Maurice Mestivier

1902-197?
Mestivier had started working at Amilcar as a mechanic in 1921, at the age of 19.He would remain with Amilcar until the beginning of WWII. His brother Marius Mestivier who died at Le Mans in 1925 (likely pumping oil with the manual hand pump of the car) - was chief tester with Amilcar. Mestivier was a genious tuner and soon became chief mechanic. Mestivier acquired an Amilcar CS in 1931, a Pegase in 1936 and the unique Amilcar MCO 1100 in 1933. When Amilcar closed their racing shop he was attached to the sales department until 1939.

He was also a driver and won the Orléans Grand Prix, run in the voiturette category, in 1935 with an 8 year-old Amilcar. In 1937 he was elected president of the AGACI and stayed at this function until 1969.

In the 1950s he founded Autobleue with his friend Lapeytre, a successful outfit specialized in tuning Renaults and in building special parts for them. They manufactured coupés on the basis of the Renault 4CV. 81 cars were built with the contribution of French coachbuilders Pourtout, Chapon, Figoni and Italian Ghia. As far as we know only 10 of these cars still exist nowadays.

Maurice Mestivier was very active on various governing boards of the sport and a race organizer himself. He was the president of the AGACI (the French Drivers Association) from 1937 to 1969. The first post-war meeting at the Bois de Boulogne in 1945 was mainly due to his efforts.
(Info supplied by Alessandro Silva and 8W)

 

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