Chrysler

US, 1923 to date

Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Mich.

Walter P. Chrysler, formerly of Buick and Willys, acquired Maxwell-Chalmers in 1923, and the first car to bear his name, the 6-cylinder ‘Chrysler 70’ of 1924, was something of a sensation with its 4-wheel contracting hydraulic brakes and 70mph performance. At $1645 for a Chrysler sedan, 43.000 were sold in 1925. The 1926 Chrysler range was widened to include a 3-litre 4-cylinder ‘Chrysler 58’ to replace the Maxwell and the expensive 4.7-litre 6-cylinder Chrysler Imperial, selling for $3095. The 6-cylinder roadsters offered an excellent road performance for a modest price, as was shown by their 3rd and 4th places at Le Mans in 1928, behind a Bentley and a Stutz. The 1929 Chrysler models had internal-expanding brakes and their body styling and ribbon-type radiator shells were widely imitated in Europe over the next few years.
Meanwhile Chrysler had laid the foundations for a motor empire to rival General Motors and Ford by taking over Dodge and launchin two new makes, the Plymouth Four in the lowest price sector, and the De Soto Six in a slightly higher bracket – all this in 1928. Chrysler sold 98.000 cars in 1929. The 1931 Chrysler cars featured the long, low look inspired by the Cord of 1929; 4-speed gearboxes were offered for  a short while and for the first time a brace of straight-8s featured in the Chrysler range – the medium-priced Chrysler CD, and the 6.3-litre Chrysler CG-type Imperial for the carriage trade, often with bodies by Le Baron. 1932 saw fully flexible rubber engine mountings (‘Floating Power’), automatic clutches and free wheels. Synchromesh followed a year later. Automatic overdrive was available in 1934 on Chrysler, and regular equipment by 1936. The Chrysler line for 1934 was spearheaded by the revolutionary CD-type 8-cylinder Chrysler Airflow, with welded unitary construction of chassis and body, all seats within the wheelbase, headlamps mounted flush in the wings, a full aerodynamic shape and concealed luggage accommodation. At $1345 it was a commercial failure, though it was continued till 1937. Chrysler hurriedly brought out the more conventionally styled Chrysler Airstream line in 1935, and for the next twenty years the Chrysler company’s styling policy was cautious, though technical progress is represented by the adoption of independent front suspension and hypoid rear axles (for sale in 1937), steering-column gear-change (for sale in 1939) and optional fluid drive from 1939 onward.
The 1942 Chrysler cars for sale, generally competitive with GM’s Buick, embraced two 4.1-litre sixes and three 5.3-litre eights, all side-valve, with prices from $1295 for the Chrysler Windsor to $3965 for the Chrysler Crown Imperial limousine on the 12ft 1½in wheelbase.  

Early post-war design followed the 1942 Chrysler models closely, apart from some interesting ‘Town and Country’ bodies, basically standard sedans and convertibles with wooden exterior trim in station-wagon style. In 1951, however, Chrysler broke new ground with a 5.4-litre overhead valve oversquare V8 with hemispherical heads, a fully automatic transmission and the option of hydraulic power-assisted steering. This was at the time America’s most powerful car and Chrysler engines were fitted and raced by Allard and Cunningham. Caliper disc brakes were optional, but were dropped after a few years, while another individual feature of Chrysler Corporation products was the push-button layout of controls for the automatic transmission, found on Chrysler cars made between 1956 and 1965. Chrysler’s lag in styling was painfully apparent in 1954, when the Chrysler group lay a bad third behind GM and Ford, and 1955 not only saw the retirement of the old side-valve six in favour of a 4.9-litre 188bhp V8, but also new, lower ‘Flight Sweep’ lines which put the Chrysler cars well back in the running. A new range of ‘Chrysler 300’ coupés and convertibles gave Chrysler a ‘personal car’ competitive with Ford’s Thunderbird and the 6¼-litre V8s used in the 1957 Chrysler cars developed more bhp than any of their rivals. Alternator ignition and unitary construction of chassis and body were adopted in 1960, while Chrysler, who had had a gas-turbine car running experimentally in 1954, built a series of fifty vehicles using Plymouth running gear in 1964 which were supplied to selected customers for evaluation.
The 1960s also saw the corporation extend its motor-car interests into Europe by the acquisition of majority interests in Simca of France and the Rootes Group of Great Britain. Another overseas venture was Chrysler Australia Ltd of Adelaide. Chrysler’s V8 engine was also used by Facel Vega in France, and by Bristol and Jensen in Britain. Chyrsler’s 1968 cars were all V8s in the $3300 - $4600 price class, with 6.3-litre or 7.2-litre engines. Automatic transmission was standard on the more expensive Chrysler New Yorkers and the 350bhp Chrysler 300 coupé. There were no major changes in subsequent years, though the general derating of American power units was reflected by the standardization of 5.9-litre, 6.6-litre and 7.2-litre V8 in 1972 and 1973, with outputs ranging from 175bhp to 245bhp. Between 1955 and 1967 a handful of special-bodied Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths with Ghia coachwork were sold under the Dual-Ghia name.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS 
The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Hotchkiss

