Gillet-Forest, an unusual design

Thank you for this short but interesting article. I'm currently working on a database with pre-WW1 races. The driver of the car in the picture is Henri-François Genty, a.k.a. 'de la Touloubre'. He didn't finish the 1907 Coupe de la Commision Sportive , after dropping out in the first lap.

Hi Fons, thanks for the correction: that must have been a slip of the pen! Indeed Fernand, or more fully Fernand Pierre.
The Coupe de la Commission Sportive is unrelated to the Critérium de France. It was held concurrently with the Grand Prix de l'ACF on July 2nd at Dieppe. An excellent article on this race was written by the late Malcolm Jeal in the Aspects of Motoring History issue of 2006 (issued by the Soc. of Automotive Historians in Britain).

Thank you Ariejan for this story.
You seem to suggest that the famous Fernand Forest was associated with this company but I have never seen any proof of that. You call the man Francois but according to my file on this make, there was only a G. Forest.
As for the sports activities: I see 'Critérium de France 1907' in my file. Is that related to the Coupe you mention?
Some years ago I had contact with a Frenchman who was selling a car which he claimed to be a 1905 Gillet-Forest. His photo shows a car with a De Dion Populaire like bonnet and I am not sure that Gillet-Forest ever built cars with such bonnets.

Love them.

I'm aware that at least two Gillet-Forest cars survive, a 1902 phaeton with reg.nr. P-100 (whereabouts unknown to me) and a 1902 tonneau with reg.nr. AF-87 (indeed in the Ward collection). I don't know of any survivors in France, but undoubtedly somewhere in a collection an example will be hidden! Both English Gillet-Forest cars performed at least once in the Brighton run (P-100 in 1996 and the AF-87 during last year's run), thus proving that the system did work, even after more than 100 years!

This was an extremely interesting article, however I'm surprised the existence of at least one "Gillet- Forest" of (I think), 1902 manufacture was not mentioned. It is owned by Toby and Daniel Ward, in the U.K.