Brand: Stimula

Stimula Motor Corporation

Stimula was founded by two brothers – Guy and Carl de la Chappelle – in the Gier Valley in France in 1907. They started with motorcycles and three-wheelers for a few years before the car business really got going.

At the beginning, Stimula, unlike many contemporary French manufacturers who used engines from De Dion-Bouton, designed and built their own engines. But by the second decade of the 20th century, they went scrambling for De Dion engines as well, as this car uses a 1.7-liter De Dion straight-four. The cars were light and handy in competitive events like hillclimbs.

Stimula built over 1,000 cars before WWI shut the business down in 1914. Xavier de la Chappelle, a great-nephew of Carl and Guy, resurrected the Stimula name in the 1970s to build the de la Chappelle Bugatti replica.