Zust

Zust (originally Züst) was a car manufacturing company from 1905 to 1917.

The company was founded by engineer Roberto Züst, an Italian industrialist of Swiss origin, who owned a precision tool manufacturing plant at Intra, near Lago Maggiore (formerly the Guller & Croff iron foundry). Züst experimented with prototypes of cars from around 1900 on; in Milan in 1905, he founded the Zust company for manufacturing cars and commercial vehicles. His first models were huge machines propelled by engines from 7432cc to 11308cc. Giustino Cattaneo (later of Isotta Fraschini) worked for him.

Züst decided to make smaller cars at the same time, so with his sons he founded a new company known as Brixia-Zust in the city of Brescia. (Zust and Brixia-Zust are often confused).

A Zust model named 28/45 HP participated in the New York - Paris raid in 1908. Due to financial problems, Brixia-Zust closed down in 1912, but production of Zust cars continued until 1914. The last new model named 15/25 HP or 2S 365 (2592cc), appeared in 1913.

On October 1, 1917, the company was taken over by Officine Meccaniche of Milan, and is thus one of the ancestors of Fiat and IVECO.

External link

• http://www.targaflorio.info/zust.htm (in Italian)