David

David grew from the motorized down-car experiments of the Armangué brothers on Barcelona's Tibidabo slopes. Josep Maria and Frederic Frick Armangué developed a light wood-and-steel chassis with cable steering, independent front suspension and an ingenious progressive variable-diameter pulley transmission driving the rear wheels by twin V-belts. A prototype ran in 1913 and competed in April 1914. On 14 July 1914 the Armangué and Moré families, Ferran Comas and Raül de Roviralta formally constituted the Fábrica Nacional de Cyclecars David with 65,000 pesetas. Production moved to Pallars 71 in Poblenou. The first series used JAP power, quickly replaced after wartime supply disruption by Swiss MAG V-twins. MAG four-cylinder, Ballot and Elizalde engines later broadened the same basic architecture. Standard annual model names were not used consistently: most early cars are best distinguished by engine configuration, while 512 is the only securely recovered factory model code. Coachbuilders supplied sporting, touring, three-seat and closed bodies, so those forms are not counted as separate cars. David became one of Spain's most successful early competition makes, winning Barcelona–Sabadell–Barcelona, Peña Rhin and Barcelona–Madrid–Barcelona events and hillclimbs. Josep Maria Armangué died in an aviation accident in October 1917; the Moré brothers then controlled the company. A named streamlined MAG-four special, La Bala de Plata, appeared in 1921–22, and the Elizalde-engined David 512 was catalogued in 1922. Regular cyclecar manufacture ended during 1922–23 under pressure from imported cars. Unsold chassis were converted into small taxis and delivery vans, but these were reuse programs rather than new mechanical models. David S.A. then became a major Barcelona taxi, rental, garage and Citroën/Berliet business, opening its Aribau complex in 1931. After the Civil War it rebodied and occasionally electrified Citroën Rosalies; those retained donor identity and remain conversion history. Josep Maria Moré Comas designed a proprietary postwar front-wheel-drive three-wheeler shown in 1950. The 345 cc two-stroke Torpedo 2S passenger microcar, three-wheel Motofurgón and five-wheel Tricamioneta entered limited manufacture around 1951/52. The company's own archive reports approximately sixty postwar vehicles through 1957, while secondary totals reach seventy-five. Production ended in 1957; later registrations do not extend manufacture. The original David S.A. survived as a parking, office and property business, so 1957 is the automobile-marque endpoint rather than corporate dissolution. David Autos Fabricación S.A. or DAFSA appears as a related postwar legal manufacturer and is not merged with the Dutch DAF marque. Casalini David, David Brown, David & Bourgeois, Goliath taxi services and unrelated personal names remain separate. Ten catalog rows preserve one prototype, five principal early engine configurations, one named competition special and three materially distinct postwar passenger/commercial vehicles without turning bodies, facelifts or Citroën conversions into invented models.

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