[1] However, Amilcar quickly outgrew their restricted city-centre premises, and during the middle part of 1924 the company relocated to Saint-Denis on the northern edge of the city.

[1] The business was a leading beneficiary of a cyclecar boom, prompted by a government initiative which held out the promise of a reduced rate of annual car tax, fixed at 100 francs per year, for powered vehicles weighing no more than 350 kg (dry weight, without fuel or water or such extras as a spare tyre/wheel), providing seating for no more than two people and powered by an engine of not more than 1100 cc.

[1] The early 1930s were years of economic crisis in France, and at the end of 1933 a company owned by Briès and Sée, called "Sofia" (Societe financiere pour l'automobile), took effective control of Amilcar, which nevertheless continued to function under its existing name.

At the end of August 1934, still faced with disappointing sales volumes, the factory at Saint-Denis closed for the last time, as management struggled to save the business.

[2] Henry Mann Ainsworth, the Automobile Director at Hotchkiss, had already been presented, by the high-profile engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire, with a promising prototype (at that stage based on an Adler chassis) for a lightweight 7CV category, small, technically advanced family car.

[2] The front-wheel-drive Amilcar Compound was technically advanced in design for its era, featuring a monocoque frame made of a light alloy and independent suspension all around.

[4] Production prototypes for an upgraded Compound with an OHV 1340 cc engine were running by the summer of 1939, and this version was scheduled for an October launch at the 1939 Paris Motor Show, but the motor show was cancelled and the launch was postponed – as matters turned out indefinitely – due to the intervention of war which France (and Britain) declared against Germany in early September 1939.

The famed American dancer was the passenger in an Amilcar CGSS[9] when her silk scarf became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.