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Gobron-Brillié: buitengewone auto’s voor buitengewone mensen
In een tijdperk vol opmerkelijke innovaties zult u misschien geïnteresseerd zijn in de tegenover elkaar liggende motor van Eugène Brillié. Samen met Gustave Gobron ontwikkelde hij dit bijzondere concept, waarna zij gezamenlijk het merk Gobron-Brillié oprichtten. De motor die zij voor hun luxewagens ontwierpen, werkte met een zuiger aan beide uiteinden van iedere cilinder en had geen cilinderkop. Niet plat zoals bij een boxermotor, maar verticaal opgesteld. Het principe was eerder al in andere motoren toegepast, maar mogelijk was dit de eerste keer dat het in een automobiel werd gebruikt. En slecht presteren deed het systeem allerminst. Eén van hun auto’s met deze motor zou de eerste auto ter wereld zijn geweest die de grens van 150 km/u doorbrak, terwijl enkele maanden later zelfs meer dan 100 mph (161 km/u) werd gemeten.
Toch moet het systeem ook de nodige problemen hebben veroorzaakt, want vanaf 1904 schakelde Gobron-Brillié over op conventionelere motorontwerpen. Zijn er vandaag de dag nog exemplaren van deze motoren over? Op deze foto staat een auto uit 1907 afgebeeld. Hoewel die gebruik maakte van een meer traditionele viercilinder (mogelijk zelfs de 11-liter 75 pk-variant), vonden wij hem minstens zo fascinerend. De foto komt uit het archief van het Hongaars Museum voor Technologie en Transport en toont de Gobron-Brillié van een zekere Jenő Baruch. Hij was erfgenaam van een petroleummaatschappij en zou een flamboyante playboylevensstijl hebben geleid, waarbij hij een groot deel van het fortuin van zijn vader uitgaf aan paarden en auto’s. In 1928 pleegde Baruch zelfmoord, naar verluidt ‘om te ontsnappen aan de steeds ernstiger wordende problemen’. Hoe tragisch.
Deze foto van de fraaie landaulet werd echter genomen in gelukkiger tijden. Met een carrosserie van de Boedapestse carrosseriebouwer Kölber nam Baruch in de zomer van 1907 met deze auto deel aan de Herkomer Tour, de prestigieuze rittenwedstrijd van de Duitse keizer van Frankfurt naar München, Wenen en weer terug naar Frankfurt. Wat er daarna met de auto gebeurde..?
Tekst: Jeroen Booij
Foto: Hongaars Museum voor Technologie en Transport, met dank aan Pál Negyesi
Gepubliceerd:
maandag mei 25th, 2026
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Reacties
Bob King
02 Juni, 03:33
Ariejan Bos
01 Juni, 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.
Lees verder
Philip Riedel
01 Juni, 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 ?
Lees verder
I seem to remember this car was sold and returned to Europe.??
I wonder what happened to it ?
Philippe
31 Mei, 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
Lees verder
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 Mei, 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 Mei, 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 Mei, 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.
Lees verder
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.
Ariejan Bos
25 Mei, 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.
Lees verder
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".