron-Brillié cars. So the remark about the use of a 'normal' engine doesn't seem to be correct to me.
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Philip Riedel
01 Juin, 09:17
As a young lad in the 1960's I recall a large Gobron Brille on Rallies with the Sporting Car Club of SA in South Australia.
I seem to remember this car was sold and returned to Europe.??
I wonder what happened to it ?
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I seem to remember this car was sold and returned to Europe.??
I wonder what happened to it ?
Philippe
31 Mai, 11:58
I have some doubt about the actual brandname in 1907 as I thought it had been changed to just Gobron when the engineer Eugène Brillié left to join Schneider in Le Havre. I understand from heir family that the main problem was not technical but rather economical because the opposed piston engines were quite more expensive to build and maintain compared to more conventional engines. The model shown obviously has a conventional engine and not the opposed pistons one.
There are still a few cars with opposed pistons although I not aware of any really running... with the exception of the Belgian 1900 Gobron-Brillié built by the Nagant in Liège which ran over 6.000 km at various events (Bordeaux-Paris raid, London-Brighton, Circuit des Ardennes,...) since its restoration in 2011. Not too surprising as the (Belgian) Prince Albert who owned two such cars drove himself over 4.000 km from Brussels to Bavaria and Innsbruck without the slighest mechanic problems according to a letter of his chief of staff to the car manufacturer in 1901. My father acquired the car pictured in 1964 and it is still in the family
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There are still a few cars with opposed pistons although I not aware of any really running... with the exception of the Belgian 1900 Gobron-Brillié built by the Nagant in Liège which ran over 6.000 km at various events (Bordeaux-Paris raid, London-Brighton, Circuit des Ardennes,...) since its restoration in 2011. Not too surprising as the (Belgian) Prince Albert who owned two such cars drove himself over 4.000 km from Brussels to Bavaria and Innsbruck without the slighest mechanic problems according to a letter of his chief of staff to the car manufacturer in 1901. My father acquired the car pictured in 1964 and it is still in the family
Stanislav Kirilets
31 Mai, 11:40
1st International Automobile Exhibition in St. Petersburg, 1907. Gobron-Brillié Automobiles at the stand of the Russian representative, Nikolas Kritsch.
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Bill Armstrong
31 Mai, 11:14
There is, or was, since its many years since I last went there, a Gobron-Brillie fire appliance at the Beaulieu Motor Museum (or whatever its called now); I thought that it had an opposed piston engine but can't remember for certain.
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Kieran White
28 Mai, 17:32
Two Gobron-Brillies at the speed trials in the Phoenix Park during the Irish Fortnight in 1903.
The Gordon Bennett was included in this fortnight.
A Mors captured the land speed record at 82mph on Chesterfield Avenue if memory serves me right.
Incidentally the Irish Veteran and Vintage Car Clubsre staging their 50th anniversary Gordon Bennett Rally on 5th,6th and 7th June.
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The Gordon Bennett was included in this fortnight.
A Mors captured the land speed record at 82mph on Chesterfield Avenue if memory serves me right.
Incidentally the Irish Veteran and Vintage Car Clubsre staging their 50th anniversary Gordon Bennett Rally on 5th,6th and 7th June.
Tony Press
27 Mai, 00:19
I very naughty name sometimes given 'Gobbling Billie'
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Ariejan Bos
25 Mai, 12:55
There are two minor details I would like to mention. First is that this 1907 model, a beautiful example of the make by the way, was probably the 40/60hp model, which without doubt still had the engine with double acting pistons. As far as I’m aware Gobron used these engines at least until WW1 in most if not all of their models.
The second detail is the body type, which clearly is not a landaulet as there is no folding top. However the confusion may have been caused by a Bianchi toy model made by Rio (which happens to be in my mini museum), which is exactly the same model and was being sold by Rio as a landaulet. So if not a landaulet, what is it then? An identical model, but with Ariès chassis, was called a berline in 1907 (see upload). Even this name is arbitrary, as the berline officially had two opposing benches for 2 persons each. However name-giving in car body land changed with time: remember the De Dion-Bouton body in the post of May 8th, which had been given the name of berline de voyage. Technically one would have to speak of a coupé (literally meaning a cut-off berline), but another name in use in the early days was the berlingot or demi-berline. As one may observe, this De Dion-Bouton was similar to the Gobron-Brillié body with the exception that the first was inside driven, the latter chauffeur driven. So, although I would prefer the name coupé de voyage, (demi-)berline (de voyage) was definitely an option in these days.
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The second detail is the body type, which clearly is not a landaulet as there is no folding top. However the confusion may have been caused by a Bianchi toy model made by Rio (which happens to be in my mini museum), which is exactly the same model and was being sold by Rio as a landaulet. So if not a landaulet, what is it then? An identical model, but with Ariès chassis, was called a berline in 1907 (see upload). Even this name is arbitrary, as the berline officially had two opposing benches for 2 persons each. However name-giving in car body land changed with time: remember the De Dion-Bouton body in the post of May 8th, which had been given the name of berline de voyage. Technically one would have to speak of a coupé (literally meaning a cut-off berline), but another name in use in the early days was the berlingot or demi-berline. As one may observe, this De Dion-Bouton was similar to the Gobron-Brillié body with the exception that the first was inside driven, the latter chauffeur driven. So, although I would prefer the name coupé de voyage, (demi-)berline (de voyage) was definitely an option in these days.
Motoring journalist 'Bunny' Tubbs had one which I encountered at Jackie Pichon's restaurant in 1967, when it was celebrating it's fiftieth birthday by touring in France. Bunny's daughter has written about the car in the VSCC Bulletin relatively recently - it may still be in the Tubb's family.
I recall Bunny's description of being a motoring journalist as "It is not all steer and vittles".