Marcadier

André Marcadier was born in 1925 in Lyon. He worked as an apprentice in a machine shop and took evening classes in brazing before starting C.I.M., Cycles Imbert-Marcadier, with Joannès Imbert post WW2.

André designed and built all the frames and as early as 1949 he was making frames in aluminium, which was very challenging to work with, and those frames were reserved for special customers and professional racers who used them in time-trials, hillclimbs and mountain stages.

By the early 1950’s André Marcadier was producing cycles in his own name and had success in competitions such as the team tandem ‘Challenge des Constructeurs’ and also the ‘Poly Lyonnaise’ which was a hillclimb race.

Interest in cycling was diminishing towards the end of the 50’s and so André diversified into building competition motorcycle frames and karts, for which his experience in fillet brazing was well suited. His innovation and design experience resulted in his karts winning the European Endurance Championship in 1961. The introduction of a new minimum weight rule, reducing his advantage, and the arrival of Colin Chapman and Lotus on the motor racing scene, encouraged André to move into lightweight sports cars.

In partnership with Marcel Fournier, who made the fibreglass body, the Fournier-Marcadier emerged in 1963 as a kit for enthusiasts and racers. Later, the distinctive Barzoï with super low profile, experienced some success.

By the 1980’s André was producing replicas of exotic sports and race cars and had even re-visited the art of frame-making to produce a small number of lightweight bikes

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