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

Hispano Suiza

E, 1904 – 1944

SA Hispano Suiza, Barcelona

Although the Hispano Suiza car became most famous as a French make, the origins of Hispano Suiza were Spanish, it was always made in Spain as well as in France (indeed, in greater numbers) and in the country of its birth Hispano Suiza cars outlived its French offshoot as far as serious production  was concerned. The Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt, who had designed the Barcelona-built La Cuadra car in 1900, was responsible for the design of a car made in the same city from 1901 to 1904 and called the Castro. The first Hispano Suiza car, of 1904, was in fact the 20hp Castro renamed. A range of Hispano Suiza cars, with large, beautifully-built T-head pair-cast fours with live-axle drive and the luxury of water-cooled brakes was established and by 1907 these Hispano Suiza cars had found their way into the stables of King Alfonso XIII. Two similar sixes with 6.2- and 10.4-litre engines (the Hispano Suiza 30/40 and the Hispano Suiza 60/65) joined them in the following year. All were expensive machines of conventional design, intended mainly for the carriage trade – although not the Alfonso XIII model of 1912. In 1910 an Hispano Suiza racing voiturette won the Coupe de l’Auto race in France. This Hispano Suiza car had a T-head engine with a very long stroke. The Hispano Suiza Alfonso was based on it. Various versions were made, but the best-known, a 3.6-litre car, had cylinder dimensions of 80x180mm. The range of Hispano Suiza cars of tourer type was retained. While the design of the Hispano Suiza Alfonso did not change, thanks to its extreme popularity abroad, the rest of the Hispano Suiza models by 1913, were much more modern, consisting of monobloc 4-cylinder cars, still with long strokes, but with overhead valves operated by an overhead camshaft, all neatly enclosed. V-radiators relaced the former flat pattern in 1914. Two ohc fours, a Hispano Suiza 16hp and a Hispano Suiza 30hp, were listed until 1924. They were solid, reliable machines without front-wheel brakes, seen usually as taxis. By then, they had been overshadowed completely in the international field by the radically new Hispano Suiza H6B of 1919, which was made at the Paris factory and is dealt with under Hispano Suiza France. The next Hispano Suiza car model to originate in Spain, and the first six since before 1914, was a cheaper version of the Hispano Suiza H6B intended for the less opulent Spanish market, consisting of a basically similar but smaller engine of 3.7-litres, with an detachable cylinder head, installed in an H6B chassis. This power unit needed the assistance of a lower set of gear rations than those of the H6B, as it was expected to pull the same weight. This Hispano Suiza car was replaced by another ‘utility’ Hispano Suiza car in 1930, a 3-litre model with pushrod-operated overhead valves like the contemporary small Hispano Suiza car model in France. It had an interesting history; the design of this Hispano Suiza car was to have been taken up by Hudson in America, but because of the Depression American motorists were denied a Birkigt car. By 1935 the Hispano Suiza car had been enlarged to 3.404cc and there were three other sixes in the range: the 3.750cc Hispano Suiza Type 49, the 4.580cc Hispano Suiza Type 65, and the 8-litre Type Hispano Suiza 56bis, which had the same engine dimensions as the French-built car, Hispano Suiza H6C. The smaller sixes were made until 1944. In all, some 6.000 Hispano Suiza cars were produced by the Barcelona works, against about 2.600 from the Paris factory. One or two prototype Hispano Suiza cars of the French V12 were built at Barcelona but there was no series production.

