Over 20 responses answers to the quiz of last Saturday, not a bad score. An extremely rare (probably no lonfer existing) and interesting automobile? The clue about its belgian origins definitely was a good starting point for our readers, who in most cases have checked their automobile encyclopedias and dug up at least the right Name. Also mentioned were many other Belgian luxury car makers such as Excelsior, Belga-Rise (Sizaire), ADK (Societe Anonyme Automobiles De Kuyper SA), Minerva, Metallurgique, FN and even Beverley-Barnes, a car built in South West London under the supervision of three Belgians. Not all these marques really matched the clues given, but anyway many of the competitors came to the right marque: Dunamis.
Robbie Marenzi, Raoul, Malte Jürgens, Josef Boers, Luc Ryckaert, Korneel VanRemoortel, Fedor and jurymember Radu Comsa gave us more or less accurate answers, and so this time it was really extremely difficult to decide about the quiz winner. Finally, the award goes to Stefan Ittner, who said "Modestly described as a "Supervoiture“ or "Super-Auto“ in contemporary advertisements, the Dunamis (ancient Greek for "strength“ or "power“) was the brainchild of Antwerp tobacco dealer Théo Verellen, who set up a design office in Anvers. The type A-8 – powered by a 3.2 litre (later 3.4 litre) straight-eight side-valve engine with aluminium pistons – was introduced in January 1923, built by Miesse in Anderlecht. Output from the twin-carburetor engine was 75 hp. Not surprisingly, the well-proven Miesse four-wheel brake system was used. The car shown on your photograph featured two doors on the right-hand side. It is said only 5 cars were produced".
Interestingly, in the old newspaper where we found the main picture there are many technical details which don´t appear in any old encyclopedia nor in any of our reader´s answers. For example, the car pictured above is described as the "Type C-8 Grand Luxe" with a 5 liter engine, while the other model fitted with a 3 liter engine is named "D-8 Sport". Both cars sported many advanced features like double oil pumps and double ignition, four wheel brakes plus transmission hydraulic operated brakes and an electric fan which could be switched on from the dashboard, among others. But despite the differences with our files, congratulations to Mr Ittner! Please send us your shirt size and mail address.
(quiz proposal and text Francisco Carrión)