Piccard-Pictet et Cie, based in Charmilles, near Geneva Switzerland a hydraulic engineering company,, specialising in turbines, when they were commissioned to build a vehicle for the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup by Frederic and Charles Dufaux.

The car never appeared in the Gordon Bennett Cup, but that did not stop Societe des Automobiles a Geneve approchiing Piccard-Pictet the following year with a view to building Hispano Suiza’s under licence.

Soon SAG as the cars were known in Switzerland or Pic Pic as the cars became known in the UK were being built to their own design, the 1913 example seen in these photographs is fitted with a plate on the dash which suggests the car was supplied to “Agence Des Grandes Marques C Mathaud” in Paris.

This particular vehicle is fitted with a 1918 9 litre / 552 cui Sturtevant V8 aero engine built by the B.F. Sturtevant Company of Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

It would appear Sturtevant built V8’s with L heads or open valves, like the one seen here, simultaneously and both produced around 140hp.

Owner Geoff Smith is seen driving the car in a VSCC meeting held at Prescott.

Thanks for joining me for this Aero Engined Pic Pic edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me for a Classic Silver Jubilee Preview edition tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !