Žnoprešk Autotecnica

Žnoprešk Autotecnica S.p.A. (originally Žnoprešk Avtotehnika) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, a subsidiary of Žnoprešk-Marlin Automobili S.p.A.

Žnoprešk Autotecnica was formed in february 1978 when Žnoprešk-Marlin reorganized its automobile business when it merged with Blue Marlin Motori Auto into the new group, and traces its history back to 1931 when the first Žnoprešk automobile, the ŽA-2631, was produced.

## History

In 1913, in the city of Rijeka (former Austro-Hungarian Empire), the Czech engineer Jan Karel Žnoprešk established his own mechanical workshop Žnoprešk Aerotehnika with the main purpose to build Sierragé aeronautical petrol engines under licence.

During the Great War, the company successfully proposed to Horchkral Flugzeugwerke a fully in-home developed boxer engine in 1915 (used on the HF-IV reconnaissance plane) and later proposed to the military a completely self-designed biplane fighter aircraft (PŽ-117) in 1917. The performance of the aircraft weren't good enough for the Kaiserliche und Königliche Luftfahrtruppen so the Žnopresk continued to improve the design until the end of the war, without reaching the so much desired contract.

### The post Great War expansion

The good reliability of the great war engines brought to the request from Horchkral Flugzeugwerke abroad and Aereggio in Italy of new boxer engines with 4, 6 and 12 cylinders. Also, the Italian Royal Army requested a new light reconnaissance plane and a modified PŽ-117, the PŽ-220 won the contract. The civilian version of the plane ŽC-220 saw some success in training school in Italy, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary. The small factory in Rijeka was overloaded, and a new plant in Pola was initially rented in and in 1925 bought.

In 1927, the company expanded the range of aircraft with the small cargo plane ŽT-627 and the bigger ŽT-528 and increased the range of engines for civilian and military purposes. During 1927 they've also shown at the Seaplane Naiper Trophy with a race seaplane prototype ŽIC-1 arriving 4th. The company was on a rise and they bought a new plant in Trieste, but with the 1929 crisis their lenders started to claim back credits from Nopresco.

### From department to parent company

In order to optimize the existent resources of the company portfolio, Nopresco found that the best way to increase their revenue without big investiments was to get involved in luxury cars production. They hired some former car engineers from the french SACAM and a promising young apprentice of the De Ritz Coachwork (Amedeo Iurlaro) and in 1931 the first car of the Nopresco lineage was presented on the market during the 25th "Salon de l'Automobile" in Paris, the chassis ŽA-2631C. The Iurlaro's bodywork unveiled at the car show was very well received by the public and the press. Unusually for the era were more orders of the complete car than of barebone chassis. This unexpected surprise required to cooperate with local third party metal workers in the Trieste industrial area. There are rumors that MMM was involved at the time, but no proof was found in the documents of the era.

The experiment was enough successful that Jan Karel approved the development of a second car. Cause of the available resources and spaces, the project moved towards a high end luxury car with a big six cylinder inline engine derived from the aeronautical 13.6 liter boxer 12 used on the ŽT-528. The car, the ŽA-5033 was unveiled in the 1933 with a opulent bodywork by Iurlaro, but it was unavailable to the customers. The ŽA-5033 was available only as chassis due resource restriction in the bodywork section.

The engineer in chief of the Avtotehnika deparment, Antoine Delois, was upset about the conditions of the department. As former SACAM vice-chief, he saw his work as a mere "scavenging and gluing together leftovers". The promised freedom and evolution was none-existent and he faced Jan Karel harshly. At the end of a fierce discussion Jan Karel gave to Antoine full support for the transformation of the Avtotehnika from a department to a parent company. Jan Karel hand over the old plant in Pola, set a starting budget, agreed a medium term development plan and revenue condition linked to the Aerotehnika company to be reached. If only one of this condition weren't met, the Avtotehnika will close. Antoine had the resources he craved and started immediately with a re-organization of the production.

### The Nopresco era

In 1935, cause of the forced italianization of the Julian Venetia area started in the early 20's, Žnoprešk received an ultimatium from the fascist government. Žnopresk coulnd't procrastinate anymore and it was forced to change the name in Nopresco. Someone of the directors, during the discussion about the marketing strategies, suggested to rotate 90° the actual logo so the Z propeller logo would became a N propeller logo. Initially perceived as a joke, eventually the company used that logo until the end of the second world war. Still, for marketing purposes, they wanted to continue using the Ž for the product naming, but the fascists refused stating that "it wasn't a character of the latin alphabet". After a small discussion both side agreed in using a simple Z.

This small era period (from 1935 to 1940) saw the Nopresco constantly increasing the revenue year after year. The main activity, medium size transport aircraft, saw a constant output increase fueled by expansion of the commercial flight and a contract of military aircraft for the Spanish civil war. This expansion put Delois in a very difficult situation. More the revenue of the aircraft company increased, more the automotive parent company had to grow. This lead to a massive re-organizazion of parent company, with the creation of an automotive engine division and the construction of a new plant in Trieste designed to assembly part of the new cars in development.

Presented and sold from 1935, the ZAC-5035 was a truck based on simplified version of the Z5033 chassis, assembled in the Pola plant. It was the quicker to implement with the already available resources of the company. Delois wasn't happy of using again the "leftovers" but he had to find a simple and fast way to keep up with the aircraft company expansion. A six wheels drive version for the military was proposed during the second world war, that had several problem of reliability and its use was limited.

At the end of the 1935 it was presented the ZA-2036, a medium sized 2 liter boxer 4 sedan expected to be sold on 1936. Still a conservative FR layout body on frame design, it main purpose was a test the new in-house body workshop and the assembly line for mass production. The car was well received by the public for its styling, the premium feel and the good refinement, even if it wasn't innovative in most of the engineering aspectes.

During the 1937 the ZA-2631 chassis and engine was updated into the ZA-2631/37 and at the end of the same year the most ambitious and expensive work of Nopresco Autotecnica was unveiled. The ZA-1038. The car had a space saver and more economic RR layout and it was initially designed to use a unibody construction, but budget problems forced to revert back to a X frame chassis. The engine was the smallest boxer 4 ever built by Norpresco at the time. Initially it was proposed to use a 3 cylinder bank out of an existing boxer 6, but to Delois that idea was unsustainable because it reminded him the "leftovers" technique that he fight against so fiercely. The production line had several problems so the full production of the car was obtained only in the early 1939.

With a complete lineup the Autotecnica company was starting to expand and sales in the whole europe and the finances were good enough to plan the investiment of a bigger plant in the Gorizia area, but Delois plan were blocked by the second world war.