Bignan (automobile)

Jacques Bignan At the end of 1919, the manufacturer was quoting a list price for the car of 30,000 francs in bare chassis form. The 11CV was redesigned in 1926, with an eight-valve engine featuring twin oil pumps, giving 60 bhp. presumably primarily a tools/auto-parts business. Two cars, now listed with the name "MOP-Bignan", were still being promoted at the Paris Motor Show in October 1928. These were the 2-litre "11CV" model and a "14CV" overhead valve S.C.A.P. straight-8, 2.5-litre engined car, both of which continued in production until the company finally went out of business in 1931. ==Motorsport==

Three Type B cars were entered in the 1920 GP de Voiturettes at Le Mans, with the cars of Nogue and Delauney finishing second and third behind a Bugatti Type 13. By 1923 the 2-litre 11CV had become a mainstay of the range, and it was a Bignan powered by one of these engines that achieved a podium finish, coming in third overall, at the first Le Mans 24 Hour race. Although they never did so well again, Bignan returned to Le Mans in 1924 and in 1925, when a Bignan finished in twelfth place. One of these engines also powered a Bignan to victory in the 1924 Monte Carlo Rally. A feature of the engine with which other auto-makers only caught up many decades later was the incorporation, on the "competition" version, of four valves per cylinder. Appropriately, the company's slogan at the motor show in October 1924 was ("Always ahead of progress"). ==References==