Woman searches for the classic car of her dreams - part 2

In the first episode, as a young 'poor mans Bugattiste', I talked about the preparations and the search for my dream car. It has become clear to the reader that it is a pre war little racer of French origin.

At the Zandvoort circuit I had the perfect opportunity to see a number of cars of the type I desire in real life and in action. And, almost even better, to experience the real thing as a passenger on the track itself.

The Bugattis (yes indeed!) I rode in are unfortunately out of reach for a young automotive journalist, but a number of other brands really appealed to me. English Rileys are of course real beastly speed devils, but French brands like Amilcar, Salmson ('Samilcar') exerted a stronger attraction on me.

Others like BNC and Rally (which are also French, by the way) are really cool, but just too rare and relatively expensive.

My preference was set, so I could get started. It had to be an Amilcar, which was ultimately chosen over a Salmson, and one that was largely finished so it could be enjoyed right away, not an endless project. Nice to have a plan, but how do you actually carry it out? Where do you start and how do you move forward?

First of all there is searching on obvious internet sites such as 'Prewarcar' and searching in various magazines, such as 'La Vie de lAuto'. The French sites like 'leboncoin' are also very useful, because after all I was looking for a French cyclecar. I personally like to go straight for something and the first candidate my father had found for me was a very unusual Amilcar CC. My father helped me enormously, by the way. I do not speak good French yet and when you are looking for a French car or searching in France you really need someone who speaks the language. But not only that. With high school French you will not get far because you do not learn what a camshaft or a crankshaft is called in French there! Studying further definitely has its use. As you can read below, the first Amilcar that qualified was an odd one out. Found via 'Leboncoin', I did not want to know anything about this Amilcar at first. It was an early model from the early 1920s with an engine of about 900 cc. I wanted a tough CGS or CGSs and not half a car that looked like a dog basket on wheels. On second thought I actually found it quite a funny little car and the price was very favorable. In the meantime I had also found out that unfortunately my budget was not sufficient for a nice CGS or CGSs.

My father and I had almost left for the Loire region and the appointment was already set to go and see 'the dog basket'. Of course we gathered a lot of information in advance and spent some time puzzling things out with the Amilcar book we had bought. The bible of the Amilcars ("Amilcar" by Fournier and Burgess-Wise, published by Dalton Watson) has been very useful.

Of course you always have to be very much on your guard for fakes and set off well prepared. With all the information we had received from the CC, we still had our doubts. Naturally you ask various acquaintances who know (even) more about it. The advice on this CC was mixed. The experts also had their doubts, but many others still thought it was quite a special example. In the end the decision has to be made by the prospective buyer, and the feeling was that something was not quite right. The dog basket was said to have been a factory test car, and that would explain the body that actually did not belong on it. We also had our doubts about the top speed of 110 km/h! With too many doubts and still the desire to have something better, I decided to let this toy pass me by. In hindsight that turned out to be a very good decision.

So my father and I could get to work again. Many Amilcars passed in review and we called all the sellers and asked extensively for details. It turns out that even with the less well known Amilcars a lot of things are not right and you really have to be very careful. After all, they were sporty cars that were driven in style in their day, and things did break from time to time. For example, it can easily happen that you have found an Amilcar whose rear axle and/or gearbox comes from an old Citroen. Or a shortened chassis, which you really have to be careful with because of getting a Dutch registration. The RDW will definitely not approve a shortened chassis, which means... NO registration. And if it has been refused in the Netherlands, that automatically applies to all other EU countries as well.

Sometimes you just have to take action and get in the car to see it all in real life. Once there was a CS on our route and we were able to take a good look at it and even drive it for a bit. Again it stood out that a lot about that car was not right, and that all turned out to be very educational. The final end result that I can already reveal is definitely something to be proud of!

At a certain point I also came across a Salmson project, even though this brand was not (or no longer) on my shortlist. Very interesting, because it was a VAL GS type with two overhead camshafts. We still wanted to know a bit more about it. After a lot of reflection, research and conversations with acquaintances and the current owner, we learned a great deal about this car. For example, that you should always look very carefully at all current photos and compare them with photos of cars from the past. But also at the location where the photos of this GS were taken. When it turned out that there were more Salmsons at that dealer, and that he was also advertising parts elsewhere, we got the feeling that this man was building cars out of many different parts, and therefore was not offering original cars. These and other issues will be discussed in detail in my next and final report.

Text by Rosemarijn Atalante Veenenbos ("CRANKHANDLEBLOG") and

Editorial Team Louwman Museum