[Chuck]

A couple weeks ago I had the rare opportunity to watch some vintage French Automobiles being unloaded for the Barrington Concours. The fellow responsible for bringing these cars from the Mullin Museum is David Cooper. He has a restoration business in Chicago and also one in France.

[The Foudre]

Hi Chuck,

A chance for you to be able to film these beautiful French cars. It's a bit of our country's heritage.

Gabriel Voisin story in English

[Chuck]

This was very important to me. I left the house at 5:30AM just so I could see these cars being unloaded and driving.

[gonzola]

Hi Chuck, Here is a book that should interest you

This book is a fascinating inside story about the technical progress of the French automobile industry between the two world wars, about the cars that André Lefebvre designed and the way he inspired his engineering team, in retrospect the Steven Spielberg of auto engineers.

It gives an insight into the technical development of the various cars that Lefebvre masterminded. It covers the history of front wheel drive from 1896, and explores the advantages and limitations of the now almost extinct sleeve valve engines. The book is illustrated with over 125 photographs and drawings, some from André Lefebvre's personal archives.

The biography of André Lefebvre gives a revealing insight into the work of a practically unknown aeronautic engineer who, after building and racing competition cars for Gabriel Voisin in 1933, created for André Citroën the revolutionary front wheel drive Traction Avant. He was responsible for the minimalist 2CV and the Citroën DS, which was the sensation of the automotive world in 1955, and is still an icon of original automobile engineering and avant-garde design today.

Together with his colleagues at Citroën, Lefebvre created the Traction Avant (1934), the TUB (1939) - Citroën's first front wheel drive utility van that was succeeded by the H and HY vans (1947) - the 2CV, the Deux Chevaux (1948), and the DS (1955).

André Lefebvre, and the cars he created at Voisin and Citroën