Rosengart LR2 History

Lucien Rosengart acquired an Austin 7 manufacturing licence in 1923 and set up production at the former Bellanger factory in Paris's 17th arrondissement. The resulting LR2 reached the market in 1928: mechanically an Austin 7 with its 747 cc side-valve four-cylinder engine and three-speed gearbox, but progressively restyled to suit French tastes.

The LR2 established Rosengart's core market proposition — a very small, affordable car for urban and rural buyers who could not stretch to a full-size Citroën or Peugeot. The model's reliability was demonstrated by endurance trials; racing driver François Lecot famously covered around 900 km per day for more than three and a half months in a Rosengart.

The LR2 remained in production through the 1930s, gradually evolving away from its Austin origins in body style, trim, and detail engineering, until it was superseded by the LR4 line.