AutoCult Amilcar CGS3 Skiff (1925) (Germany)

About the Original

A long-forgotten company

Amilcar – this was a little-known vehicle company from France, founded in July 1921 in Paris. The plant first appeared in public at the Paris in October 1921.

Amilcar designed its small cars, known as Voiturettes, in accordance with the legal regulations to meet the motor vehicle tax class of 100 Franc (annual). 350 kg tare weight were prescribed as well as the seating for two people and a drive of maximum 1100 cc.

The continuous further development of this type of vehicle resulted in 1924 in the type “CGS” with a 1,074 cc side-steered engine and, as a novelty, with brakes on all four wheels. The letter sequence “CGS” stood for “Chassis Grand Sport”. In 1925 it was apparently the special wish of a CGS 3 buyer to dress his car with a unique car body. To fullfill this task, the chassis was handed to the coachbuilders of “La Phoceenne”, which had its headquarters in Marseille.

It is not known why the buyer chose the modellers of “La Phoceenne, but they understood the craft of making most of the car body out of mahagony instead of sheet metal. At the front, where the 33 hp strong, water-cooled enginge gave off its heat, the highly flammable wood was probably mistrusted and it was preferred to use aluminum.