EXCELSIOR is no longer a well-known brand. In fact it’s almost unheard of in Australia and some other countries.
But the hand-built Belgian vehicle was a very classy number of the late 1920s to early 1930s in Europe, and its Albert I model was viewed as the equal of anything from Rolls-Royce or Hispano Suiza.
One of these cars, with special coachwork and a fine history, has just come onto the market at Old Car 24, a classic car dealer in Milan.
The Excelsior company was founded in 1903 in Brussels young engineer Arthur de Coninck, who produced several cars using French Aster engines before building his own power units and transmissions from 1907.
He later acquired bigger premises at Zaventem, and in 1910 introduced his first six-cylinder model which had an advanced design that caused a sensation.
The straight-six Excelsiors were soon considered among the best of that era, which was confirmed by their successes in competition.
One, with a monster 9.1 litre engine, finished 6th in the 1912 French Grand Prix while another set a 50-mile World Speed Record at Brooklands.
In 1914 an Excelsior led the Indianapolis 500 until two laps from the finish before being slowed by some malady, but hung on to finish 5th.
By then, Excelsior was established as a quality manufacturer in both domestic and export markets, though production remained on a small scale, with only about 250 cars leaving the factory in 1913.
Despite having its factory stripped by the occupying German forces in WWI, Excelsior was able to offer a new car in 1919, the Adex, a six-cylinder model featuring four-wheel brakes and, for 1923, an overhead-camshaft 5.3-litre engine.
Fewer than 100 of these expensive and exclusive cars were made annually, and the sports version competed successfully in the long-distance events of the day, including Le Mans.
The Belgian royal family had been Excelsior customers for many years and in 1926 the firm introduced an improved version of the Adex, the ‘Albert I’, named after the Belgian king.
In 1926 an Albert I won the Grand Prix de Lille and the Klausenrennen hillclimb while a pair finished 1st and 2nd in the in 1927 Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours.
Reporting on an Albert I in its September 1927 edition, Motor Sport magazine found it ‘undoubtedly of high class and non-ostentatious, yet capable of a performance equal to anything except a racing car.’
In 1929 the company was taken over by the Imperia brand and cars continued to be made in small numbers under the Imperia-Excelsior name for the next few years before the Excelsior marque was dropped.
The Albert I at Old Car 24 is a 1927 model Court Cabriolet, built on the short-wheelbase chassis and was ordered new by the Romanian ambassador to Great Britain on the advice of the Queen of Romania, herself an Excelsior owner.
The car was imported into the UK by Hayward Automobile Ltd of King Street, London SW1 and carries sporting two-seat cabriolet coachwork by Snutsel & Fils, rue Stevin 59, Brussels. Snutsel & Fils was a renowned bodybuilder, famous for its Torpedo version of the 1913 Mercedes Blitzenbenz 82/200, said by some to have been the world’s first supercar, and special bodies for other exclusive cars such as Duesenberg, Delage and Rolls-Royce.
The Excelsior’s body is of aluminium, except for the wings.
However, for reasons unknown, the ambassador was unable to take delivery and the Excelsior ended up being exported to South Africa where it had three enthusiast owners, one of them, Mr E Penny, a founding member of the Sports Car Club of South Africa.
It remained in the Johannesburg area until 2004 when it was shipped back to Belgium, where it was restored over the course of the next eight years and completed in 2013.
It then won many major prizes, among them the Zoute Grand Prix Concours d’Élégance in 2014, Antwerp Concours D’Elegance Best of Show 2015, Brussels Interclassics Awards Best of Show 2016, Retro Classic Germany Sonderpreis 2016, Antwerp Classic Salon Best of Show 2015, Autoweek Classic I C Maastricht Best Pre-War.
It is eligible for prestigious historic events such as the Le Mans Classic, Spa Classic, Klausenrennen and Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance.
The elegant thoroughbred, chassis no. 2.433 and engine no. 2.163 comes with Belgian registration papers, technical inspection and various documents relating to the Excelsior company’s history.
No Excelsiors are known to have arrived in Australia.
However, for serious collectors, potential acquisition of this one makes a trip to Milan very attractive.
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