HOTCHKISS (France) 1903-1954

Connecticut Yankee Benjamin Hotchkiss had established his arms factory at St-Denis, 6 km north of Paris, in the 1870s. It filled in the slack period of peace by making motor components, and produced its first car in 1903, though a factory fire nearly halted the project permanently.

This round-radiatored 17 cv four was followed in 1906 by a 7.4 litre six. A quality light car, the 2.2 litre 12/16hp, appeared in 1912, and the next year a five-car range of three fours (12/16, 16/20 and 20/30 hp) and two sixes (20/30 and 40/50 hp) was catalogued. Post-war, Hotchkiss essayed a super-luxury car, the 6.6 litre Type AK, with ohv operated by a miniature crankshaft, but only one was built. From 1923-28, the refined 2.2 litre Type AM was the company s sole offering, gaining pushrod ohv by 1926.

In 1928 came a new six, the AM 80, which was to be the basis for all subsequent Hotchkiss sixes, and which was offered until 1923 with Corque tube transmission instead of the traditional Hotchkiss drive by open propeller shaft. In 1933 came the sporting AM80S 3.5 litre, based on the car which had won the 1932 Monte Carlo Rally (an event which Hotchkiss also won in 1933, 1934,1939, 1949 and 1950).

The sporting Paris Nice of 1934 commemorated a sporting victory by Hotchkiss. A 1937 merger with Amilcar produced the Grégoire-designed Amilcar-Compound, which never saw serious production, and after the Armistice the pre-war 686 model was reintroduced, joined in 1949 by a new 13 cv four.

From 1952, the 2 litre fwd flat-four Hotchkiss-Grégoire was built in small numbers alongside the 3.5litre (which had acquired ifs in 1949).

There was a temporary merger with Peugeot, a permanent one with Delahaye, and in 1954 the company ceased producing cars in favour of commercial vehicles and license-built Jeeps.

1939 Hotchkiss 686 Cabourg

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