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Turicum (automobile)

Summary

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The Turicum was a Swiss automobile manufactured from 1904 to 1906 in Zürich and from 1907 to 1912 in Uster. Turicum is the Latin name of Zürich. The first car made by Martin Fischer was a small single-seater go-kart like vehicle, 140 cm long, with pedal-operated steering and powered by a motorcycle engine. It had chain drive, while a second prototype had friction drive. The friction drive consisted of a flat steel disc coupled to the engine that drove a small, leather-covered wheel running at right angles to its surface. The small wheel could be moved across the surface of the large disc, giving a variable gear ratio. They attracted little public interest. Swiss industrialist Jakob Heusser was also involved in the venture.

Lettering on the radiator grille
Turicum advertisement from 1909

Production cars edit

More conventional production cars, manufactured in Uster, with a steering wheel and two-seater body were shown at the Paris Salon in 1906. They had a single-cylinder air-cooled engine of 785 cc capacity. A false radiator was fitted that acted as a fuel tank. The friction drive was retained and would be used on future cars.

In 1907 a 10/12 hp model with four-cylinder engine of 1385 cc was introduced, and the single-cylinder model had its engine enlarged to 1045 cc. Two- and four-seat, open and closed bodies were offered. Fisher left the company in September of 1907. In 1912, a 16/26 model with 2613 cc engine was announced and could be ordered with a conventional gearbox.[1] In 1918 a total of 90 Turicum were produced.[2]

Exports edit

Sales in the home country were good, and cars were exported to Egypt, Italy, France, Germany, England, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Argentina, and South Africa, but the company hit financial problems. Production ended in 1912.

Preservation edit

Some eleven cars still survive.[citation needed]

Gallery edit

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    1907 Turicum
  •  
    1909 Turicum
  •  
    1910 Turicum
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    1911 Turicum
  •  
    1912 Turicum (supposedly from 1907)

References edit

  1. ^ Markus Bürgi (2007-12-13). "Heusser, Jakob" (in German). HDS. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
  2. ^ "l'automobile aux armées" (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1918-12-15. Retrieved 2023-09-02.

External links edit

  • Photo of the 1907 Turicum 12 HP Model F at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine