Bignan

France, 1918 – 1930

Automobiles Bignan, Courbevoie, Seine

Jacques Bignan’s products were a mixture of sophisticated competition machinery with Causan-designed engines, and pedestrian assembled vehicles aimed at customers who wanted a famous radiator without a high purchase price or mechanical complication. His original Bignan 17CV was a big and orthodox fast tourer made in the Grégoire works. It used a de la Fournaise chassis frame, a 2-bearing 3½-litre v 4-cylinder engine, and rear-wheel brakes only; by 1921 a 50bhp 3-litre unit had been adopted. The Bignan was marketed in England as the Grégoire-Campbell and persisted until 1923. Already, however, Bignan was racing, entering a 1400cc T-head four he had designed in 1914 in the 1920 G.P. des Voiturettes; the Bignan cars finished 2nd and 3rd. For 1921 he built (but did not market) a Causan-designed 96bhp 16-valve 3-litre ohc four that Guyot used to win the Corsican G.P. 
A year later came the 75 x 112mm 2-litre, the Bignan company’s mainstay for the rest of its life. Standard Bignan 11CV touring versions for sale had orthodox 50bhp sohc engines, 4-speed gearboxes, and Hallot servo brakes on the front wheels only, in the Chenard-Walcker style. However, the first Bignan competition versions wore streamlined four-seater bodies and their desmodromique engines developed 70bhp. This Bignan model was catalogued, but a 3rd in the Belgian G.P. was its best showing, and by 1924 the positively closed valves had given way to more orthodox, and more powerful 16-valve units. These Bignan cars were also more successful, with victories in the 1923 and 1924 Spanish Touring Car Grands Prix, and the 1924 Belgian 24 Hours, compensating for the failure of a promising 124bhp dohc six tried in the latter year. Meanwhile lesser Bignans had made their appearance. The Bignan 10CV started in 1921 with a 1600cc sv Ballot unit, later acquiring a 1.7-litre ohc S.C.A.P. The 1.2-litre Bignan 8CV, also SCAP-powered, was an EHP with Bignan radiator. Even less original was the small 1100cc Bignan sports car, which was an AL23 Salmson with the St Andrews’ Cross removed from the radiator, though later a Bignan one was substituted. Meanwhile a Bignan touring 2-litre had won the 1924 Monte Carlo Rally, and in 1926 the car was redesigned with an 8-valve engine incorporating twin oil pumps. This gave 60bhp and was offered on 10ft and 11ft wheelbases, rendering it suitable for elegant closed coachwork. The Bignan cars continued to race, lowered chassis, superchargers and tank bodies featuring on later competition versions, but a 3rd place in the 1927 Spanish Touring Car G.P. was in fact their last effort. Jacques Bignan himself won the 1928 Monte Carlo Rally, but he did so in a Fiat. The last Bignans were the Bignan 11CV 2-litre and a pair of SCAP-engined pushrod straight-8s with capacities of 1.8 and 2.3 litres. These had acquired 4-speed gearboxes by 1929.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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