Abadal

Abadal was the Spanish automobile identity created by racing driver and Hispano-Suiza agent Francisco Serramelera Abadal, known as Paco Abadal. His Barcelona sales and service business grew out of cycle, motorcycle and automobile dealing, and the marque emerged after Hispano-Suiza ended its relationship with him. The first Abadal cars appeared around 1912–13 and followed the fast, technically conventional luxury-car formula associated with Hispano-Suiza: four-cylinder and six-cylinder chassis, four-speed transmission, semi-elliptic suspension and coachbuilt open bodies. The period range is reported with conflicting nominal ratings and capacities, including 18/25 HP or 25 HP four-cylinder cars around 3.1–3.6 litres and a 45 HP six-cylinder of about 4.5 litres. Those labels are retained as source contexts rather than multiplied into every possible model. Belgian Impéria built Abadal cars under licence as Impéria-Abadal. The licensed production became especially important after the First World War and included the 16-valve, 2,992 cc four-cylinder sports car and an eight-cylinder 5.6-litre competition derivative associated with the 1922 Spa touring-car victory. Impéria's licensed badge and factory history remain related but separately accountable. From 1916 Abadal held the Spanish Buick agency and Barcelona-built cars adopted Buick power units and custom coachwork under the Abadal-Buick name. The documented DX 44 and DX 45 forms are best treated as one Buick-derived family with engine and bore changes, not as unrelated marques. Automobile production ended in 1923 as Abadal moved toward General Motors representation. A proposed 1930 Abadal Continental luxury sedan with a Continental engine reached prototype planning or an initial sample but never became a production successor. The Abadal Y-12 aircraft engine and Paco's earlier Hispano-Suiza sales remain industrial and career history, not automobile models. The catalog consequently distinguishes the early Abadal luxury/sports families, the licensed Impéria-Abadal output and the Buick-derived Abadal-Buick while excluding unsupported body-only variants and the unbuilt Continental program.

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