Corre La Licorne
 |
|
| Industry | Automotive |
|---|---|
| Fate | ceased production |
| Founded | 1901 |
| Defunct | 1949 |
| Headquarters | Levallois-Perret, France |
|
Key people
|
Jean-Marie Corre |
| Products | Automobiles |
Corre La Licorne was a French car maker founded 1901 in Levallois-Perret, at the north-western edge of central Paris, by Jean-Marie Corre. Cars were produced until 1947.
The first cars were named Corre, but racing successes by a driver called Waldemar Lestienne, who came from an old family with a crest featuring a unicorn, led to the company adopting the name Corre La Licorne. Nevertheless this was a long name for a small car, and by the 1950s, even in France, the car was generally remembered simply as the Licorne.
Business began with the production of tricycles and a single-cylinder quadricycle single-cylinder cabriolet using De Dion-Bouton components. Early sales volumes were modest. To give greater prominence to the brand, the company began to participate in competition, and racing victories achieved, in particular in 1903 by the driver Waldemar Lestienne, gave the company valuable recognition. Sales improved and were soon challenging those of longer established brands such as Renault, Peugeot and De Dion-Bouton.
Early on the business was afflicted by litigation and after a trial that lasted five years the firm's founder, Jean-Marie Corre, found himself financially ruined and obliged to sell his business, in 1907, to Lestienne Firmin, a skilled financial administrator. It was at this point that the Corre name was changed to Corre-La Licorne.
In 1910 the model list included three models: one with a single-cylinder engine, one with twin 1.7-liter and a third model powered by a 4-cylinder. But by eve of World War I in 1914, the range had already been broadened substantially. The 4-cylinder engines were derived from Ballot and Chapuis-Dornier units.
With the outbreak of war, the business was moved to new premises in nearby Neuilly.
After the war a new model with a 1.2-liter engine was presented. This was a new version of an earlier model dating back to before the war. By the mid-1920s, the Neuilly manufacturer was offering a wider range, and the cars were joined by new commercial vehicle versions and even small buses.
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