Chenard-Walcker Type U History

The Type U family — offered in 15CV (3-litre four-cylinder) and smaller capacities — formed Chenard-Walcker's bread-and-butter range through the 1910s and into the early 1920s. By 1910 the company was producing over 1,500 cars per year, making it the ninth-largest carmaker in France; by 1925 it had risen to fourth.

At the outbreak of World War One the model range encompassed a six-cylinder and fours of 2.0-, 2.6-, and 3.0-litre capacities, all built at the Gennevilliers factory (the firm had moved there from Asnières-sur-Seine in 1906). Post-war production resumed with the Type UU and the revised Type U 12CV alongside the flagship 3-litre.

The touring Type Us were conventional in layout — a live rear axle, ladder frame, four-speed gearbox — but well-built enough to support a large dealer network and a strong competition programme in the Paris–Marseille–Paris rallies of the period.