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Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, an American, was asked by Napoleon II to establish an arms factory in France in 1867. Hotchkiss had plants in New England and New York and had been a major supplier of weapons and ammunition during the Civil War. He patented the Hotchkiss revolving cannon in 1872. By the turn of the […]

IFA is not a brand name of a particular automobile, but rather the state-owned company to which all the automobile factories belonged (such as Audi, DKW, Horch, Wanderer, and Phanomen). The f9 was jointly produced by Horsch (who produced the bodywork) and Audi (who assembled the vehicle) and was based on a pre-war DKW design.

After the first World War, Czech arms manufacturer Franisek Janecek made a business decision to produce motorcycles. He designed the bodies and used Wanderer engines. The trademark “Jawa” was patented in 1929; the name came from the first two letters of Janecek and Wanderer. Motorcycle production was growing, and by the mid 1930s Jawa began

Vincenzo Lancia was the youngest child of a wealthy Turin soup manufacturer. As a young man, he was a chief inspector and test driver for F.I.A.T. as well as a successful racer. In 1906, he formed his own company. Initially, Lancia produced luxury cars but by the 1930s, they saw a need to mass-produce a

The first small Lancia conceived under FIAT ownership was the Delta, which appeared in 1978. In 1987, a new model, the Delta HF Integrale, was launched. It had a more aggressive look to highlight its sporting personality. It retained the 1995cc turbo engine with intercooler and overboost, twin counter-rotating balancer shafts, and integrated electronic ignition

This tiny traditional-style sports car was conceived mainly with British Trials racing in mind. Trials racing is a popular motor sport in Great Britain which entails vehicles traveling up a steep hill with a challenging course layout to see who can go the farthest distance. As such, the Liège is a very simple, very lightweight

Guy Ligier, a successful French racing driver and rugby player, built his own sports car–the Ligier JS–and showed it at the Paris Salon in 1970. Ligier then went on to found his own Formula 1 racing team which he owned from 1976 to 1996. In 1980 Ligier introduced the JS4 microcar. With 7,000 sold in

This rugged 4-wheel drive vehicle was built for the French military. It is lightweight and intended for use by airborne troops. A large cargo plane can carry and launch six Lohrs while a helicopter can only carry one. It was built to be parachuted to the front lines with the capacity to carry equipment over