Champlain Automobiles, est. 1946

Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, January 18th 1949

Champlain Automobiles Ltée is proud to present it’s first production model, the St-Laurent. The St-Laurent is a samll affordable car that will allow everyone and its mother to enjoy the freedom of owning a car. It’s simple to operate, safe and reliable.

To move this first car entirely made in Quebec, we needed an engine. Thus we created the Econo 4 engine. It’s a 134ci straight four engine, fitted with the trusty overhead valve technology. It’s light, reliable and thrifty.

The St-Laurent will be available to independent dealers next month.

No clue what you did, but the engine seems te be really underpowered. ALso you have a low Fuel Octane and realllly high emissions. I tried making an engine in 1949 myself quickly, and I end up with an engine almost making 100hp with single carbs and such, no quality at all. So maybe you should revise the engine :slight_smile:

few design philosophies involved in this car:

[ol]
]This car needs to be easy to use, so leaded 87 fuel it is, because I don’t want some moron to put 87 in a 93 only car./:m]
]It’s 1949, who cares about emissions?/:m]
]It has to have a kinda flat torque line, because of the 3 speed tranny./:m]
]we’re still 4 years out of WWII. Quebec wasn’t that rich back then. So it’s cheap, but not too much, in order to still keep it reliable, and it’s not a gaz guzzler./:m]
]It seems underpowered, but you have to consider that the Chevy 3.5 l6 of the time put out 85hp. and frankly, 53hp on a 753kg car isn’t that bad for the time. Just some more perspective, the Beetle at the time had a 1.1l 30hp engine./:m][/ol]