France, 1903 – 1955

(1) Hotchkiss et Cie, St. Denis, Seine, 1903 – 1936

(2) Automobiles Hotchkiss, St. Denis, Seine, 1936 – 1955

The American Benjamin Berkeley Hotchkiss set up his ordnance Horchkiss car factory at St. Denis in 1867; the Hotchkiss cars were the result of an arm slump. The work of Terrasse, these first Hotchkiss cars were T-headed fours with pair-cast cylinders, 5-ball-bearing crankshafts, low-tension magneto ignition, round honeycomb radiators, 4-speed gearboxes, and the famous Hotchkiss drive by live axle and open propeller shaft. Initially cylinder capacities of Hotchkiss cars were 4.6-litres and 7.4-litres, but the Hotchkiss car company’s first racers of 1904 were 17.8-litre monsters notable for their aiv and chain drive. Though their 1905 successors conformed once more to touring-car practice, they were even bigger Hotchkiss cars, with 18.815cc and an alleged 130bhp. Hotchkiss’s last racing season was 1906 with their Grand Prix Hotchkiss cars had 16.3-litre L-head units and quick-detachable wire wheels. Though these Hotchkiss cars were unsuccessful, Hotchkiss sold 167 cars that year, with gate change standardized, and a choice of five Hotchkiss car models: a short-lived 4.2-litre petrol brougham, fours of 18, 30 and 42hp, and their first six. The last-mentioned Hotckiss car was the large V-type that evolved into a 9½-litre machine and was still being offered in 1912 as a Hotckiss car. Chassis price was £1.000 and it was capable of 60mph.

The slump following the Agadir crisis led to the abandonment of ball-bearing crankshafts on Hotchkiss cars; at the same time there was a move towards smaller Hotchkiss cars with the 3.1-litre T-type, with side valves in an L-head and high-tension magneto ignition. Two years later came something even smaller and more modern, the 12/16hp Hotchkiss X-type with 2-bearing crankshaft and three forward speeds at £390. Soon monobloc engines spread up the range to the 3.7-litre Hotckiss AB of 1912. From 1911 there were some smaller L-head sixes, the 4.678cc Hotchkiss X6 and the 5½-litre Hotchkiss AC6; 1912 sales were a record 598 Hotchkiss cars. Electric lighting was available from 1913, and all the 1914 Hotchkiss car models – the 2.6-litre Hotchkiss AG, the 4-litre Hotchkiss AF, the 5.7-litre Hotchkiss AC, and the 6-cylinder Hotchkiss AC6 – had semi-elliptic suspension all round.

The wartime demand for Hotchkiss machine guns led to the establishment of a branch factory under the Englishman Harry Ainsworth, this subsequently making engines for W.R. Morris until it was absorbed by him in 1923. At home Hotchkiss sold off their surplus works capacity at Lyons and concentrated on a revised Hotchkiss car again, the AF with full electrics and a horseshoe-shaped radiator in place of the traditional round one. Its successor, the Hotchkiss AH of 1921, had cantilever rear springs and torque tube drive, and a year later came the Hotchkiss AL with ohv, and a detachable head; front-wheel brakes were added for 1923. There was also a prototype luxury Hotchkiss car at the 1921 Paris Salon; this Hotchkiss AK had a 6.6-litre 6-cylinder ohc engine, dual ignition, 4-speed unit gearbox, servo-assisted 4-wheel brakes, and a cruciform-braced frame, but it never went into production.

The return of Ainsworth to St. Denis in 1923, coincided with the construction of a new Hotchkiss car factory and a more realistic type of car, the 2.4-litre 12CV Hotchkiss AM, with 4-cylinder sv engine, 4-speed unit box, four-wheel brakes, wire hwwls, and Hotchkiss drive once more. Between 1924 and 1928 it was the Hotchkiss car company’s staple product, selling at the rate of over a thousand a year and offering a 70mph performance at a modest outlay. It persisted until 1932, acquiring ohv in 1926 and rod-operated brakes in 1928, and its engine was used in some Morris-Léon Bollées. Even better was the Hotchkiss AM80 of 1929, largely the work of Bertarione. This was a short-stroke (80x100mm), 7-bearing ohv 3-litre six that owed a good deal to the AM2, though early cars featured torque tube drive; it was to be the basis from which all subsequent Hotchkisses were evolved. A silent 3rd gearbox featured on 1931 Hotchkiss car models, Hotchkiss drive reappeared in 1932, and 1933 improvements included Bendix brakes, cruciform-braked frames, down-draught carburetors and mechanical fuel pumps. Hotchkiss AM80 engines were also fitted to Sizaire Frères and Tracta cars.

