Quiz Archive

About Quiz # 264: Imperia TA7

Almost all quiz entries identified last weeks ‘castle’ as the factory where the Belgian Imperia was made. We asked for its precise location, which was Nessonvaux, near Liège. Identifying the sleek white roadster proved more difficult, as the prewar models TA7, TA9 and TA11 are virtually indistinguishable from each other. It was in fact the smaller 995cc Adler powered TA7, but as the differences with the other models was hardly visible in the picture, we also approved of TA9 and TA11. Many mentioned the TA8, which is certainly wrong as the TA8 is a postwar model. Correct answers came from Tim Olley (TA7), Jan Roeck (TA7), Adrian Pascu-Tulbure (TA11) and jurymembers Radu Comsa (TA7) and Hans Compter (TA7). We found Tim Olley’s answer was the most complete as he made the link between the Imperia name and Emperor Charlemagne (Charles the Great) who lived from 742- 814. Imperia’s founder Adrien Piedboeuf lived in Jupille, the same village where Charlemagne had lived and because of this connection Adrien named his car Imperia (Latin for Empire). Congratulations Tim, on your third win with which you now join the ranks of our illustrious jurymembers! (With thanks to Bruno Costers for the quiz idea and photos; to Hans Compter for the Imperia history) Imperia owner and expert Hans Compter explains the differences between the TA7, TA8, TA9 and TA11 models: “It does not surprise me that several people wrongly mentioned the postwar TA8, because the pre and postwar cars look very similar indeed. Moreover the factory most likely had body-leftovers from before and during the war (TA7, TA9 and TA11) which they first used up when the postwar TA8 (Hotchkiss) production started. In the early years of the war and German factory occupation the German military allowed Imperia to continue making cars for a relatively short time. The smaller TA7 995cc Adler powered cars came in quite a few versions called after birds ("Hirondelle", "Alouette", "Mouette" and "Mésange").”

Other answers that mentioned Imperia came from:

Thom Fransen
Leonardo Alonso
Fer Cools
Mieke Franck
Gaurav Sawant
Luc Ryckaert
Dieter De Roo
Jean-Frédéric Frot
Bart Bollen
Claude Demoitié
John Robins
Henk Schuuring
Thomas Rudolf
Jacques Jean-Pol

And jurymember Frans Vrijaldenhoven

Friday, 04 December 2009