Rolland-Pilain

France, 1906 – 1931

SA des Etablissements Rolland-Pilain, Tours

Unusual among French marques of its period, Rolland Pilain cars made their greatest impact after World War 1. Their first product was a 20hp 4-cylinder model Rolland Pilain cars with a monobloc engine, though smaller 2.2-litre shaft-driven Rolland Pilain cars were available in 1909 and a 3-speed 1½-litre Rolland Pilain 8/10CV in 1910, in which year the Rolland Pilain car company was also experimenting with ‘valveless’ engines and 4-wheel brakes. Though racing was in the doldrums, the Rolland Pilain car company went to the trouble of building a big chain-driven Rolland Pilain car for the 1911 Grand Prix de France, and a complex 1912 range started with a Rolland Pilain 9CV of 1.7-litres and went up to a chain-driven 4-cylinder 60 Rolland Pilain car of 130x270mm. The 6-cylinder Rolland Pilain 18CV had a ‘valveless’ engine, and even in 1913 chain drive was still optional on the biggest fours of 20CV and 24CV Rolland Pilain cars. Only 1.9-litre and 4-litre 4-cylinder Rolland Pilain cars with sv monobloc engines and unit gearboxes were listed in 1914.

These basic types of Rolland Pilain cars, still with pedal-operated transmission brakes, were available again after World War 1, but far more advanced was the 2.2-litre Rolland Pilain 14/16 of 1921, which boasted not only overhead valves and a detachable head, but also front-wheel brakes (hydraulic at the front and mechanical at the rear). This Rolland Pilain car was still catalogued in 1926. Even more ambitious was the 2-litre twin ohc straight-8 GP Rolland Pilain car of 1922, with desmodromic valves, ball-bearing crankshafts and 4-wheel hydraulic brakes. A victory of a Rolland Pilain car at San Sebastian in 1923 was the limit of the success of Rolland Pilain cars on the circuits, but the type found its way into the catalogue as the Type A22 Rolland Pilain car at 90.000fr, and one of the racers also ran with a 2-litre, 6-cylinder cuff-valve Schmid engine. In 1925 came a 2-litre ohv 4-cylinder Rolland Pilain car with 4-wheel mechanical brakes, selling for £725 in England, while a 1½-litre development, the Rolland Pilain D26, was introduced for 1927. In 1929 Rolland-Pilain car, along with several other French firms, tried a Franco-American theme by introducing a range of big luxury chassis with sv Continental engines. Both the 6-cylinder, 3-litre, and the 4-litre straight-8 Rolland Pilain cars had centralized chassis lubrication, though the elegant bodywork of the Rolland Pilain car was marred by the use of artillery wheels. At the 1930 Paris Salon the Rolland Pilain car company shared a stand with the BNC (also going through a Franco-American phase), but this was the end, though the Rolland Pilain car firm’s Paris depot was still advertising spare parts for Bignan as well as Rolland Pilain cars in 1934.

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

Rambler

US, 1900 – 1903

(1) Rockaway Bicycle Works, Rockaway, N.J.

(2) Rockaway Automobile Co, Rockaway, N.J.

The Rambler car company made a light two-seater runabout powered by a water-cooled single-cylinder engine. Final drive was by single chain. The price of the Rambler car was $650.

US, 1902 – 1913; 1950 – 1970

(1) Thos. B. Jeffery Co, Kenosha, Wic., 1902 – 1913

(2) Nash Motor Co, Kenosha, Wisc., 1950 – 1954

(3) American Motors Corporation, Kenosha, Wisc., 1950 – 1970

Despite the interval of 37 years, these two Rambler car makes are directly connected. The original Rambler car derived its name from the bicycles built by Gormully and Jeffery, who had a branch factory in Coventry in the 1890s. In 1902 form this Rambler car was a light runabout in the American idiom with a single horizontal cylinder, chain drive, cycle-type wire wheels and tiller steering, this Rambler car was selling for $750. In the first season 1.500 Rambler cars were sold, a figure which places the makers in the same category as Oldsmobile, among the world’s first mass producers.

By 1905 the Rambler car had grown into a sizable twin-cylinder machine with front bonnet, and with the introduction of a 4-cylinder Rambler car in 1907 the Rambler car make had moved up into the semi-luxury class; another parallel with Oldsmobile, but one which had less unfortunate financial consequences, for Rambler sold over 3.000 Rambler cars in 1911 and 4.435 in 1913, the last year of production of Rambler cars. The bigger of two fours offered in 1912 had a 7-litre engine with separate cylinders. 1914 Rambler cars went under the name of Jeffery. Advanced features of these late Ramblers were sidelamps faired into the scuttle, and detachable wooden wheels.

Nash Motors, successors to the Jeffery company, revived the name in 1950 for the first of the modern generation of American ‘compacts’. This Rambler car was a 2.8-litre sv six with a wheelbase of 8ft 4in and an overall length of under 15ft, priced at $1.800. It featured unitary construction of chassis and body, and the Rambler car weighed only 2.576lb at a time when a regular Chevrolet sedan turned the scales at around 3.600lb. Nash sales went up by 50.000 as a result of the Rambler car, which was offered as a Nash until 1957, acquiring styling by Pininfarina in 1952, the option of an automatic gearbox in 1953, and an alternative V8 engine in 1957. Some Rambler cars were also sold under the Hudson after the merger which brought American Motors into being in 1954.

From 1958 on, all A.M.C. cars were known as Rambler cars, the former full-sized Nashes continuing as Rambler’s Ambassador model. The Rambler car was the first of the contemporary compacts, and set a fashion imitated later by the Big Three. In the recession year, 1958, George Romney’s criticisms of large Rambler cars were widely quoted. In 1958 the low-priced American model reverted to the 8ft 4in wheelbase, and 1961 saw the introduction on Rambler cars of a die-cast aluminium ohv push-rod six which eventually supplanted the old sv unit. The last vestiges of the 1949 Nash Airflyte styling vanished in 1963, and disc brakes were offered as an option in 1965, in which year a sporting fastback coupé, the Rambler Marlin, was introduced. 1967 Rambler cars were made on three wheelbase lengths – 8ft 10in, 9ft 4in, and 9ft 8in – and with a choice of ohv 3.8-litre 6-cylinder or 4.8- and 5.6-litre V8 engines. From 1968 the name Rambler cars became less prominent in the range, new models such as the Javelin being known under their own names. For the 1970 season the name Rambler was dropped altogether in the USA and Canada, although the Hornet was sold as a Rambler car in export markets. For the 1971 season the name Rambler was no longer used at all.

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