Automobiles Lombard was a French

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

manufacturer which was active from 1927 to 1929.Serge Pozzoli & Gerard Crambac, ''The Lombard'', Autosport, January 16, 1953, pages 76 to 78
Retrieved from ''lombard.register.pagesperso-orange.fr'' on 12 March 2014

André Lombard

André Lombard's early career in the automobile business involved working with

Salmson Salmson is a French engineering company. Initially a pump manufacturer, it turned to automobile and aeroplane manufacturing in the 20th century, returning to pump manufacturing in the 1960s, and re-expanded to a number of products and services ...

, and he also acquired a reputation as a competition driver for Salmson. Lombard's final position with Salmson was as Commercial Director, and it was in this capacity that he had a major falling out with the company's Technical Director, Émile Petit. Petit accused Lombard of having purchased production equipment of poor quality. Bad feeling between the two continued to fester and in 1923 André Lombard left Salmson: the agreement covering his departure included a five-year "non-competition clause".

Start of automobile development

Lombard accordingly devoted his energies to competition driving, but he evidently never entirely lost his appetite for automobile manufacturing, and in defiance of the five year clause, just four years after leaving Salmson he presented, at

Montlhéry Montlhéry () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris. History Montlhéry lay on the strategically important road from Paris to Orléans. U ...

, his first model, the Lombard AL1, accompanied by two Aerodynamic ("tank" bodied in the parlance of the time) AL2s. These were prototypes, but they formed the basis for the Lombard AL3 which followed a year later, and which was the manufacturer's first production model. The cars were developed by Edmond Vareille and used a "light voiturette" style. Various addresses in the Paris area were associated with the production of the automobiles: the registered head office was at

Puteaux Puteaux () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine department, from the centre of Paris. In 2016, it had a population of 44,941. La Défense, Paris's business district hosting the ...

Automobile production

Lombard took a stand at the 20th Paris Motor Show in October 1926 and exhibited the car they would be selling in 1927. The Lombard AL3 was powered by a 4-cylinder twin-overhead camshaft engine of 1,083cc. Some of the engines on the production cars would be fitted with superchargers. By the time production ended, in 1929, (approximately) 94 cars were recorded as having been produced, almost all of which were AL3s.

Production locations

Initially the cars were produced by E. Briault in

Courbevoie Courbevoie () is a commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine Department of the Île-de-France region of France. It is in the suburbs of the city of Paris, from the center of Paris. The centre of Courbevoie is situated from the city limits of Par ...

.Georgano: ''The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile.'' From 1928 the cars were assembled by The Émile Salmson sons ''(Les Fils de É. Salmson)'' at

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...

. Another source indicates that the cars were assembled at

Argenteuil Argenteuil () is a Communes of France, commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Argenteuil is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise Departments of France, ...

by BNC. All the production locations given here were geographically close together, in a district that had become the country's principal centre for automobile production, on the north-western fringes of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. When production ended in 1929 it was BNC that acquired the components inventory and a number of half finished Lombards.

Models

Models produced included the following: * AL1 of 1927 - A one-off prototype racing car ''Car of the Month - March 2008''
at ''ritzsite.nl'' Retrieved on 12 March 2014 * AL2 of 1927 - Streamlined racing car - two produced * AL3 Mk I of 1927 * AL3 Mk II of 1928 * AL4 of 1928 - A one-off prototype * AL5 of 1929 - A one-off prototype

Motor sport

Bill Lowe drove a Lombard AL3 in the 1929 Australian Grand Prix, placing third outright and winning the 901cc to 1100cc class.John Blanden, A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, pages 25 to 42

Reading list

* Harald Linz, Halwart Schrader: ''Die Internationale Automobil-Enzyklopädie.'' United Soft Media Verlag, München 2008, . (German) * George Nick Georgano (ed): ''The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile.'' Volume 3: ''P–Z.'' Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, . (English) * George Nick Georgano: ''Autos. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours.'' Courtille, Paris 1975. (French)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lombard Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1927