Cournil

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French vehicle maker

title: "Cournil" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["defunct-motor-vehicle-manufacturers-of-france", "off-road-vehicles"] description: "French vehicle maker" topic_path: "geography/france" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cournil" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary French vehicle maker ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameBernard Cournil
logoCournil Logo.svg
logo_size240px
typePrivate company
locationAurillac, France
Saint-Germain-Laval, France
key_people
industryAutomotive
productsFour-wheel drive agricultural quasi-Jeeps
::

| name = Bernard Cournil | logo = Cournil Logo.svg | logo_size = 240px | type = Private company | location = Aurillac, France Saint-Germain-Laval, France | key_people = | industry = Automotive | products = Four-wheel drive agricultural quasi-Jeeps | production = | revenue = | net_income = | homepage = | parent = Bernard Cournil was a French vehicle maker who progressed from improving other people’s vehicles to manufacturing his own during the late 1950s. Rights to manufacture his design were subsequently held by a succession of businesses in Portugal after the French creator of the vehicle had disappeared from the picture. The vehicle built was also called the Cournil, and was intended mainly as an all-round offroad vehicle especially suited for farm usage: it could pull a plow and was offered with a PTO, cranes, or even machine gun mountings.

The man

Bernard Cournil was born in Aurillac in April 1909. He was a passionate engineer and, as a young man, closely involved with the ** before returning to his native Cantal where he set up an automobile workshop business which as the next war progressed and the oil ran out, specialised in converting cars to run on wood based “gazogène” fuel.

Improving the Jeep

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/UMM_Cournil_4_x_4_-Flickr-_Joost_J._Bakker_IJmuiden.jpg" caption="earth auger"] ::

After the war Cournil found a stock of US built Jeeps that had been left behind, and these he adapted and maintained for agricultural use. When Hotchkiss began to assemble Jeeps under license in France, it was a natural progression for Cournil to become a regional distributor for the Hotchkiss built Jeep, and in 1954 he went a stage further, concluding his own licensing agreement with Willys Jeep for assembling their vehicle.

Little by little Cournil now progressed from assembling Jeeps to improving them. Responding to a perceived concern over the robustness of the standard gear-box, Cournil substituted gearwheels derived from castings which he machined in his own workshops. He then started looking for an engine that would be more reliable than the ones provided from Hotchkiss, initially substituting a diesel unit from Ferguson. By the early 1960s he had decided that the Hotchkiss Jeep chassis was insufficiently robust for the agricultural challenges of central France, and had substituted his own virtually indestructible four-wheel drive vehicle which had progressed a long way beyond the original Jeep design and which in the Mining industry acquired the soubriquet “Tracteur Cournil”. when their own frame was introduced for the "Cournil Tracteur JA1". In 1961 Cournil changed the design of their truck, creating a distinct shape which was to last until 1986, and until 2004 in modified forms. The front was distinguished by drastically sloped fenders to allow for maximum visibility on the narrow mountain tracks for which the vehicle was intended.

Built mostly by hand his products gradually used more and more proprietary components, built by Cournil or especially for them. Production had still only reached a total of 850 units (most sold locally in the Massif Central region) by 1972. while the rights to market areas outside of the domain of the French were sold to UMM of Portugal. This was also when the business was relocated from Aurillac to Saint-Germain-Laval. In 1980 the firm was taken over by SIMI of the Belin group, who built another 560 units until 1984, again mainly for government use. In 1984 Auverland took over, introducing a redesigned body for their "A3" in 1986.

Design

The first Cournil Tracteur (JA1) used leftover Standard 23C diesel engines from the Ferguson TE20/FF30, often known as "Hotchkiss engines" as they had been built under license in the Hotchkiss plant in Paris until 1958. This 2088 cc engine produces 30 PS. As availability of the Hotchkiss-built engine came to an end, the 23C was replaced by a Leyland unit (the "O.E. 138") in 1964 - this was a derivative of the 23C engine, and still built by Standard after having been taken over by Leyland. A variety of other available engines followed, from Saviem, Renault, Indenor, and others.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/UMM_Entrepreneur_(1983)_(owner_Alberto_Rebelo).jpg" caption="A 1983 UMM Entrepreneur, nearly identical to a Cournil of the period"] ::

The Gevarm-built Cournil, the first one that can be considered a true "production" model, came in two wheelbases: 2040 or. The engines offered were a 2.6-litre Saviem 817 petrol unit with 69 PS (SCE14/24), or a 2.1-litre Indenor diesel unit (XDP 4/90) with 62 PS, called the SCD14/24. The larger Saviem 720 diesel of 3.6 litres was also available, with 85 PS. The English importer also installed the 2.7-litre Perkins 4.165 diesel engine to suit local needs. Right-hand drive models were not offered until 1979.

SIMI era

SIMI began by taking over the existing Gevarm lineup, but soon began adding new engines. A redesign also followed, as did a modified chassis with new dimensions. The wheelbases offered were now 2200 and, while PSA's 2.5-litre XD3 P diesel and 2.3-litre XD2 PS turbodiesel engines were on offer alongside the 2- and 3.6-litre Renault/Saviem petrol units. During SIMI's ownership, the short wheelbase model began being referred to as the "Randonneur" while the LWB model was called the "Entrepreneur".

Auverland continued to build SIMI's lightly modified version as the SC (in SC-200, -250, and SC-11 versions), and the more heavily modified version as the A-2, until the A-3 was introduced in July 1987.

A series of afterlives

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/UMM_Alter_Turbodiesel.jpg" caption="UMM]] vehicle."] ::

The Bernard Cournil company of Saint-Germain-Laval (Loire) progressed to vehicle manufacturing in about 1960. From 1979 the vehicles were also produced under licence in Portugal by UMM; the French market was off limits to the UMMs. The business was acquired by the Société I.M.I. company (SIMI) in 1980 and during a period when ownership was being transferred to Auverland in 1983/84 the vehicle was briefly marketed as the Autoland. In 1982 Auverland took over the business and after 1985 the vehicle was marketed as such. UMM kept improving the car and offered a number of different engines over the years, keeping it in production until 2004. The Auverland also provided the basis for Brazil's "JPX Montez", built from 1992 until 2002.

References

References

  1. Mason, Jerry. (December 1978). "For our next trick...". FF Publishing Ltd.
  2. Guittat, Yves. (1982). "La fabuleuse histoire Cournil". 4x4 Magazine.
  3. Bellu, René. "Toutes les voitures françaises 1962 (Salon 1961)". Histoire & collections.
  4. The date when Cournil became a vehicle manufacturer in his own right was in 1960,[[#Tdec78. Mason]], p. 72
  5. Maclou, Jean-Marc. "Cournil Tractor". Unusual Off-Road Locomotion.
  6. [[#Guittat. Guittat]], [http://cournilphilo.chez-alice.fr/wit-icons/cournil%204x4magazine.pdf p. 29]
  7. Guittat]], [http://cournilphilo.chez-alice.fr/wit-icons/cournil%204x4magazine.pdf p. 30]
  8. "Roulons des mécaniques: Moteur Ferguson (dit Hotchkiss)". Philocournil.
  9. Decker, Jean-Paul. "La saga du Cournil". M4.
  10. [[#Tdec78. Mason]], p. 75
  11. Guégan, Michel. (August 1979). "Essai: Le Cournil". Auto Verte.
  12. "Cournil: Le nouveau-né de la gamme". SIMI S.A..
  13. (1988). "Hors-série salon 88". 4x4 Magazine.
  14. [[#4x4M. Hors-série salon 88]], p. 81

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defunct-motor-vehicle-manufacturers-of-franceoff-road-vehicles