Quiz Archive

About quiz #202 Tracta

The creator of this car was also a mucicologue, but if we used that word, just one flick of the google-switch would have brought you to the name of Jean-Albert Gregoire and then on his creation, the Tracta. So we had to thread carefully and describe him as an expert in mushrooms. What made this car special was the invention by Gregoire, with his partner Pierre Fenaille, of the Constant Velocity Joint which made the production of front wheel drive cars a reality. Until that time there had only been prototypes. And this FWD gave the car also its name Tracta, short for TRACTion Avant. The car and designer being French it was no surprise that many answers came in from France. Still this was a difficult car to find and we have seen names like Lombard, Marendez, Vale or even a shrunken Daimler Double Six.
The ones who came up with the names Tracta an Gregroire were: Dominique Barbault; David Barker; John Barringer; Roger Bowers; Bruno Estibals; Marc Fellman; David Green; Jean-Marie Guivarc'h; Gerard Lansink; Olivier Lesur; Lars-Göran Lindgren; Bart Oosterling; Peter Pegg; Hubert Raynaud; Sébastien Simon and Willem van der Veer. We narrowed their answers down to six possibles, but finally we decided the winner is David Green, who added: “Tracta’s were raced at Le Mans from 1927-1934, with Gregoire driving (and completing) from 1927-1930. Engine was a small SCAP. Gregoire stopped making Tracta’s in the early 1930s (only 200-300 made), but licensed his patents to many companies, including DKW, Adler, Imperia, and Rosengart. Gregoire also built the first car with a cast aluminum frame.” Congratulations on your third win, David. (Photos courtesy Rick Ford’s Classic Cars Photographs) and Roger Bowers. \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '>(RB)

Friday, 11 May 2007