Amilcar

France, 1921 – 1939

(1) Sté Nouvelle pour l’Automobile Amilcar, St Denis, 1921 – 1937

(2) Sté Financière pour l’Automobile, Boulogne-sur-Seine, 1937 – 1939

Of all the sporting voiturettes that proliferated in France after World War 1, the Amilcar was the most famous and successful. Its name(Amilcar) was an anagram of those of its proagonists, Messrs Lamy, who had been concerned with the design of the Le Zèbre before the war, and Akar, who financed the Amilcar. The Amilcar’s designer was Edmond Moyet. The Amilcar Type CC and its developments the Amilcar CS and Amilcar C4 all had 4-cylinder sv engines of about 1-litre capacity, three forward speeds and quarter-elliptic springing. They differed little, therefore, from hosts of their competitors. The Amilcar CGS or Grand Sport of 1924 was a different and more serious proposition. It had a 1.074cc engine with full pressure-lubcrication, front-wheel brakes and front half-elliptic springs. It was developed into the more powerful, lowered Amilcar CGSS (Surbaisse) model in 1926. Various touring cars of between one and two litres were also made, all with four cylinders and side valves, but it was the Amilcar CGS and Amilcar CGSS that made the company’s reputation throughout the world.

Even so, the Amilcar C6 Course, one of the very few pure racing cars ever to be put into production, was still more exciting. Introduced in 1926, it dominated the 1100cc voiturette racing class. Its twin overhead camshaft, 6-cylinder engine developed 83hp and used roller bearings in works form. These Amilcars were capable of 118mph. A small touring straight-8 joined the range in 1928, as was the fashion then. This low-built Amilcar C8 was another excellent machine, with good roadholding and a creditable maximum speed of almost 80mph in spite of its considerable weight. The 2-litre engine had a single overhead camshaft.

By 1930, the Amilcar company was concentrating on touring cars; sports cars in France, as elsewhere with the onset of the Depression, were in decline. The Amilcar C8 was there, enlarged to two litres. The 1¼-litre Amilcar Type M, a sedate small four which had arrived in 1928, survived until 1935 as the Amilcar M2, Amilcar M3 and Amilcar M4; latterly with a 1.7-litre engine. Meanwhile, 1933 had brought Moyet’s new 5CV, the Type C, current until 1935 in various forms, and the disappearance of the C8. From 1934 to 1937 the Amilcar 12CV N7 was offered, which used a Delahaye engine, and there was also the Amilcar 14CV G36. The last Amilcars, made by Hotchkiss, were far more interesting. These ‘Compounds’ of 1938-1939 had independent suspension front and rear, front-wheel drive on J.A. Grégoire Tracta patents, and the Alpax unit construction of body and chassis that incorporated much aluminum. The engine was an 1.185cc four.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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Morris

GB, 1913 to date

(1) W.R.M. Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1913 – 1919

(2) Morris Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1919 – 1970

(3) Austin-Morris Division, British Leyland Motor Corp Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1970 to date

W.R. Morris (later Lord Nuffield), an Oxford cycle and motor agent, launched his Morris-Oxford light car in 1913. This Morris car was made from proprietary parts, the engine being a 1-litre T-head four by White and Poppe. At £175 the Morris car was one of the best of the true light cars (as opposed to cyclecars) and over 1.000 Morris cars had been sold by the end of 1914. A larger model, the famous Morris Cowley, arrived on the scene in 1915; this Morris car was assembled from American components, the engine being by Continental. After World War 1 Morris cars marketed two 1½-litre L-head sv fours, with power units by Hotchkiss of Coventry; the Morris Cowley differed from the Morris Oxford mainly in its more austere equipment and the absence of a starter. In an inflationary climate, Morris cars was brave enough to reduce the prices of its Morris cars(a Morris Cowley two-seater cost £465 in October 1920, £299.10s a year later, and £225 in October 1922) and ensured a steady flow of Morris carproduction by acquiring his suppliers, such as Hotchkiss, Wrigley (transmissions) and Hollick and Pratt (bodies).

The Morris ‘bullnoses’ were soon best-sellers backed by a nation-wide service organization of Morris cars, and in 1925 Morris outsold all his competitors with 54.000 Morris cars. From 1924 to 1926 the staple Morris cars were the 1½-litre Morris Cowley and the 1.8-litre Morris Oxford, both with 3-speed gearboxes and the wet-plate clutches which persisted on some Morris carmodels right up to 1939. The Morris Oxford acquired front wheel brakes in 1925, and they were available as an option on Morris Cowleys a year later. 1927 Morris cars produced the flat radiator and also a venture into the export market with the unsuccessful Empire Oxford Morris car of 2½-litres, which had a 4-speed box and worm drive. Equally unsuccessful was a plan to market Gallicized Morris cars built in the Léon Bollée plant at Le Mans.