The 1933 Hotchkiss car range was expanded both up and down, with new Hotchkiss 12CV (2-litre) and 13CV (1.3-litre) fours for the economy market, and an 85mph fast tourer, the 100bhp 3½-litre Hotckiss AM80S, for the enthusiast. This Hotchkiss car was based on the car with which Vasselle won the 1932 Monte Carlo Rally. Hotchkiss cars repeated this success in 1933 and 1934: in the latter year the Hotchkiss cars collected two Glazier Cups in the Alpine Trial. There were further wins in the Monte Carlo in 1938 and 1939; on the latter occasion a Grand Sport Hotchkiss car tied with a 3½-litre Delahaye. Radiators were moved forward on the 1934 Hotchkiss cars, and the 3-litre gave way to a 2.650cc 15CV that was not a success and lasted only one season. The 1935 Hotchkiss cars had synchromesh and integral boots, and at the top of the 3½-litre 20CV range was the twin-carburettor Hotckiss Paris-Nice, a 115bhp sports car capable of 95mph. Hydraulic brakes appeared in 1936 on Hotchkiss cars (to be quietly dropped halfway through 1937). The sports 20CV engine was now giving 125-130bhp and when allied to a short 9ft 2in wheelbase resulted in the Hotchkiss Grand Sport, a true 100mph saloon.

By 1938 the horseshoe radiator on the Hotchkiss car was now a wire-mesh grille, but despite the exigencies of French rearmament programmes the Hotchkiss car company managed to deliver 2.751 Hotchkiss cars that year, made up of the two fours, the reinstated 3-litre Hotchkiss 680, and the 3½-litre Hotchkiss 686 in various forms, including seven-seater limousines with the single-carburettor 100bhp engine. Hotchkiss also came to the rescue of the ailing Amilcar concern, helping to make the Grégoire-inspired 1.185cc Compound, a small fwd saloon with unitary construction in Alpax; this was sold in England, though not in France, as a Hotchkiss car. A 1.3-litre ohv development, the Hotchkiss B67, was ready for production when France collapsed in the summer of 1940.

Hotchkiss never really recovered from World War 2, though Peugeot were briefly interested in the Hotchkiss car company and Hotchkiss 686 cars won the first two post-war Monte Carlo Rallies of 1949 and 1950. The Hotchkiss 12CV and Hotchkiss 20CV were back in production, unchanged, by 1946, but the first year’s output was a miserable 117 Hotchkiss cars. Hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension did not appear until 1949 on Hotchkiss cars (though Hotchkiss had experimented with the latter in 1937), and a Cotal electric gearbox became a factory option. The 1951 Hotchkiss car models were ‘facelifted’ with V-screens, recessed headlamps and auxiliary coil rear suspension, but in the meantime there had been an expensive mistake: the acquisition by Hotchkiss of the rights to the Grégoire flat-4. This ingenious device was a development of the 1938 Amilcar theme featuring all-round independent suspension and a 4-speed overdrive gearbox, as well as front wheel drive. Production Hotchkiss car models with 2.2-litre engines were said to achieve 95mph and 30mpg, but the teething troubles were endless, and Hotchkiss only managed to make 250 Hotchkiss cars in the end. There was a shutdown in 1952 and the price of recovery was a merger with Delahaye that led inevitably to concentration on commercial vehicles. The old Hotchkiss cars 13CV and 20CV received another facelift in time for the 1954 Paris Salon, but his was their swansong, though medium-powered trucks continued to be made until 1970, along with a version of the American Jeep built under licence.

GB, 1920

Hotchkiss et Cie, Coventry, Warwickshire

Hotchkiss of Coventry, a British offshoot of the famous French Hotchkiss car firm, was set up during World War 1 to make engines in Britain. Their units became best known as the motive power for Morris and BSA light cars, but before they were taken over by William Morris, Hotchkiss experimented with a small car of their own. The Hotchkiss car consisted of their 1.080cc air-cooled V-twin ohv engine installed with a 3-speed gearbox in a pre-war Morris Oxford chassis. It never went into production.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com