SOLVED - What car #448 - 1946 Aluminium-Français-Gregoire

[@re]

Recognize this?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.

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[hugo90]

This has got to be the Gregoire design that begat several cars: Dyna Panhard, Kendall and Hartnett.  I don't know what it was called, however.

[@re]

It is indeed a Kendall. I'll give you the point for that, as your reasoning is impressive!

"The first of the post-war 'people's car' projects, the Kendall appeared in two models. The first used a radial 3-cylinder engine mounted in the rear, and an angular 2-door saloon body, while the second had a front engine and front-wheel drive. This was the same design as the Aluminium-Français-Gregoire which was also the origin of the Dyna-Panhard, and used an integral body-cum-chassis frame of light alloy castings. A 594cc flat-twin engine was used, and the car was intended to sell for £200. The project was sponsored by Denis Kendall, M.P. and the factory was also to have made tractors. However, it closed in November 1946, after very few cars had been made."

[Otto Puzzell]

More on this subject here...

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=4538.0

[@re]

Wow, I didn't realise that! Still, it's a different design.

[DynaMike]

Just a question: Wouldn't this car be rather the AFG, since it's got left hand drive? I couldn't find a picture of the Kendall yet, but I guess that a UK-built car would have had right hand drive. And this one really looks like the third Gregoire prototype. Cf. <<< Link Removed >>>

[@re]

That is a very good question. My source (which is an old, trusted and normally reliable book by a respected author) does state that it 'was the same design as the Aluminium-Français-Gregoire', so, technically, it could be a Kendall, but as you say, it would be natural to assume that a British version would have right hand drive. The licence plate, which I have blanked out, reads 137 RN9 and looks French, and is indeed the same as on the Gregoire that you linked to. So, in this case, it appears that my book is wrong (the author has probably just put up a picture of the Gregoire as it was supposed to look the same). Sloppy!

I've awarded DynaMike a point for correcting my source.

[Otto Puzzell]

Wow, I didn't realise that! Still, it's a different design.

You're right, it's a different design. But it gives a good follow-up to one of the offspring of the car you posted.

[ftg3plus4]

Here's a picture I've found of what is supposedly an actual Kendall (1945). Does this help?

[DynaMike]

That is a nice picture, ftg3plus4, but I'm afraid it is still not the Kendall... This is the AFG prototype as it was photographed in the courtyard of the Simca factory. By the time this picture was made its name had changed to Simca-Grégoire, that's why the fake license plate shows 1945 SG (Simca-Grégoire)...

[ftg3plus4]

Good grief, doesn't anyone have a picture of the actual Kendall?? And I wonder how many other pictures I've seen that aren't what they're purported to be!!

(Edit) Oh wait, I just followed the link above, and supposedly that's a Kendall? It doesn't look anything like the cars in this thread though!

[Allan L]

Photos of a real Kendall seem pretty elusive.
Even Georgano, who wrote it up in the Encyclopedia he edited, showed a photo of the LHD car with registration plate 137-RN9 (A-F-G) captioned as 1946 Kendall! (the same photo the @re started this thread with, in fact).
Anent the other thread, the A-F-G Kendall would have been the second design of theirs, the other thread referring to the first.

[Otto Puzzell]

(Edit) Oh wait, I just followed the link above, and supposedly that's a Kendall? It doesn't look anything like the cars in this thread though!

According to the oft-quoted Beaulieu Encyclopedia, it is.

[guido66]

I came across this picture. According to my source it should be the 3rd AFG prototype, with bodywork by Million-Guiet

[Tom_I]

Just to throw another spanner in, here's a link to a page on Getty Images which purports to show a 1945 Kendall.

Clearly it's the radial-engined rear-wheel drive car, but it doesn't look anything like the Puzzle car #929 linked above. Were they made with such radically different bodies?


EDIT: I guess they were, as here's another shot of a car similar to #929, with W. Denis Kendall himself emerging. It's captioned as a 1946 car.

[DeAutogids.nl]

with a different license plate as well?

[Tom_I]

Yes, but that's a trade plate, not a standard registration. It allows a car dealer to drive the car on public roads when it is not taxed.

[Paul Jaray]

Here you are all the 4 prototypes, called AFG, made by Gregoire in 1942, bodied by Million-Guiet:

[Paul Jaray]

#4 was destined to Simca, but refused by Pigozzi.
In 1945 they were working on the Simca-Gregoire, but it was abandoned in 1946.
In 1946 the 4th prototype was sold to the english Kendall to become the 6hp.

[Paul Jaray]

William Denis Kendal was working on a postwar 'people's car' from 1942.
The 1st Kendall was an angular 2-door saloon powered by a rear-mounted 700cc 3-cylinder radial engine designed by Horace Beaumont. It had only one headlamp.
The car was a fiasco, Beaumont was fired, the car and the engine redesigned. It was showed around and was later equipped with a Volkswagen engine.
Tired of home-grown designs, Kendall next turned to the AFG and his 594cc air-cooled flat twin engine.
5 were build, at least one roadster.

[grobmotorix]

Here´s a 1946 french aircraft magazine scan:

[hugo90]

Found this today on an Australian site about Sir Laurence Hartnett:


"The result was the Hartnett, a front wheel drive car based on the ideas of the French engineer J.A. Gregoire. Hartnett's factory used dies purchased from a failed attempt to build these vehicles under the name Kendall in the UK."

http://www.babyboomercentral.com.au/movers_hartnett.htm

[grobmotorix]

Another pic:

[kendall]

Good afternoon everyone,

Im Matt, Dennis Kendall was my Great Grandfather.

If any of you would be kind enough to email me information/picutres on this car it would be great

[grobmotorix]

That´s great to find people like you, that are a direct link to automotive history!

If any of you would be kind enough to email me information/picutres on this car it would be great

.

Normally it goes the other way round at autopuzzles and relatives of former car builders or constructors show us something new.

But maybe some other members may be able to help you.

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