Cottereau

France, 1898 – 1910

Cottereau et Cie, Dijon

The first Cottereau was a 1-litre air-cooled V-twin with coil ignition, tubular frame, 3-speed gearbox, central chain drive to a differential back axle and handlebar steering. Wheel steering was an option in 1900 on the Cottereau cars, when the enlarged engines had water-cooled heads. A 3½hp vehicle of Benz tupe was also made in that year. Cottereau ran a 1.4-litre 2-cylinder machine in the Paris-Toulouse-Paris Race, and a 10hp 4-cylinder voiture de course in Nice-Draguignan. A still bigger 4-cylinder racer of 20hp was made in 1901, when the production twins were sold under the charming name of voiturines. 
Several Cottereau types were marketed in 1903, of which the 5hp Populaire single, selling for £195 in England, had mechanically-operated inlet valves and, surprisingly, steel artillery wheels; a reverse gear was extra. The V-twins came in a variety of guises and with a camshaft brake, Rover style. Smaller Cottereau models had side-chain drive and there was a 1½-litre with full water cooling and shaft drive. At the top of the range was a chain-driven 16hp 4-cylinder with 4-speed gearbox and the choice of either automatic or mechanically-operated inlet valves. This complexity was typical of Cottereau’s offerings and 1904 saw the firms’s first 3-cylinder model, a T-headed 2½-litre with honeycomb radiator. In 1905 the Cottereau firm were employing 350 people, and making everything themselves, bodies included. 
Two singles, a twin, two 3-cylinder Cottereau cars (the 2.5-litre and a smaller 1.8-litre ‘12/14’) and a brace of fours made up the 1906 programme; the single cylinder 8hp could be had with shaft, side-chain, or central chain drive; and with pressed steel or tubular frame, but the latter was available only when a single-chain layout was specified. An enormous Cottereau 18.3-litre 6-cylinder chain-driven racer with high-tension magneto and Mercedes-like appearance was on display at the 1906 Salon, but not, apparently anywhere else, for the largest of the later Cottereau cars with their round radiators, though still made in a vast variety of types (eight models in 1908) was a 4-cylinder 22/26hp of 4.2-litres. There were still 3-cylinder Cottereau cars, and both shaft and chain drive remained available. The latter was usually found on the bigger cars – and confined to them in 1907. But as late as 1910 a 9hp single-cylinder voiturette was available with side chains at the equivalent of £172. Already, however, the Cottereau firm was experimenting with 4- and 6-cylinder rotary-valve units, and in 1911 the make had a new idendity as the C.I.D.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS
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