Brand: Pipe

Founded in Brussels in 1898, Compagnie Belge de Construction Automobile (which is the most generic company name you could have as an automaker in Belgium) was the product of two brothers: Alfred and Victor Goldschmidt. Rare and relatively unknown today, Pipe was one of Belgium’s largest auto manufacturers before WWI. Their factory was destroyed during the war and they didn’t attempt production again until 1921. But it wasn’t to be and their passenger cars disappeared after 1922.

The Belgian Pipe company was founded by Alfred and Victor Goldschmidt in 1898, with production of Panhard type automobiles appearing from 1900. Within a couple of years, the brothers were aimed their business at the sporting car market and began to announce a series of technically innovative cars. First came the introduction of the Jenatzy electric clutch system, then a hemispherical overhead valve engine penned by ex-Mercedes designer Otto Pfänder, leading to a second place in the 1907 Kaiserpreis. As they progressed through the first decade of the 20th Century the business grew well, but they were unable to recover from the loss of Pfänder in 1907, and destruction of their factory during World War One.