A Voisin with little to go on

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Ah! Another photograph with little to go on, so plenty to speculate upon. Only fact known is that it's a Voisin, a 17CV according to the person who offered it for sale, with the only further information added is that the picture was probably taken in 1933. That’s it.

Avions-Voisin

The 17CV is the three-litre model, which makes us believe this has to be a C23 car, launched in 1931 with its Knight sleeve-valve six-cylinder engine and three-litre capacity, built (and improved) under licence to Avions-Voisin. One report told us about the model: “355 chassis have been made, of which approximately 15 survive today. Gabriel Voisin had a deep mistrust of coachbuilders, thinking that they were incapable of meeting his exacting engineering standards or achieving the demanding quality of his own construction techniques.” And, by golly, apart from one not very spectacular Ganglof-bodied example, you won’t find any other coachbuilt C23s. Well, we couldn’t find them.

But these sharply dressed men (father and son?) seem happy enough with this impressive motor, with its cool aluminium wheels discs and signature Art Deco radiator mascot. Anything else we can deduce from the photograph? Well, there’s only the French number plate left. Registration 3755 MB 7 does hide a tiny little bit about its background, since the letters refer to the department and in this case ‘MB’ is for Nord. So centred around Lille. Anyone out there who can add more?

Words Jeroen Booij. Picture Ebay.

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