Émile Levassor (21 January 1843, Marolles-en-Hurepoix - 14 April 1897, Paris) was a French engineer and a pioneer of the automobile industry and car racing in France.
Biography
Graduated at École Centrale Paris, he started his career in 1872 in a company that produced wood-working machines, where he met René Panhard. They were building gas engines as well. In 1886, a Belgian industrialist Edouard Sarazin got a license for building engines of Gottlieb Daimler. He chose Levassor to build them in France. When Sarazin died in 1887, Levassor married his widow, Louise, and together with Panhard they started building cars. The first appeared in 1890, with an engine built in Daimler license. Levassor also took part in auto racing, finishing fifth in Paris-Rouen race in 1894, and winning illustriously the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris Rally the following year (both in his own cars). In 1896, when taking part in the Paris-Marseille-Paris Rally, he got seriously injured in a crash when he tried to avoid hitting a dog. He never recovered from the injury, and died in Paris the following year.
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Categories: 1843 births | 1897 deaths | French racecar drivers | Alumni of the École Centrale Paris
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