Sinpar '1946–80

The founder of the brand, Léon Demeester, has been manufacturing small cars since 1907 in a modest workshop in Neuilly sur Seine. He named them SINPAR, after a Latin motto meaning "Without equal". Automobile production was abandoned in 1914, but once peace returned, the small Sinpar company continued mechanical construction. At the end of the 1920s, sensing the growing need for specific utility vehicles, Demeester rushed into the niche of transforming standard chassis, modifying light trucks at the customer's request.

The first equipment assigned to the transformation were Fords and Citroëns. The services offered were numerous: in addition to chassis modifications, Sinpar ensured the installation of additional axles, special springs, the assembly of speed reducers, cardan greasers, reinforced axle tanks.

To cope with the increase in his activity, Léon Demeester employed several highly qualified workers and set up his company in Courbevoie, in a new workshop which he equipped with modern machine tools.

The manufacturer then had the means to manufacture gearboxes, reducers and multipliers adaptable to all chassis: these "flagship" products would remain a Sinpar specialty throughout the life of the company.

The Second World War emptied the factory of its employees, but after the liberation, the founder and his son Pierre Demesster relaunched the business. In addition to the manufacture of gearboxes, reducers and multipliers, transfer boxes, power take-offs, angle drives, etc. were then added.

The company also developed a whole range of winches, breakdown and lifting equipment and specialized in the transformation of road vehicles into all-terrain vehicles. In 1956, Sinpar moved again and set up in Colombes, in large premises with a large interior courtyard.

The 1950s were particularly prosperous for the manufacturer. Oil research and exploitation developed and intensified, boosted by the need for fuel and the emergence of the production of plastic materials derived from oil. Responding to the demand for specialized vehicles, Sinpar offered bodies called "oil field bodies". This oil equipment was mounted on a wide variety of chassis, including Berliet TLM, GBO, TBO and GBC, Unic ZU and Willème W6 and W8.

Sinpar's other preferred niche is the transformation of small tonnage trucks into all-terrain vehicles. The equipment thus modified is mainly Citroën 23RU, 55U and Renault 1,400 kg and 2.5 tonnes.

In the 1970s, Sinpar had 120 employees. It distributed its production over two sites: the Colombes site and the factory of the former Rotrou bodybuilder, located in Verneuil sur Avre. In 1976, the sudden death of Pierre Demeester compromised the future of the company and Renault Véhicules Industriels took over the assets. In 1980, the Verneuil site housed SOMAC while Sinpar's activity was transferred to Chassieu in the Lyon region. A new Sinpar company was thus created under the name of “Société Industrielle de Production et d’Adaptation Rhodanienne”. During the 1990s, it became a subsidiary of RVI and worked in close collaboration with the BEHS (Bureau d’Études Hors-Série).