No, no, not a Mercedes!

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No, please don't call this car a Mercedes! A mistake often made also in connection with the French trucks and buses with this characterictic front in pre-WW1 years. So what is it then? For the trucks and buses it is obvious what it is: several makes like Brillié-Schneider and De Dion-Bouton used this Goudard et Mennesson radiator for extra cooling purposes. The engine under the driver's seat, low speeds and hot city summers all were of course reasons to replace the traditional radiator for this device. The only patent on the subject I could find showed an application of the ventilator in an engine with thermosyphon cooling, in the case that the reservoir was placed behind the bonnet (like Renault). Quite different from the lead photo, where the car unmistakably is equipped with the Goudard and Mennesson cooling device. The car itself appears to be a Lion-Peugeot, dating from around 1908 as indicated by the license number 408-HH, and could have very well been a testing car. Striking are the sporty holes in the gear change and brake levers! Unclear is why the car was immatriculated in Chambéry (near Lyon), as Goudard and Mennesson were both Paris-based. And for the people who have the impression that they heard these names before, but in a slightly different context: they are right! The Goudard brothers Maurice and Félix, and Marcel Mennesson were the inventors and producers of another famous French product: the Solex carburetor …

text Ariejan Bos, photos from his collection 

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