1930 Hotchkiss A80 Riviera Faux Cabriolet

Registration no. GK 4367 Chassis no. 22126

Footnotes

A slump in demand for the products of its Saint-Denis munitions factory prompted Hotchkiss to diversify into motor manufacture in the early 1900s. The company was already a major supplier of components to the automobile industry, and right from the start the famous 'Hotchkiss Drive' (by live axle and open propeller shaft) was a feature of its cars.

After WWI, Hotchkiss concentrated on developing the 4.0-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, naturally, the AM featured a four-cylinder sidevalve 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, by which time it was being built alongside the AM80. Designed by Chief Engineer Vincenso Bertarione, the AM80 was powered by 3.0-litre six-cylinder overhead-valve engine with seven-bearing crankshaft and a Lanchester-type balancer, which produced a maximum of 65bhp. A wide variety of body styles was available on the AM80, a little over 5,000 of which had been built when production ceased in 1933. Most interestingly Hotchkiss won the Monte Carlo rally in 1932, 33, 34, 39, 49 & 50. The 1932 was won in a Riviera with the engine bored out to 3.5 litre.

Sold new in the UK in November 1930, this rare Hotchkiss AM30 Riviera was purchased by the current vendor in 2015 from a friend, who had bought the car from Chipstead Motors in 1946. A veterinary surgeon whose practice was in the Scottish Highlands, the former owner had used the car infrequently before laying it up in 1959 when he went to work in Ireland. The Hotchkiss went with him when he relocated to Gloucestershire but was never used again, remaining off the road, garaged, until its acquisition by the vendor five years ago. Since then the car has been driven only some 50 miles; however, we are advised that the radiator is now furred up and requires attention. The only notified deviation from factory specification concerns the car's original large luggage trunk, which rotted away and has been replaced with a metal box. Sold strictly as viewed, this rare model from one of France's premier makes is offered with an old-style logbook, a V5C document, and a recently expired MoT certificate (September 2019).