About Tough to crack Puzzle #185

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Thank you all for participating in last week's quiz. As we already thought, the grill gave it away. But that was not all we were asking. We hoped to get more info and we were happy to see all the information that cannot be found at google.

First to respond (with a good answer) was Fried Stol: "A distinctive grill of a 1951 Hotchkiss Gregoire. An aluminum alloy cast was used to create the chassis. A prototype made by Gregoire in 1942 was financed by "Societe Aluminium Francaise" which he tried to sell to several car makers like Fiat, Simca, Kendall, Panhard, Kaiser and Hartnett in Australia. Hotchkiss bought the design but only 247 were built. It was way too expensive because of the development and the lack of buyers. It was twice the price of a Citroen Traction Avant Six. Government tax policies during the early 1950s in France led to heavily penalizing larger cars." After this very complete answer, Larry A. Lewis added that he knows someone who has one: "Alain Cerf in Tampa, Florida owns one."

Alejandro Falceto added some more technical information: "This is one of seven ever made superb Hotchkiss Grégoire Coupé bodied by Henri Chapron. Hotchkiss produced the Gregoire from 1950 through 1953. It began as four-door saloon, but after sales were disappointing, the company introduced a special-bodied coach-built coupe and cabriolet versions at the 1952 Paris Motor Show. Later, the streamlined coupe with a 'panoramic' rear window (the car in the photo above) emerged as a final attempt to stimulate sales. The Gregoire featured front wheel drive as well as a cast aluminum frame and firewall with a 2180 cc horizontal boxer water-cooled four-cylinder engine and a four-speed gearbox.

Both Anders Svenfelt as Stuart Penketh knew just like Fried Stol why the car wasn't a success. As the price was twice as much as a Citroen traction.

Gerd Klioba also said: "Furthermore, the aluminium body parts supplied by Sofal varied in size, so that the bodywork had to be adjusted individually for every car. Subsequent changes to sheet metal wings didn't help much. A final attempt to overcome these problems by applying the mechanics to a slightly altered Renault Frégate body, offering a more spacious, modern and inexpensive bodywork, failed in 1953/54."

Other good answers came in from Verner Johnsen, D. Macnab and Paul Elwell-Sutton, who gave the last piece of information: "An extremely advanced car in its day with 2 litre 4 cylinder boxer engine, synchromesh on all 3 forward gears and overdrive on 3rd. Very advanced and original independent suspension f and r, and aluminium chassis, scuttle and windscreen surround, with some aluminium body panels in the earliest models. A victim of the Plan Pons in post-war France, there were plans by Sir Laurence Hartnett to build this car in Australia alongside the Panhard Dyna X-based Hartnett light car, and by a Mr Kendall in England as a Kendall. Too advanced for tastes at that time, and very expensive. Hotchkiss was in grave financial straights at the time and killed it off after about 260 had been built."

Well, many good answers but who is the winner of this week's quiz? We believe Paul Elwell-Sutton gave us most information that was hard to find on google, so we believe he is the winner. Congratulations Paul!

(LK)

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