France, 1911 – 1938

(1) Sté Francaise Hispano Suiza, Levallois-Perret, Seine, 1911 – 1914

(2) Sté Francaise Hispano Suiza, Bois-Colombes, Seine, 1914 – 1938

In 1911, a French company with a Paris factory was founded to assemble the Hispano Suiza car from Spain, a hitherto obscure make that had recently won sporting renown in France and was already an established manufacturer of luxury vehicles in its home country, enjoying royal patronage. The Spanish market was poor compared with the rich potential of France and other motoring countries and so it was that when a superb new model of Hispano Suiza cars of the most modern and advanced design was introduced, it came from the French factory. This was the Hispano Suiza H6B of 1919, the first French-developed Hispano Suiza car. It gained such immediate and lasting fame that henceforth, Hispano Suiza car was regarded as a primarily French make, and the products of the Spanish Hispano Suiza car factory (though made in great numbers) fell into onscurity. The Hispano Suiza H6B was designed as the last word in advanced transport for the rich. The engine of this Hispano Suiza car was the outcome of the company’s experience of aircraft engine manufacture during World War 1 – a field in which it was already famous. Its six cylinders, totalling 6.6-litres, were of aluminium, with light steel liners. The cylinder head was fixed on the Hispano Suiza car. A single overhead camshaft operated two valves per cylinder. This engine gave 135bhp at 3.000rpm. A 7-bearing, pressure-fed crankshaft coped with the power. Thus a good power-to-weight ratio was combined with reliability on Hispano Suiza cars, according to the best aviation practice. The chassis was light, yet rigid, and extremely efficient servo-assisted four-wheel brakes were provided to check the 85mph which was available on Hispano Suiza cars in top gear. In spite of a high final drive ratio of 3.4 to 1, the engine developed such excellent low-speed torque that 6 to 50mph in an Hispano Suiza car in top gear occupied only 21 seconds.

The new Hispano Suiza car was not quiet compared with the cars of competitors who counted silence above mechanical efficiency, but in its combination of most of the desirable qualities of a true luxury car – comfort, flexibility – and of the sporting machine – first rate reliability, performance, brakes and handling – the Hispano Suiza car was unique in 1919. Not surprisingly, what amounted to a single-model policy was pursued for many years. Alongside the Hispano Suiza H6B, the Hispano Suiza H6C Sport or Boulogne model appeared in 1924. Bore and stroke were 110x140mm against the H6B’s 100x140mm, giving eight litres. This fabulous Hispano Suiza car was capable of up to 110mph and could be had in short-chassis form. Modified Hispano Suiza H6B’s had won the Coupe Boillot at Boulogne in 1921, 1922 and 1923, in the last instance with the 8-litre engine, which accounted for the new Hispano Suiza car’s name. The H6B and H6C were both still available in 1929, and, as the Hispano Suiza car Tipo 56bis, the latter was made in Spain well into the 1930s. From 1924 to 1927, the former was made by Skoda of Czechoslovakia, under licence. In 1930 Hispano Suiza took over Ballot and fitted a smaller, 4.6-litre, 6-cylinder engine into a Ballot chassis. This Hispano Suiza Junior model, which had central gearchange, was not a car in the same class as its predecessors. In spite of the coming of the Depression, however, in 1931 Hispano Suiza cars produced their biggest, most complex and most expensive design. This Hispano Suiza car was the V12 which abandoned, for the first time since 1919, the six-in-line, overhead-camshaft layout. Cylinder dimensions were ‘square’, at 100x100mm, providing 9½-litres and even greater low-speed torque than that of the old H6B. The overhead valves were operated by push-rods and rockers. Top gear ratio was now 2,75:1 and bottom 5,4:1, or about the same ratio as the top gear of many family saloons of the period. All Hispano Suiza V12s could exceed 100mph and in its fastest, short-chassis open form, the Hispano Suiza car was said to attain 115mph. The V12 was made until 1938. Meanwhile, the Hispano Suiza Junior had been superseded in 1935 by the 4.9-litre, 6-cylinder Hispano Suiza K6, which used push-rod overhead valves like its big brother Hispano Suiza car. It too was current until 1938. Hispano Suiza of Paris then abandoned car production, never to resume it. A prototype Hispano Suiza car was built after World War 2, with front-wheel drive and a Ford V8 engine, but it never achieved catalogue status.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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