Back in 1921, a French automobile manufacturer known as Amilcar first made an appearance into the automotive industry and continued to produce cars until 1939 when they closed their doors for good.
At first, Amilcar manufactured and sold only cycle cars but within time made their way into the sports car arena. Upon creating their first sports car which was powered by a 903 cc engine, Amilcar started making a name for themselves in the French automotive industry; so much of a name in fact, that an Italian company started reproducing some of the Amilcar models under license from1925 until 1928. The Italian license name of the Amilcar was known as Amilcar Italiana. This first car was known as the CS and was soon followed by the C$ and their famous CGS which stood for Grand Sport.
By the time of the Grand Sport, the Amilcar Company had upgraded from the original 903 cc engine to a 1074 cc engine that featured a side valve setup. Furthermore, many other companies took up reproduction licensing from Amilcar including that of a German company which market the car under the name of Pluto as well as an Austrian company which went by the name of Gofri.
By the mid 1920s, Amilcar entered into the racing circuits with their new car which featured a dual overhead cam 1100 cc engine. They were also the first company to use the M-Type designation for their cars long before BMW ever did when they released their M2, M3 as well as their M4.
By 1928, Amilcar had made another upgrade and began to produce an inline 8 cylinder engine. This new engine was a 2000 cc single overhead cam engine. However, this engine proved to be unreliable and the company quickly got rid of it and introduced its replacement; a four cylinder. As a result, the company began losing ground and had to merge with Hotchkiss just to stay afloat. After this merger, Amilcars would become available as front wheel drive versions and these models would continue in production until the plant finally closed down as a result of the war and never reopened afterwards.
Original Authors: Nick (Globel Team)
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 29/08/2008
