1909 Imperia Roadster

Imperia was a Belgian Company that manufactured automobiles from 1906 through 1948. The early cars were designed by the German Paul Henze and were powered by a four-cylinder engine of varying displacement sizes ranging from 3 liters to nearly 10 liters. A year after being formed, the company moved to Nessonvaux, Trooz, and by 1910 they had merged with Spinguel.

Imperia may not have been as famous as another Belgian marque named Minerva, but they did form a reputation for their innovative engineering and pioneering designs. Some of the innovations include pioneering four-wheel brakes in their country, overhead valve engines, and large-capacity engines.

Around 1916, the Nessonvaux factory, which was the old Pieper factory, began producing Imperia-Abadals. In the early 1920s, they built three overhead cam 5.6-liter straight eights which were quickly replaced by an overhead cam 3-liter four-cylinder unit with 32 valves. Next came a 1100cc four-cylinder unit designed by Couchard.

Louis de Monge was hired as the company's chief research engineer in 1925 and would later leave in 1937 to join Bugatti. While at Imperia, his work included automatic transmission and torsion bar suspension.

In 1928, the company built a test track that was over 1 km long on the top of the factory buildings. They were not the first company to have this unusual setup, as Fiat's Lingotto plant opened a rooftop track in 1923, followed by Palacio Chrysler in Buenos Aires in 1928.

In 1927 Imperia took over another Belgian car manufacturer named Metallurgique, followed by Excelsior in 1929 and Nagant in 1931. From 1934 until their demise, Imperia built mainly front-wheel-drive Adlers with Belgian coachwork. Imperia had licensed the front-wheel drive Adler for Belgium, and in France, it was licensed by Rosengart.

In 1934, Imperia merged with Minerva. This union lasted only a few years, and they split in 1939.

by Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2018