French Monza sportscar

[ulimator]

Does anyone know more about this sportscar (kitcar?) Monza CS? Thanks!

[ScionDriver]

Wowzers! Go-go Gadget ugly!

[ulimator]

what ???

[henk4]

Chasseur d'epaves anciennes... [Avertissement en page 1] - Anciennes Restaurations - FORUM Anciennes - FORUM Automobiles mythiques et d'exc

in French, if you need a translation of the main parts, please let me know.

[fisetdavid26]

Originally Posted by henk4

Chasseur d'epaves anciennes... [Avertissement en page 1] - Anciennes Restaurations - FORUM Anciennes - FORUM Automobiles mythiques et d'exc

in French, if you need a translation of the main parts, please let me know.

You speak French? Or do you have a very good translation software?

[henk4]

Originally Posted by fisetdavid26

You speak French? Or do you have a very good translation software?

I read French.....a large part of UCP's library consists of French publications

[fisetdavid26]

Originally Posted by henk4

I read French.....a large part of UCP's library consists of French publications

Nice. If you ever need a hand to translate something, don't hesitate. I understand old French, contemporary French, Québécois and its multiple regional differences, Acadien, Créole and Verlan to a certain extent.

For some reason there are a ton of French articles about obscure and/or mostly unknown cars... I wonder what's the reason behind this.

[cmcpokey]

theres a book i want about delahaye, but its all in french... and out of print, so its like 300+ dollars... and i dont speak a lick of french.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by fisetdavid26

For some reason there are a ton of French articles about obscure and/or mostly unknown cars... I wonder what's the reason behind this.

yes, and we have many of that covered....see for instance some cars in the Oddball corner...

[ulimator]

I would be greatly thankful! :-)

[LandQuail]

Henk, I hope whatever god is out there drops an Alpine A110 on your driveway for all your contribution to this website. You've earned it.

And if this car truly is French, I suspect it's on the Renault Alpine A 210 chassis. Sure, the 210 was the ugly duckling to the A110, but it was an improvement to this abbreviated Rover SD1 look-a-like.

Travistî!

[henk4]

Originally Posted by ulimator

I would be greatly thankful! :-)

ok, give me some time to make a summary....

[henk4]

Originally Posted by LandQuail

Henk, I hope whatever god is out there drops an Alpine A110 on your driveway for all your contribution to this website. You've earned it.

And if this car truly is French, I suspect it's on the Renault Alpine A 210 chassis. Sure, the 210 was the ugly duckling to the A110, but it was an improvement to this abbreviated Rover SD1 look-a-like.

Travistî!

I have no driveway

[LandQuail]

Then I hope whatever god is out there has a buddy who owns a paving company so he can give you one.

You're the man, Henk. ¡RISPEKTT!

[henk4]

OK, Here we go.

The article basically describes the gestation of the car. I could not find the date of publication but I assume that it is published in 1990/1991 latest.
The car is the idea of a Pierre Froisette, an engineer who worked woth Formula Renault cars and also at the Esso fuel department. He started thinking about it in 1986 and created a group of about 15 people around him, planning to make 11-12 cars all for themselves.
Faced with all sorts of problems in France he travelled to the Far East and set up good relationships with Toyota and Mitsubishi who let them try engines for the car. (The side windows look very Subaru) The body design is by himself, (to me it looks a bit Celica) and after some searching he found a company in Indonesia who could make the glasfibres bodies (at the time of the publishing of the article it is said that they are still doing so).
The first public exposure of the car in France came in 1989 when there was a racing car show at Clermont Ferrand, home of the famous Charade track. The reactions were extremely positive and the next day they formed the Charade Automobiles Company.
In early 1990, (and that is where the article starts), they have to bring the car to Racing Car show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, and that is where the pcitures have been taken. The car was still incomplete having a limited interior, no battery, and no shocks, which explains the odd proportions of the wheel vis-a-vis the wheelarches.
The article also mentions that the Honda Importer for South East Asia would be interested in having the car fitted with Honda parts and distribute it as of the beginning of 1993.
What the car now has is a 130 bhp Peugeot 205 GTi engine (1.9) centrally located, with 205 rear suspension and new front suspension as the McPherson struts are too high for the body. The car weighs in 800 kgs, so performance wise it does look promising.
Further plans would include a cabrio version and they even talk about a 4/5 seater with FWD.

Interestingly it is said that the car shown is already number 9, but there is little information about what is in the other cars. The articles states that development continued with each new car, but does not say what and how. One car was destroyed during testing, but another one had already covered over 200,000 km.

So this is more or less what the situation was in 1990. I could not find any further information as to what happened after 1990 but probably some of the cars still exist.