Alain Cournil, whose father created the Cournil line of 4×4 off-road automobiles earlier than he took over the corporate, died early this week on the age of 74. His son Christophe confirmed his passing on Sunday.
Bernard Cournil based Cournil after the Second World Warfare, the place he had served with the French Resistance and offered important help to Allied troops within the liberation of his nation. At struggle’s finish, he started modifying surpluses of American Jeeps and have become a producer, finally spinning them off into his personal model.
Though Cournil’s automobiles, which included agricultural and heavy equipment, grew in reputation in France, he constructed most of them with restricted assist out of his store. This finally resulted in monetary hassle, prompting Alain and his spouse Myriam to take over the corporate in 1971. Nonetheless, financial considerations continued till 1977 once they offered the manufacturing rights to French arms maker Gévarm and Portuguese agency UMM; the latter was entrusted with constructing the Cournils outdoors of France. Auverland subsequently turned the producer in France and Brazil in 1984.
Even then, Alain remained concerned with Cournil. In 1979, he greenlit manufacturing unit assist for drivers getting into the inaugural Paris–Dakar Rally in a single, which included Jean-Pierre Kurrer (completed fifty-first general) and Gil Guillot (completed sixty-eighth general). The next yr, Kurrer scored the automotive’s greatest end of twelfth whereas Patrick Thenoux was twenty-fourth.
UMM later entered the Dakar with the Alter, utilizing the Cournil’s template. The corporate proudly proclaims at the least one Alter reached the end at each Dakar it ran within the Nineties. In January, João Costa and Paulo Sergio da Silva Oliveira raced UMM Alters within the Dakar Basic, an adjoining occasion to the Dakar Rally for older automobiles, respectively ending sixty-first and forty-first general; eight Alters have been additionally delivered to the race to assist them.
In 1996, Alain turned a licenced supplier for Mitsubishi earlier than including Kia to his portfolio in 2008. He additionally continued to assist Cournil and UMM by restoring them as soon as he acquired the required elements in 2009. After his retirement, he handed down the corporate reins to Christophe and son-in-law Sébastien Carlat.
