Cofersa

Cofersa was the trading name of Construcciones Ferrusola S.A., a Madrid manufacturer founded in 1953 by José Mercader after his earlier work building auxiliary engines for bicycles. The factory operated at Calle Elfo 80 and concentrated overwhelmingly on motorcycles. Its first complete machine, a conventional but robust 125 cc motorcycle using a Spanish license-built Hispano Villiers engine, went on sale in 1954. Approximately one hundred were built in the first year, after which demand expanded the workforce to around or above one hundred people. A 197/200 cc derivative broadened the range. The stamped-sheet-metal JM followed in 1957 with a four-speed gearbox and a nominal 2 hp rating in one summary. The 1959 HX125 Helix used deeply valanced pressed-steel bodywork and a protective rear-wheel grille intended to reduce the risk of skirts becoming entangled when a passenger rode side-saddle. Motorcycle production ceased in 1962; retrospective estimates around 6,000 machines exist but are not supported here as an exact factory-ledger total. Cofersa enters the automobile catalog because in 1956 it presented or advertised a separate microcar project for two or three occupants. Period-derived summaries quote a planned price of 35,000 pesetas and cautiously identify the engine as the same 197 cc Hispano Villiers single-cylinder two-stroke available to Spanish motorcycle and microcar builders. No dependable evidence shows that the microcar entered production, reached customers or even survives as an authenticated completed prototype. Its body material, wheel count, drivetrain layout, output, transmission, dimensions, weight, speed, chassis number and registration history remain unresolved. The catalog therefore records one Microcar Project row, explicitly classified as prototype/announced rather than production. Cofersa's 125, 197/200, JM and Helix are motorcycles and remain in the marque history instead of being incorrectly counted as automobile models. This qualified admission explains why general car indexes include Cofersa while preserving the fact that its commercial output was motorcycles and its only known car was an unrealized 1956 proposal.

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