David Torpedo 2S

By the 1950s David was known in Barcelona for its taxis, not its cars. The firm dates from 1913, when José María Armangué, his brothers Luis and Federico and the Moré brothers set it up, and its first products were the David cyclecars.source 1source 2 Armangué was killed in an accident in 1917, the Moré brothers took control, and the business turned to vehicles for public service.source 1 By 1929–⁠31 some 1,000 David cabs were working in the city, and the black and yellow of Barcelona’s taxis comes from them; the David building opened in 1931.source 2source 1 It also sold Citroëns as an agent, and ran garages, parking and towing.source 2 When fuel ran short in the 1940s, it put grand “haiga” bodies on about ten electric cars, built on Citroën chassis.source 3source 4

In 1950 David presented a three-wheeler of its own design for deliveries in town, a “triscooter”, and several versions followed, among them a two-seat passenger car.source 2 Its designer was José María Moré Comas.source 3 The Weiner museum credits Armangué, who had died more than 30 years before, and the museum booklet names a “Josep M. Muné”, perhaps a misprint for Moré; the company’s own history confirms that the Moré family ran David after 1917.source 4source 2source 1 Moré Comas had a line for what he had made.

Steering the engine

The heart of it was a single unit: a 345 cc two-stroke single of David’s own, its gearbox and the front wheel, which all turned together when the car steered, and the engine drove that wheel.source 3source 4 The Weiner museum lists the oddities that followed. The gear lever moved in a large H-gate on the dashboard and selected the gears through fingers running down the middle of the front kingpin; the steering worked through an open crown wheel and pinion and a constant-velocity joint patented by Voisin, the designer of the Biscúter; the front wheel hung on a three-quarter-elliptic leaf spring; and the big white steering wheel came from a supplier to Auto Union.source 4 grupo7 gives the gearbox three speeds and a two-ratio multiplier, six forward speeds in all, where the museum lists three; we read that as the museum leaving the multiplier out.source 3source 4

The Torpedo 2S was an open steel monocoque, 2,800 mm (110 in) long, with two seats in front and two behind, and grupo7 doubts the safety of the rear ones in a family photograph.source 3source 4 It made 10 CV, weighed 280 kg (617 lb), or 215 kg in its early form, reached 68 km/h (42 mph) and covered about 100 km on 5 litres of fuel (56 mpg).source 3source 4 It came with or without a hood, and there were a closed model, an estate in the woody style and a light truck, the tricamioneta, on five wheels.source 3 The Weiner museum found its restored 1957 car great fun to drive, with an odd feel to its steering.source 4

Dozens, not thousands

The dates vary with the source: production from 1951 to 1957 for grupo7, from 1952 to 1957 for the museum booklet, and from 1954 to 1958 for the Weiner museum, which calls the car a success.source 3source 2source 4 David’s own history records the invention of the motor tricycle in 1954, patented and shown at motor shows at home and abroad as a new concept of transport.source 1 That year Brangulí photographed a hall of the works lined with dozens of finished bodies, complete with hoods and white steering wheels.source 2 About 60 to 70 were built in all, few beside the Biscúter, yet the Weiner museum counted David with the Biscúter, Kapi and the PTV 250 among the four wholly Spanish firms that made microcars in significant numbers.source 3source 4

Production ended in 1957, or in 1958 by the Weiner museum’s date.source 3source 2source 4 David kept its taxis, parking and tow trucks, later ran car parks and let offices and shops, and the company still exists.source 2source 1

Few survive, the Weiner museum says.source 4 A 1955 David from the Claudi Roca collection was shown at the Barcelona history museum’s microcar exhibition in 2012–⁠13, and grupo7 shows another at the Museu de l’Automòbil Salvador Claret at Sils, one of the museums where Barcelona’s microcars can be seen.source 2source 3 The Weiner museum’s own 1957 car was restored in Spain, though, the museum noted, a Spanish expert says it should have doors.source 4 It was sold with the museum’s collection in 2013, for a price that has not been found. The pictures here were taken at Barcelona in 2013 and 2014, at Alcobendas and at Sils.