Chappe et Gessalin

Chappe et Gessalin is the short-form of the name of French coachbuilder "Carrosserie Chappe Frères et Gessalin". The company built automobile bodies and did contract assembly for other automobile manufacturers. It was also the parent of Automobiles CG, a French automobile maker founded in 1966 which built and sold complete cars under its own name.

Early history

The 1930s and 1940s

The story of Chappe et Gessalin began in 1932, in the commune of Saint-Maur-des-Fosses near Paris. In that year the Carrosserie Chappe was founded by Jean Chappe. Working with him were his three sons, Abel, Albert and Louis and an apprentice, Amédée Gessalin. The shop did bodywork in both wood and steel.

The Second World War interrupted the company's activities for a time but they resumed at the end of hostilities. In 1946 Jean sold the carrosserie to his three sons. By that time Amédée was also a part of the family, having married the Chappe's eldest daughter Marie-Louise. The brothers added his name to the masthead and the company became "Carrosserie Chappe Frères et Gessalin". On the death of Amédée his son Jean took his father's place in the company.

The new company's work included commercial vehicles, a specialty being the construction of firetruck bodies on truck frames produced by Delahaye. They also carved out a niche doing more specialized work, such as bodywork in duralumin for Talbot and repairs on the Delahaye 135, 136 and Talbot T26 racing cars owned by Charles Pozzi, who would become a major dealer in Ferrari and Maserati cars.

The 1950s and 1960s

Before his death Amédée Gessalin taught his son how to draw and plan vehicles. Jean, an admirer of great Parisian designers Chapron and Figoni, worked on honing his own skills by attending evening classes taught by these men.

Another project that Chappe et Gessalin were involved with was the SCVS-DB specials. These cars, given chassis numbers 1065 and 1066 by Renault, were initially a project of Renault dealers Jean Rédélé and Louis Pons. The cars were built by the small French firm of Deutsch-Bonnet with aluminum bodywork by Chappe et Gessalin. Power came from a Renault 4CV engine. One of the cars appeared at Le Mans in 1953.

In the early 1950s Chappe et Gessalin began experimenting with Fibre-reinforced plastic, (specifically Fiberglass). Using resins and techniques imported from the United States they started producing lightweight automobile bodies for sportscars and racing cars from a succession of independent fabricators and small manufacturers.

Deutsch-Bonnet themselves became a client of Chappe et Gessalin, who started by providing plastic noses for DB's monomil single-seaters and bodywork for other racers and would go on to build 200 copies of DB's "Le Mans" road car.

Even when the founders of Deutsch-Bonnet, René Bonnet and Charles Deutsch, ended their partnership in 1961 and established separate car companies (Automobiles René Bonnet and CD), they both continued to use lightweight fibreglass bodywork supplied by Chappe et Gessalin. René Bonnet went to them to develop bodywork for his new Djet. For Charles Deutsch Chappe et Gessalin produced the body of the Panhard-powered racing CDs and built 160 of the Panhard CD road cars.

The company also worked with less well-known companies such as Camille Martin's UMAP (1957-1959) and Raymond Gaillard's Arista.

Apart from the SCVS-DB cars, throughout the 1950s Jean Rédélé was involved in several automotive projects, including several Rédélé Spéciales, the Marquis, PlastiCar, and others. Rédélé crossed paths with Chappe et Gessalin often and would in time become their most famous client of all.

As a young man Jean Gessalin drew a small coupé based on Renault 4CV mechanicals as a design exercise for himself, which design he left behind while away performing his compulsory military service. On his return he discovered that his drawing has been turned into a car by his family.

In 1960, just as production of the A106 ended, Chappe et Gessalin moved their operations to the commune of Brie-Comte-Robert, still near Paris. Eventually the A108 was in turn replaced by the A110, but this time Chappe et Gessalin would only be doing bodywork, upholstery and paintwork for the A110 GT4 2+2. Final assembly was done at the Alpine works in Dieppe, although the car carried CG badges on its flanks.

Automobiles CG

thumb|CG emblem

In the early 1960s, the staff at Chappe et Gessalin had grown to around 40 people.

With Renault committed to Alpine and with Peugeot and Citroën (with Panhard) declining to participate, Automobiles CG turned to the Simca company and their pool of production mechanical components to supply its needs. Parts for the first CG came from a wrecked 1000 provided by Simca dealer Roger Civet.

Since Jean Gessalin had designed what would become the very first Alpine, it was no surprise that the first CG bore a strong resemblance to its cousin from Dieppe, right down to the exposed hinges on the car.

The car received positive reviews for its appearance and the high level of fit and finish, but drivers were unimpressed by the produced by the engine and the high price.

CG later offered a high-performance version of the same engine that had been tuned by Michel Tapie from Rodez with power boosted by 50 percent to .

In 1972 the third and final major CG model entered production, the CG 1300. Power was now provided by the same engine found in the Simca 1000 Rallye 2. This model also received many upgrades to its body and trim.

The sign of the Gallic Cockerel

Even though the first CG cars debuted in 1966, it was not until 1970 that an official emblem was designed for them. The image was based on the "Coq Gaulois" (the Gallic Cockerel). While "Coq Gaulois" and "Chappe et Gessalin" shared a common monogram, the image was also related to the company's address in Brie-Comte-Robert, which was on the "Rue du Coq Gaulois".

The designer of the emblem was Albert Uderzo, who is primarily known as the artist responsible for the Astérix comic series.

