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Gobron-Brillié: außergewöhnliche Automobile für außergewöhnliche Menschen
Im Zeitalter großer technischer Innovationen dürfte Sie vielleicht auch der gegenüberliegende Motor von Eugène Brillié interessieren. Gemeinsam mit Gustave Gobron entwickelte er dieses ungewöhnliche Konzept und gründete anschließend die Marke Gobron-Brillié. Der Motor ihrer Luxusautomobile arbeitete mit einem Kolben an beiden Enden jedes Zylinders und kam ganz ohne Zylinderkopf aus. Nicht flach wie bei einem Boxermotor, sondern vertikal angeordnet. Das Prinzip war bereits aus anderen Motorenkonstruktionen bekannt, doch möglicherweise wurde es hier erstmals in einem Automobil eingesetzt. Und offenbar funktionierte es gar nicht schlecht. Eines ihrer Fahrzeuge mit diesem Motor soll das erste Automobil der Welt gewesen sein, das die Marke von 150 km/h überschritt; wenige Monate später wurden sogar mehr als 100 mph (161 km/h) gemessen.
Dennoch dürfte das System auch Probleme verursacht haben, denn ab 1904 setzte Gobron-Brillié auf konventionellere Motorenkonstruktionen. Existieren heute überhaupt noch Exemplare dieser Motoren? Dieses Foto zeigt einen Wagen von 1907. Zwar verfügte er bereits über einen eher traditionellen Vierzylindermotor — möglicherweise sogar die 11-Liter-75-PS-Version —, doch auch ihn fanden wir ausgesprochen faszinierend. Das Bild stammt aus dem Archiv des Ungarischen Museums für Technik und Verkehr und zeigt den Gobron-Brillié eines gewissen Jenő Baruch. Er war Erbe eines Mineralölunternehmens und soll einen ausschweifenden Playboy-Lebensstil geführt haben, wobei er einen Großteil des väterlichen Vermögens für Pferde und Automobile ausgab. 1928 nahm sich Baruch das Leben, angeblich „um den immer schwerwiegenderen Problemen zu entkommen“. Wie tragisch.
Dieses Bild des wunderschönen Landaulets entstand jedoch in glücklicheren Zeiten. Mit einer Karosserie des Budapester Karosseriebauers Kölber nahm Baruch im Sommer 1907 mit diesem Wagen an der Herkomer-Fahrt teil — jener prestigeträchtigen Wettbewerbsfahrt des deutschen Kaisers von Frankfurt über München und Wien zurück nach Frankfurt. Was danach aus dem Wagen wurde..?
Text: Jeroen Booij
Bild: Ungarisches Museum für Technik und Verkehr, mit Dank an Pál Negyesi
Publiziert:
Montag Mai 25th, 2026
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Kommentare
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.
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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 ?
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I seem to remember this car was sold and returned to Europe.??
I wonder what happened to it ?
Philippe
31 Mai, 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
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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 Mai, 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 Mai, 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 Mai, 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.
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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.
Tony Press
27 Mai, 00:19
I very naughty name sometimes given 'Gobbling Billie'
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Ariejan Bos
25 Mai, 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.
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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".