Amilcar
Amilcar started in 1921, during the cyclecar craze, with one of its founders being Andre Morel, who became a well known racing driver. Starting with the Amilcar CC with longer wheelbase C4, and by 1924 the sportier 1,000cc model CS. The halcyon years were approaching, with the bigger 1074cc side vale CGS, with its sports version CGSS which were also built outside France under licence, in Austria (called the Gofri), Italy and Germany. Vernon Balls was the UK concessionaire. There was also the C6, a supercharged twin overhead camshaft 1100cc racer available to private customers, while the factory works cars had the improved CO version with non detachable cylinder head. These Amilcar C6 put a total stop to the arms race in the 1100cc race class with their rivals Salmson. With the financial crash and world economic depression of the 1930's the M Type introduced in the later 1920's carried on into 1935. The company changed hands and various projects ensued, along with a tie in with Hotchkiss. But Amilcar did not survive the war years.
Below we list a few models giving more details, but tyre size from the outset in 1922 was the 700x80 size, a size also known by it's imperial numbering as 26x3, which Blockley produces the best example of with heavy duty sidewall and beads which also make them genuinely suitable for motorcars, unlike anything else available. This 700x80 tyre size was listed by Amilcar on of their cars up to and including 1926. From 1927 well base wheels started to be used with the 27x4 size, which was the old way of saying 400x19, while for 1928 the larger engined Grand Sport were listed with 27x4.40 and 27x4.75 (450x19, and 475x18) tyres. By 1929 the 28x4.95 size was added (5.00x19) on the 2 litre sports saloon. No Amilcar that we are aware of ever had a 3.50x19 tyre size, but we are for some reason often asked for these (which we produce), so we list this size below also! We would always suggest the 400x19 size over the 3.50x19 for improved gearing.
