Ajax [2]

Ajax was a French cyclecar manufacturer established by the American brothers Benjamin and Frank Briscoe in Neuilly, in the Seine region of France. The venture followed their departure from the United States Motor Corporation, after which they sought to establish a large-scale cyclecar manufacturing operation in France, declaring their intention to combine French workmanship with American business management.

The Ajax cyclecar was powered by a 980cc four-cylinder engine and used a friction drive transmission rather than a conventional gearbox. It was offered to the public at a price equivalent to £78, positioning it as an affordable, lightweight vehicle in the growing cyclecar segment of the era.

The outbreak of the First World War disrupted the Briscoe brothers' plans for expanding production in France, forcing them to abandon the project and return to the United States. There, they applied similar design principles to create the Argo, a car that closely resembled the Ajax but featured a conventional gearbox instead of the friction drive system used in its French predecessor.

The Ajax marque remained a short-lived enterprise, its production curtailed by wartime conditions before it could establish a lasting presence in the French automotive market.