The unknown from France - Arista Sport
07/03/2020
Raymond Gaillard, a Panhard and NSU dealer, but also known as a racing driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, built the Passy model with the sports car company Arista in the late 1950s, which exuded sportiness and elegance with Panhard technology.
For the successor, Gaillard engaged the services of designer Jacques Durand to create a sporty coupé, which was again based on a Panhard chassis and powered by the air-cooled two-cylinder "Tigre B" engine with 848 cm3, 50 DIN hp (or 60 SAE hp) at 5750 rpm under the plastic bodywork.
The two-seater coupé introduced in 1963 weighed 620 kg and measured 4.06 m in length, 1.59 m in width and 1.17 m in height. This was supposed to enable a top speed of 162 km/h and a fuel consumption of 7 liters per 100 km.
These were quite respectable figures, but the coupé had become relatively expensive, probably too expensive. In any case, only six of these coupés are said to have been built. Arista finally closed down in 1967. A pity, really, because the sports car was visually very convincing. However, at least one of the coupés seems to have survived, perhaps even several.
Our archive not only contains the photo above in high resolution, but also the original technical data.
