Automobiles Voisin 1919-1958.

The History of Avions Voisin - cars for the French President, Josephine Baker, Rudolph Valentino and H. G. Wells, dates from 1919 when Gabriel Voisin established his luxury car business, producing some of the most original and potent vehicles of the 1920s, cars designed for function and efficiency that eschewed all the conventional tricks of the stylist. The special merits of the Voisin design were amply demonstrated in the Touring Grand Prix of July 1922, in which Voisin cars came home first, second and third place.

The Voisins of the 1930s, including the legendary straight-twelve, the engine of which encroached on the driving compartment in the interests of perfect weight distribution, were cloaked in coachwork whose bizarre appearance has perhaps been softened by the passage of time but were the subject of much controversy in their day, even in France (which was the home of eccentric bodywork at that period).