Hotchkiss AM2 (REPLICA)

Hotchkiss were luxury cars made between 1903 and 1955 by the French company Hotchkiss et Cie in Saint-Denis, Paris. The badge for the marque showed a pair of crossed cannons, evoking the company's history as an arms manufacturer. However, a slump in demand for the products of its Saint-Denis munitions factory prompted Hotchkiss to diversify into motor manufacture in the early 1900s.

After WW1 Hotchkiss concentrated on developing the 4-litre AF, and it was not until 1923 that a smaller, medium-size car with broader appeal was introduced: the 2.4-litre, 12hp AM. Equipped with Hotchkiss drive, the AM featured a four-cylinder side-valve engine in unit with the four-speed gearbox, together with four-wheel brakes and wire-spoked wheels. Moderately priced and capable of 70mph, the AM constituted the bulk of Hotchkiss production during the late 1920s. In 1926 a more powerful and faster overhead-valve AM2 version was introduced. The AM2 abandoned the Hotchkiss Drive in favour of torque tube transmission, and continued in production until 1932.

This Hotchkiss AM2 was purchased as a rolling chassis from in Normandy in 2008 and brought back to the owner's home in the UK. The chassis was then stripped completely, and the engine, gearbox, torque tube, rear axle, and running gear totally rebuilt. The vendor is a trained engineer and member of the British Hotchkiss Society, so well qualified for such an undertaking. A photographic record of the restoration is on file.

The open tourer coachwork has been copied from the Gurney Nutting body on the vendor's Hotchkiss AM80. It is constructed on a framework of French ash panelled with 2mm birch WBP plywood (as used on the De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber of WW2). Trevor Norris applied the body's British Racing Green fabric covering, and also upholstered the interior in beige leather. The engine has been fully rebuilt, incorporating a re-ground crankshaft, new white-metalled bearings, re-bored cylinders, new pistons, machined cylinder head, new valves, etc. It has also been fitted with a modern full-flow oil filter with an extra feed to the timing gears. Following some seven years of painstaking work, the rebuilt Hotchkiss had its first major outing in March 2016.

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