Louis Coatalen

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Louis Coatalen

Louis Hervé Coatalen (September 11, 1879 – May 23 1962) was a Breton automobile

Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a person professionally engaged in a field of engineering. Engineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints....
.

Coatalen was born in the Breton fishing town of Concarneau

Concarneau

Concarneau is a Communes of France in the Finist?re Departments of France in Bretagne in northwestern France.The town has two distinct areas: the modern town on the mainland and the medieval Ville Close, a walled town on a long island in the centre of the harbour....
and went on to study engineering at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers at Cluny (France).

After working for De Dion-Bouton

De Dion-Bouton

De Dion-Bouton was a France automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer operating from 1883 to 1932. The company was founded by Comte Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Tr?pardoux....
, Clément-Bayard

Clément-Bayard

Cl?ment-Bayard was a France automobile manufacturer from 1903 to 1922.The company was founded in M?zi?res by Gustave Adolphe Cl?ment just after he left his earlier firm, Cl?ment, which continued automobile production under the name Cl?ment-Gladiator....
and Panhard-Levassor

Panhard

Panhard is now a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005....
he left France to work in England in 1900. After a short time with the Crowden Motor Car Company he became chief engineer with the Humber Car Company

Humber (car)

Humber was a United Kingdom automobile marque which could date its beginnings to Thomas Humber's bicycle company founded in 1868. In 1931 it was taken over by the Rootes brothers to become part of the Rootes Group....
in 1901.

In 1906 he went into partnership with William Hillman to form the Hillman-Coatalen

Hillman

Hillman was a famous British automobile marque, manufactured by the Rootes. It was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England, from 1907 to 1976....
company and it is alleged in 1907 he married one of Hillman's daughters, now disproved.

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Encyclopedia

Louis Hervé Coatalen (September 11, 1879 – May 23 1962) was a Breton automobile

Automobile

Engineer

Concarneau

De Dion-Bouton

Clément-Bayard

Panhard

Humber (car)

Hillman

Sunbeam Car Company

Sunbeam was a marque registered by John Marston Co. Ltd of Wolverhampton, England, in 1888. The company first made bicycles, then motorcycles and cars from the late 19th century to circa 1936, and applied the marque to all three forms of transportation....
becoming joint managing director in 1914.

During World War I he designed aircraft engines for Sunbeam.

In 1920 Sunbeam joined with Talbot

Talbot

Talbot is an automobile brand, whose history is one of the industry's most complex....
and Darracq

Darracq

Automobiles Darracq S.A. was a French motor vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq.Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory, Alexandre Darracq began operating from a plant in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes....
to form STD Motors Ltd and Coatalen had a seat on the board as one of the directors remaining chief engineer of Sunbeam. His main interest became racing cars and Sunbeam became heavily involved in land speed record attempts including the successful 1000HP car of 1927 and the failed 'Silver Bullet
Silver Bullet (Sunbeam land speed record car)

The Sunbeam Silver Bullet was the last attempt on the land speed record by Sunbeam Car Company of Wolverhampton. It was built in 1929 for Kaye Don....
' of 1930. In 1926 Sunbeam's racing activities were taken into the STD company and moved to Suresnes in France and although Coatalen continued working part time in Wolverhampton, he spent most of his time in Paris. STD failed in 1931 but its affairs were so complex it took until 1934 to sell the Suresnes works to Lago.

Coatalen's innovations included balancing the wheels (a technique also claimed by Sig Haugdahl

Sig Haugdahl

File:Sig_Haugdahl_rc10424.jpgSigurd Olson ?Sig? Haugdahl was an International Motor Contest Association champion and an early promoter of stock car racing in the United States of America....
), re-locating the oil pump into the sump, and he was an early advocate of shock absorbers.

From the proceeds of his STD share sale, Coatalen bought control of the French branch of Lockheed hydraulics and from the income from this bought a yacht and a villa on the Isle of Capri

Capri

Capri is an Italy island off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples. It has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic....
.

During World War II he lived in France although he had earlier taken out British citizenship and continued living there until his death.

Louis Coatalen married four times, in 1902 to Annie Ellen Davis (divorced 1906), in 1910 to Olive Bath (daughter of a Sunbeam director), in 1923 to Florence van Raalte and in 1934 to Amy Bridson.