File talk:Hotchkiss1958Meillant.jpg

What is this, exactly?

This car has a strange description. In 1958, Hotchkiss automobile production had already ended. My guess is 1948. Further, the Hotchkiss 686 has not an 8 cylinder engine but a six. Series designation is 680, meaning 6 cylinders and 80 hp. The last digit identifies the body style. 20 CV (fiscal hp) is correct for it's 3 litre engine. "Grand Sport" is the sports variant. "PN" seems to indicate the "Paris-Nice" equipment, roughly a Grand Sport plus twin carburetors.--Chief tin cloud (talk) 10:48, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I have also been interested in this one. Some points though:

"680" and "686" stand for six cylinders and 80 or 86mm bore - combined with a 100mm stroke, this means that the "680" is of 3,014cc and 17CV while the "686" has 3,485 cc. Until 1936, the 680 and 686 were actually sold as the 617 and the 620.

I believe that this car is a 1938, although I am not 100% certain. In 1939, front doors received front vent windows and they retained these until the end of production, as can be seen on this 1949 GS. However, the windshield wipers did not assume their position at the bottom of the windshield until 1939, so there is some conflicting evidence. The body-coloured headlamp pods are also peculiar and point to it being a post-war car. So while I believe that it is a 1938, I cannot say so for sure. Hotchkiss also tended to use up old parts before introducing any new ones, so there were many many hybrids such as this one, not to mention what can happen to a car in sixty or seventy years of use. Lastly, "PN" is wrong for this car - it indicates fitment of the more powerful Grand Sport engine in the long or regular wheelbase chassis (Grand Sports are all SWB), but many simply refer to all of these ligne classique Hotchkisses as "Paris-Nices". I think that once we correctly identify this car, we should fix the sign too...

There is a handy guide for telling various years of Hotchkisses apart located here. Since I found a trove of Hotchkiss photos online recently (see my gallery), I have had to learn a lot about the bewildering history of these cars. Eager for your reply, mr.choppers (talk)^-en- 00:15, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Well, I found a few photos (here's one of a 1940) of later cars without the vent windows. Maybe it is a 1948 after all? I would be happy with calling it a 686 GS Modane (that's the name of this bodystyle). Cheers. mr.choppers (talk)^-en- 00:32, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

And now I found a discussion regarding this car on the same French forum, suggesting that it is apparently a 1937 prototype called the 1686, and it's a betwixt-and-between on a wheelbase between short and medium! It was a prototype for an independent suspension (which also explains why the front fenders seem so tall), so it is hard to say whether it is a GS or a PN. It has a big honking non-standard Stromberg carburettor in either case. Further evidence for this being one of the six 1686 prototypes built is the split rear windshield, which was definitely never fitted to the regular Grand Sports. mr.choppers (talk)^-en- 01:07, 5 April 2012 (UTC)