The most striking characteristic of a prewar Hotchkiss is how ordinary it appears. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hotchkiss manufactured some of the finest Grand Routier motor cars, capable of speeding across the continent in real comfort and renowned for wins in some of the toughest rallies.
The Hotchkiss Ordnance Company was an Anglo-French armaments manufacturer founded by American engineer Benjamin B. Hotchkiss. In the 1850s, Hotchkiss was a gunsmith in Hartford, Connecticut, working on Colt revolvers and Winchester rifles. He went to France in 1867 and organized Hotchkiss & Co. in 1875, setting up offices in Paris and manufacturing facilities in Saint-Denis. His company enjoyed considerable success, receiving large governmental orders and also exporting to other countries. In 1884, Hotchkiss and William Armstrong & Co. of England agreed to manufacture Hotchkiss guns at the Elswick works.
Hotchkiss died in 1885, and in 1887 both companies were placed under the French corporation and renamed respectively, the Société Anonyme des Anciens Etablissements Hotchkiss et Cie of France and the Hotchkiss Ordnance Company, Ltd. in England.
By around 1900 Hotchkiss was also manufacturing motor-car engine components such as crankshafts, supplied to Panhard et Levassor, De Dion-Bouton and others, and in 1903 Hotchkiss made its first complete engines. Two major car distributors, Mann & Overton of London and Fournier of Paris, encouraged the company to make its own range of cars, the design being inspired by the Mercedes Simplex. Georges Terasse was hired from Mors as the designer.
The first Hotchkiss car, a 17 CV four-cylinder model, appeared in 1903. Six-cylinder models, the Types L and O, followed in 1907. In 1910 Hotchkiss moved into a smaller car market with the 2212cc Type Z.
During World War I, the factory turned to production of machine guns and a subsidiary plant was opened in Coventry. Car production resumed in France 1919 with the pre-war types AD, AD6, AF and AG.
In 1923 the company decided on a one-model policy and introduced the Coventry-designed AM in 1923. Later that year the Coventry plant was sold to Morris and the two British managers Henry Mann Ainsworth and Alfred Herbert Wilde moved to Paris to become general manager and chief engineer of the car division respectively.
In 1929 Hotchkiss obtained its own steel press and started production of in-house bodies, but it still had the status of a luxury car maker and coachbuilder Veth and Sons built a small number of bodies for such models as the AM80.
The AM models were replaced by a new range in 1933 with a new naming system. The 411 was an 11CV model with four-cylinder engine, the 413 a 13CV four and the 615, 617 and 620 were six-cylinder types. Hotchkiss won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1932, 1933, 1934, 1939, 1949 and 1950.
Image displayed with the kind permission of the Haynes Motor Museum
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