The Aymerich Fábrica de Automoviles (AFA) was a Spanish

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

manufactured between 1943 and 1944.

Cabriolet

Little is known about the

marque A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

other than that a few (1 or 2) 5 cv 4-cylinder cabriolets were built by Joan Aymerich Casanoves in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. The AFA was powered by a

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

527 cc engine that produced at 3,500 rpm. The AFA microcar had a

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canadian English, Canada, British English, the United Kingdom and American English, the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed ...

with four gears with a top speed of . The AFA prototype was registered in Barcelona in April 1943, with the registration number B-72.107 and its patent number was 159,882. The company exhibited at the Exposición Automovilista Nacional in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

on July 10, 1944. * Dimensions and weights: ** Length: ** Width: ** Height: ** Weight: ** Load: * Maximum speed: * Consumption: with 6 L * Acceleration: in 50 seconds In 2008, a son of Joan Aymerich contacted the

mNACTEC The National Museum of Science and Industry of Catalonia () known by its acronym (mNACTEC) is one of the three national museums of Catalonia, located in Terrassa, near Barcelona. Its mission is to showcase and promote an understanding of scientif ...

Terrassa Terrassa () is a city in central-eastern Catalonia and in the province of Barcelona (Spain). It is one of the two capitals of Vallès Occidental county, being the larger in both area and population. The name ''Terrassa'' derives from Latin ''Te ...

, which took the only remaining car and restored it. After three years of restoration work, the AFA is now on exhibition in the Transport collection at mNACTEC.

Joan Aymerich Casanoves

In 1935 Casanoves had created the failed "National Ruby" car, due to the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

he was not able to go to production. But his experience served as the basis for the AFA. Casanoves hoped to make 100 cars annually, but only produced one or two cars. He died in 1946, and the car project was then abandoned in 1947.

References

* Companies Based in Barcelona, LIFE JOURNEY, 2013 * Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Spain Companies based in Barcelona Cars introduced in 1943 Cars discontinued in 1944 Cars of Spain {{Spain-transport-stub

Cabriolet

Joan Aymerich Casanoves

See also

References