Tuar (automobile)

Tuar (Garage Moderne)
IndustryAutomobile repairs (1913-1956)
Automobile production (1913-1925)
Founded1913
Defunct1925 (end of auto-production)
Headquarters
Thouars
,
France
Key people
Adrien Morin (1880-1968)
ProductsAutomobiles

The Tuar was a short-lived French automobile.

Adrien Morin

Adrien Morin was born at Brion-près-Thouet on 8 May 1880. the son of a successful local lawyer. Initially Morin followed his father into the law, but he was seduced into a career switch by the lure of the new and rapidly expanding automobile industry then growing up around the Paris hub.[1] He gained experience in the automobile sector, working successively for Vinot & Deguingand, Decauville and Cornilleau & Sainte-Beuve.[2] In 1913 he returned to western France and established the Garage Moderne, an automobile repair business, at Thouars, some 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the village where he had been born.[1] He also started producing light cars, using bought-in components, and powered by Chapuis-Dornier engines.[2] The cars carried the Tuar name, this being a phonetic spelling of the name of the small town where they were assembled.[1] The first of them was a "Torpedo" bodied car with an 8HP 1,726cc engine: it was registered on 15 January 1914 and sold by Morin to a local lawyer, who would have been one of his father's business rivals.[1]

The business

Morin's automobile manufacturing business grew following the war to a point where in 1922 he was employing more than 50 people.[2] However, located in a small country town the manufacturer was isolated from the synergistic networks of expertise and suppliers available to automakers in the Paris hub, and Morin found himself out-competed. Production ended in 1925 by which time about 800 cars had been produced.[2] The Garage Moderne nevertheless continued in existence till 1956.[3]

The war and beyond

During the war the factory was requisitioned for munitions production.[4]

Less than a year after peace broke out Tuar took at stand at the 15th Paris Motor Show in October 1919 and promoted a 10HP car designated as the "Tuar Type B2".[5][6] The 10HP Tuar used a 1,790 cc 4-cylinder engine of unspecified provenance.[5]

The list of engines fitted in Tuar cars during the next few years is a long one. It included 4-cylinder engines of 1244cc, 1327cc 1495cc, 1503cc, 160acc, 1821cc.[2] Although the company's leading engine supplier was Chapuis-Dornier they were also fitting 4-cylinder units from CIME, Fivet and Ruby.[2] A 6-cylinder 1496cc engine from CIME also featured.[2]

Reading list
  • Harald Linz, Halwart Schrader: Die Internationale Automobil-Enzyklopädie. United Soft Media Verlag, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8. (German)
  • George Nick Georgano (Chefredakteur): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 3: P–Z. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1. (English)
  • George Nick Georgano: Autos. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours. Courtille, Paris 1975. (French)

Sources and notes
  1. http://gazoline.net/article2.php?id_article=430#.UwTQ0s7w9kQ
  2. Georgano, Nick (1968). The Complete Encyclopaedia of Motorcars 1885-1968. London: George Rainbird Ltd for Ebury Press Limited. p. 569.
  3. Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile.
  4. Artikel über die Marke Tuar (französisch, access date 19 March 2013; PDF; 501 kB)
  5. "Automobilia". Toutes les voitures françaises 1920 (salon [Paris, Oct] 1919). Paris: Histoire & collections. Nr. 31: Page 80. 2004.
  6. (The Tuar Type B2 had NOTHING to do with the 1921 Citroën Type B2.)
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