CG Cars

CG 1000 (1966 - 1969, type A1000)

thumb|Spider CG 1000

The CG 1000 Spyder was unveiled at the 1966 Salon de l'Auto in Paris. The compact convertible had a fiberglass body mounted on a steel chassis with a deep "U" centre backbone and tube-and-sheetmetal outriggers. The chassis was designed by CG. Power came from a 944 cc inline 4-cylinder Simca Poissy engine. This motor had a cross-flow aluminum cylinder head and a cast-iron block with 5 main bearings. It was mounted in the rear of the car, canted over at 15 degrees from vertical and drove the wheels through a 4-speed transaxle that used Porsche-style synchronizers.

CG 1300 (1972 - 1974, type C1300)

thumb|CG 1300

In 1972, the last regular GC road car, the CG 1300, was released. Once again, displacement had grown and the car now had the engine from the Simca Rallye 2. Power was initially and torque was up to 80 ft-lbs. The car, only available as a coupé, had a new lower front valance with a spoiler and an even larger air intake for the radiator. Front indicator lamps were from a later model Simca 1000 and were mounted under the headlamps. From the doors back the rear quarter-panels had been reshaped and the rear quarter windows had also been changed. The tail of the car had been shortened by . Taillights were rectangular units from the Simca 1100 and new cast bumperettes were used.

The 1300 would only be in production for one and one-half years, from 1972 to 1974.

Dimensions are:

long, wide, high, wheelbase. Front track was , rear track was .

Model comparison

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan=1|

! colspan=3|CG type A1000 (fewer than 30 units)

! colspan=3|CG type B1200 (about 280 units)

! colspan=2|CG type C1300 (95 units)

! Spider 1000

! Sport 1000

! Sport 1000/1000 S

! Coupé and Spider 1200 S

! Coupé and Spider 1200 S 1970 model

! Coupé "548"

! Coupé 1300

! Coupé 1300 95 hp

|-align="center"

! Displacement

| 944 cc

| 1118 cc

| 1204 cc

| 1294 cc

|-align="center"

! Bore × stroke (mm)

| 68 × 65

| 74 × 65

| 74 × 70

| 76.7 × 70

|-align="center"

! Power

| at 5400 rpm

| at 5600 rpm

| at 6000 rpm

| at 6200 rpm

| at 6000 rpm

| at 6400 rpm

|-align="center"

! Torque

| at 3400 rpm

| at 3600 rpm

| at 4500 rpm

| -

| at 4400 rpm

| at 4560 rpm

|-align="center"

! Weight

|-align="center"

! Top speed

| -

|-align="center"

! Standing Kilometre

| -

| 37.0 s

| 35.6 s

| 31.5 s

| 31.3 s

| 27.0 s

| 31.5 s

| 30.5 s

|-align="center"

! Price (year)

| 16 900 F (1967)

| 14 990 F (1967)

| 18 990 F (1968)

| 21 480/21 980 F (1968)

| 22 726/23 255 F (1970)

| 35 000 F (1971)

| 27 500 F (1973)

| 30 232 F (1973)

The end of the road

The GC 1300 would be the last car produced at Chappe et Gessalin. In 1964 Matra had acquired the assets of the René-Bonnet company, and by 1970 Matra themselves were 50% owned by Chrysler. When Simca selected Matra's Bagheera as the successor to the Bertone-designed Simca 1200S this eclipsed any hopes CG may have had to raise their own profile within Simca.

In 1973 the oil crisis struck. In France, Prime Minister Pierre Messmer announced national speed-limits and, most devastatingly, a one-year ban on motor-racing.

The last CG 1300s were delivered in the spring of 1974, after which the small company of Brie-Comte-Robert closed its doors permanently.

Following the closure of the CG plant, Jean-Michel Ribot-Bruno's Coulimmiers-based Geriplast company took over the after-sales service and repair of the CG bodywork. The CG construction equipment and molds were transferred to GERIPLAST at the end of 1974. Geriplast would use these to itself become a manufacturer of GERIPLAST barquettes (modified CG spiders) and then GERI barquettes and single-seaters, developed jointly with Michel Bonenfant.

In 2016 there was a 50th anniversary retrospective of CG held at the Cite de l'Automobile.

In April 1969 Henri Chemin came to Chrysler, rejoining his former boss from Ford France, William Reiber. Chemin was appointed head of the competition department and given three objectives:

Start winning races, including rallies, as soon as possible
Rebuild the image of Simca's brand with young drivers
Add to Matra's already impressive list of victories

Chemin campaigned a 1200XS coupé with the new 1812 cc OHC Simca Type 180 engine in a series of rallyes, but the car could not overcome the Alpines. Towards the end of the year CG agreed to collaborate with the Simca division of Chrysler Europe in a new venture to be called Simca-CG. Simca-CG would go racing with a jointly-developed car to be called the Simca-CG Proto MC.

Although some histories say that the Proto MC's chassis was designed by Matra, there is little concrete evidence for the company's direct involvement. An indirect connection to Matra was established when, through the influence of Simca, Matra engineer Bernard Boyer was assigned to the development team.

Drivers were Bernard Fiorentino, Gérard Larrousse, Michel Saliba and Philippe Renaudât.

In April 1973, Simca Chrysler dissolved the competition department, leaving only Matra Sports to continue in Sports-Prototypes racing.

Many (non-MC) CGs continued to be active in historic racing. Several of these cars were described as "CG 1600s", but these appear to have been custom engine swaps rather than factory originals.

In 2012, with the approval of Jean Gessalin and support from Bernard Chappe, Didier Malga launched "CG Sport", an attempt to revive the brand as a competition group.

References

External links

http://www.amicalecg.fr/
http://www.accg.free.fr

Early history

The 1930s and 1940s

The 1950s and 1960s

Automobiles CG

The sign of the Gallic Cockerel

CG Cars

CG 1000 (1966 - 1969, type A1000)

CG 1300 (1972 - 1974, type C1300)

Model comparison

The end of the road

References

External links

Further reading