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Sold 1952 Hotchkiss Gregoire 20179894

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1952 Hotchkiss Gregoire

Price: EUR €27,500


Lowered price from €33.950 -> €27.500


The Grégoire is a luxury car produced from 1950 to 1954 by the French automaker 'Hotchkiss, only about 247 were produced.The serial numbers are 500 to 747, making this model one of the rarest made.In 1950s France the Grégoire would have been seen as a large car. with 100 bhp. The Grégoire was a modern-looking four-door saloon. Reportedly as a response to disappointing sales for the saloon, special-bodied coach-built coupe and cabriolet versions also appeared at the 1952 Paris Motor Show including a streamlined Grégoire-based coupé with an eye-catching 'panoramic' rear window bodied by the Coachbuilder Henri Chapron. For more than thirty years, each new Hotchkiss had represented a gentle evolution from the previous model. With the Grégoire the company made a radical bid to create a new generation of cars. The car carried the name of its designer, Jean-Albert Grégoire, a man who had made his name in the 1930s as a pioneer motor designer, with virtually unparalleled experience of designing front-wheel-drive cars, and a man who had spent much time during the war working on the application of aluminium to car production. Directly after the war, with European demand for war planes abruptly curtailed, the recently developed aluminium industry found opportunities in the more radical designs coming out of the automotive sector, and the Hotchkiss Grégoire was notable for its lightweight chassis, which incorporated much aluminium elements. The car also featured a new 2180 cc horizontal boxer water-cooled four-cylinder engine capable of delivering a claimed 70 or, from 1952, 75 HP.[1] This combined with the car's lightweight construction and streamlined form . Some rarest two double carburators(one on each cyl. block)engines was produced.With 100 bhp. The look of the car was modern in the Anglo-American idiom, and was believed in some quarters to resemble the new Jaguar designs appearing at the same time. The flat-four engine permitted a low bonnet/hood line but was fitted well forward which enforced an extensive front overhang. J;A. Gregoire study in first time for it the better CX,for that this car was studied in wind tunnel!With the better CX of this time. The gear box was a four-speed unit with synchromesh on the upper three ratios and overdrive on the fourth. This car was fifteen years ahead of its time. Handling thanks to the front wheels was exemplary. The Grégoire’s commercial performance was affected by the company’s 30-year record of producing worthy but conservative saloons. High development costs had to be amortised over the number of cars sold, and the low sales level led to a high retail price which, in turn, depressed sales further. By 1952 the Gregoire was retailing for twice the price of the similarly sized six-cylinder Citroën Traction 15CV. An additional challenge came from government taxation policies during the early 1950s in principal European markets, especially France, which heavily penalised larger cars. At the 1952 Paris Motor Show with several French luxury auto-makers clearly in trouble it was noted that for the Grégoire, despite its upmarket aspirations, the company was only able to distribute a very skimpy brochure, provided without any colour pictures. By 1953 output had slowed and only about 40 were produced and by the time production ceased towards the end of that year, only 247 Hotchkiss Grégoires had been built; of these 235 had been four-door saloons. Specifications Bodywork Length: cm (in): 465 (183.1) Width: cm (in): 175 (68.9) Height: cm (in): 150 (59.1) Wheelbase: cm (in): 250 (98.4) Weight: kg (lb): 1150 (2540) Mechanics. Displacement: boxer 4 2188 cc (133.5 ci) Valve gear: 8 Fuel system: two-barrel Solex carburettor Gearbox: 4-speed + overdrive, manual Driven wheels: front-wheel drive Maximum power: 70 hp at 4200 rpm Maximum torque: 147 Nm at 200 rpm Maximum speed: 160 km/h (100 mph)



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Location: Barelstraat 17, Aalter, Belgium

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