Meanwhile Cecil Kimber had produced the first of the Morris-Oxford-based MG sports cars, and a new name had been born. Morris had made a few six-cylinder Morris cars in the early 1920s, but his first serious attempt in this direction with Morris cars was a 2½-litre ohc model for 1928, the engine of this Morris car inspired by the Wolseley 16/45, a make which had come under Morris control the previous year. 1929 saw another ohc Morris car, the 847cc Morris Minor at £125. Never a best-seller, the Morris car none the less served as the basis for MG’s Midget. The 1930 6-cylinder Morris cars had hydraulic brakes, extended down the range until they were universal by 1934 on all Morris cars, and in 1931 Morris managed to offer a simplified sv two-seater version of the Morris Minor for £100. The early 1930s proved very difficult for the Morris car company, which had no obvious best-seller and too many different models of Morris cars. Sliding roofs and electric fuel pumps by the Morris-owned S.U. concern were innovations for 1932 and 1933 Morris cars pioneered the semaphore-type traffic indicator in Britain. That year Morris cars sv 1.3-litre Morris Ten-Four came out as an answer to Austin’s Ten and Hillman’s Minx. All 1934 Morris cars had synchromesh and the bigger sixes the added refinement of a free wheel.

The best-seller Morris car came at last in 1935 with the 918cc sv Series I Morris Eight, which retailed at £132.10s for a fully-equipped Morris car saloon and helped reach their first million Morris cars by the summer of 1939. In a bigger category were the Series II Morris carmodels with modern styling, 3-speed gearboxes, and built-in jacking systems, ranging from a revised Morris Ten-Four up to a 3½-litre 6-cylinder Morris Twenty-Five at £280. These Morris cars were contemporary with the Series I, though introduced some months after that Morris car. All 1938 Morris cars except for the Morris Eight had push-rod ohv engines (already applied to Wolseley and MG). Later that year Riley was absorbed into the Nuffield Morris car empire. Two 1939 winners were a revised Series E 8hp with a 4-speed gearbox and headlamps faired into the wings of the Morris car, and the 1.140cc ohv Series M Ten, which introduced integral construction to Cowley and this Morris car was made after World War 2 by Hindusthan in India.

Only the 8 and 10 Morris cars were made in the first post-war years, the first really new Morris car for ten years being the 1949 Morris cars designed by Alex Issigonis. Of these the MM series Morris Minor used the old 8hp sv engine, but boasted integral construction, rack-and-pinion steering and torsion-bar independent front suspension and set a new standard in popular car handling. A million of the basic design Morris cars had been sold by January 1961. Its companion Morris carmodels, also chassisless, and with independent front suspension were a new sv 1½-litre Morris Oxford and the 2.2-litre ohc Morris MS Type Six.

The amalgamation of Nuffield and Austin to form the British Motor Corporation in 1952 resulted in a gradual process of rationalization. First the Morris Minor went over to Austin’s 803cc ohv A30 engine in 1953. The Series II Oxford Morris car and its less powerful companion, the Morris Cowley, of 1954 had Morris hulls, but their engines were also ohv Austins. In 1955 the Morris carrange was completed by a new Isis using the 2.6-litre BMC 6-cylinder unit – this Morris car was discontinued in 1958. In the late 1950s some Morris cars were made and sold in Australia under the Morris car name which were in fact more closely akin to other makes in the BMC group. The 6-cylinder Morris Marshall was really an Austin A105, while both the Major and its Austin counterpart, the Lancer, were based on the Wolseley 1500.

With the arrival of the Farina-styled 1½-litre Morris car saloons in 1959, differences between Austin and Morris cars had been reduced to house colours and radiator emblems. The front-wheel-drive Mini (1960) was shared between the two makes and though its bigger stablemate, the 1100 of 1963 with Hydrolastic suspension, was initially a Nuffield monopoly Morris car, the inevitable Austin variant followed a year later. In the case of the third front-wheel-drive model, the 1800, Austin were ahead of Morris cars in introducing it by nearly eighteen months. The 1968 Morris car range comprised the fwd Mini, 1100/1300, and 1800 as well as the conventional 1.600cc Oxford and the indestructible Morris Minor 1000, now with 1.098cc engine and still selling close on 60.000 Morris cars a year. This sole survivor of independent Morris car design did not disappear until the end of 1970. Minis became a separate make that year. From 1971 Morris car versions of the 1100 and 1300 disappeared; the name was reserved for the Marina, an orthodox rear-wheel-driven family saloon with Minor 1000 front suspension, semi-elliptics at the rear, and drum brakes on the simpler variant Morris cars. Push-rod 1.300cc and 1.800cc B.L.M.C. 4-cylinder engines were used, and the original 2-door coupé and 4-door saloon were joined by a station wagon Morris car in 1973. The largest fwd cars were still available with Morris car badges – there was a version of the 6-cylinder 2200 in 1972.

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