Arista

The firm had been founded in the late 1940s by Antonio Monge and Robert Rowe under the name Callista, but the two fell out over the future direction of the firm after its original project, a sporting model called the "Coupe des Alpes" first seen in prototype form at the 1950 Paris Motor Show, appeared likely to be severely undercut on price when Panhard launched their own Panhard Dyna Junior with a comparable level of performance at a far lower price than Callista could achieve with their low volume production. Monge resolved to return to his former occupation, preparing cars for motor sport events. Shortly after this setback Rowe, who had previously worked as an electrical engineer with the Fulmen business, but who also engaged in other trading activities, was financially ruined after the several hundred Romanian tractors that he imported to France turned out to be defective. At the end of 1952 both the firms founding partners, for their own different reasons, withdrew from the project.