CG Automobiles (Chappe and Gessalin)

Automotive manufacturer France from 1966 to 1974

Chappe et Gessalin Automobiles CG is a former French car manufacturer active from 1966 to 1974. The company built a sports car from from the Simca its derivatives.

History

Beginning with the production of truck cabins for Delahaye until the early 1950s, it then turned to the repair of passenger cars and sports cars with, among other things, the aluminium bodies of Charles Pozzi 's Talbot and Delahaye, then the transformation and construction of competition cars such as the "Bosvin-Michel-Spéciale", an aluminium barquette with a Renault 4CV engine designed by Camille Bosvin, winner of the 1952 and 1953 Bols d’or.

From 1950, the company was one of the pioneers of fiberglass bodywork and, as such, collaborated with many craftsmen and manufacturers of the time such as Deutsch-Bonnet for some of their racing prototypes and part of the body of the Le Mans convertible. After their separation continued to work with Charles Deutsch, associated with Panhard for the production of the bodywork of the racing Panhard-CDs, and with René Bonnet. It also collaborates with lesser-known companies like UMAP (1957-1959) for his car derived from the 2 CV or the Arista cars of Raymond Gaillard.

The involvement of Chappe and Gessalin in transformations based on the 4 CV led in 1954, Charles Escoffier, a Parisian Renault dealer, to order twenty-five coaches on a 4 CV platform, asking his son-in-law, Jean Rédélé to market them. Renault endorsed the car and the Alpine brand was then born in 1955 .More copies of this A106 coach were finally produced until 1960 and Chappe et Gessalin continued to invest in the following productions, the A108 coach , the 2+2 A108 coupé and then the GT4 .At the beginning of the 1960s , the extension of the manufacturer Alpine leading the latter to build its own bodies, the company Chappe et Gessalin then planned to produce its own car and turned to the car manufacturer Simca to draw from their production the mechanical elements. necessary for its realization and allow the distribution of the car through its network.

At the beginning of 1974, the bankruptcy filing of the Automobiles CG company was scheduled. The last cars were made in the spring and the moulds were sold to the Geriplast company in Coulommier.

The Cars

The CG 1000 spider was first presented in 1966 with a fiberglass body vehicle on an original central beam chassis linking mechanical elements borrowed from the Simca 1000 and the Simca 1000 coupé Bertone. Equipped with a modest engine, it offers a quality finish comparable to the best craft cars of the time. There will be coupe and S versions.

By 1968, Chappe et Gessalin recovered the engine from the Simca 1200 S coupe to offer a sports car capable of competing with the Alpine A110. The CG 1200S was also marketed as a convertible Spider. Only 33 copies left the factory. In 1971, if the production costs remained high and the prices suffered, the brand's beginnings of notoriety and its commitment to competition allowed the production of CG automobiles to reach its cruising speed. In 1972, the CG 1300 benefited from the engine of the Simca 1000 Rallye 2 and a new bodywork.