This historic French car manufacturer was founded in 1904 by the brothers Maurice and George Sizaire together with their business partner Louis Naudin. The company was the first of three established by the entrepreneurial and brilliant Sizaire brothers, who would later go on to found Sizaire-Berwick (in 1913) and Sizaire Frères (1923).
George Sizaire e Louis Naudin
The first Sizaire-Naudin was presented at the 1905 Paris Motor Show. It was a simple and sturdy light sports car with a front-mounted single cylinder engine with a capacity of approximately 900 cc. The chassis was a wooden frame reinforced with metal armature elements. A distinguishing feature of the two-seater car was its large transverse leaf spring for the front suspension, which was connected to the shock absorbers with a system introduced previously by Décauville.
Light in weight and with a reasonably spritely engine, Sizaire-Naudin cars offered excellent performance and competed successfully in races reserved for small motor cars. Among their numerous achievements, with Georges Sizaire at the wheel, these cars won the 1906, 1907 and 1908 editions of the Coupe de l’Auto.
Single cylinder engines were used exclusively up until 1910, with an overhead intake valve and a side exhaust valve. Engine size grew progressively to 1.5 litres, after which single-block 4 cylinder engines built by Ballot were adopted (replacing the De Dion engines used previously), with capacities from 1.1 to 3 litres.
The new 4 cylinder engines also changed the spirit and the nature itself of the entire range of models, which evolved from small and light sports cars to bigger models with a more leisurely disposition suitable for touring.
The last Sizaire-Naudin appeared in 1913, while production of the four cylinder engines continued up to the outbreak of the Great War, and was resumed for another two years after 1918.
1913 also saw the Sizaire brothers leave the company and found Sizaire-Berwick.
