Hotchkiss-Grégoire – Le Juste Milieu

Why an auto manufacture would choose a motto, “Le Juste Milieu,” that means “The Happy Mean,” will remain unanswered despite the research done for this article or by the two museums who, together, own three of the very rare French cars – two sedans and a particularly rare coupe. It is possible that the motto describes the Hotchkiss cars that preceded the Hotchkiss-Gregoire, these cars are certainly not the “mean” of anything – they are far from average.

Before getting into the history of the company that manufactured the cars, which has nearly as many twists and turns as “The Tail of the Dragon,” it is appropriate to acknowledge the museums that made this and other profiles possible for Vintage Road & Racecar. There are two general categories of museums – those whose displays are meant to be viewed, and those whose displays are meant to be used. Not every museum can be like the Lane Motor Museum (https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/) and the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum (http://www.tbauto.org/). Nearly every vehicle on display can be taken out and used on the road. That is not even conceivable at many museums. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center (https://airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-center), for example, is not likely to roll the Enola Gay out onto the runways of Dulles International Airport for someone to take it for a ride. At the Lane, the propeller cars you see are drivable. At Tampa Bay, the replica of the 1770 Fardier de Cugnot even has a Florida VIN and license plate. Thanks to these museums, Vintage Road & Racecar has access to an interesting variety of cars to profile, like the two Hotchkiss-Gregoires featured here.