Tracta: Obscure, but Noteworthy

At the end of the 1920s, most cars tended to be tall.  In part this was because they had high clearance necessary for negotiating unimproved country roads that often consisted of paths worn down by tires separated by a higher, grassy center strip.  Main bodies were tall because drivers and passengers normally expected to be seated chair-high, wearing hats.  Another reason for tall cars was the driveshaft running below the passenger compartment between the front-mounted motor and the rear axle and differential.

Front-wheel-drive eliminated the driveshaft.  With that factor removed, height could be reduced a little.  But what if a car didn't have to be able to drive on unimproved roads?  By the late 20s in much of America and western Europe, most roads between towns (if not between villages) were graded and paved in some manner.  So clearance could be reduced for luxury or semi-luxury cars that were unlikely to ever be driven on poor roads.  And perhaps seat height and overhead space for hats might be shortened a bit too.

The result was a number of low-slung, sporty cars appearing around 1930, none of which was very successful in the Great Depression market.  Sales success came later via the traction-avant Citroën.

An early front-wheel-drive car from France was the Tracta (1926-1934), few of which were built.  Tractas are perhaps best-known today (and the brand remains obscure) because the company was led by Jean-Albert Grégoire (1899-1992), legendary engineer of innovative automobiles.

Tracta in some respects was a racing car company that also built some passenger cars.  Those passenger cars were low and sporty, though their styling was in the same vein as some contemporary American front-wheel-drive brands.

Gallery

Two photos of a 1930 Tracta Type E that I took a few years ago at the fascinating Tampa Bay Automobile Museum which also has a 1929 Tracta Type A in its collection.
The following two images show contemporary American front-wheel-drive sedans.

In the foreground is a low-height, running board - free 1929 Ruxton.  This photo offers a comparison to a standard American sedan, likely a 1928 Cadillac.

A 1929 Cord L29.  Also low to the ground, but it retains running boards that were standard practice in those days.

This image was taken from the publication Touts les voitures françaises 1982 that contains a section dealing with 1932 French cars.  These sporty Tractas are low, but include running boards.  Click to enlarge.

Gem of an Automobile Museum

A version of his article was originally posted on the Art Contrarian blog 11 May 2012.  I am re-posting it because I believe it will be of interest to readers here.

Automobile museums are all different, yet in many ways similar -- especially the Important Museums.   By that I mean car museums with large collections here in America seem obliged at have at least one Duesenberg, one Cord, a Ford Model T, an early 1900s antique of some description, a Packard from any era plus at least one car from the 1930s with either a V-12 or V-16 motor.

So it was with surprise and pleasure that I recently visited the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, a gem filled with cars seldom seen here in the United States.   Moreover, the collection is built around a theme, whereas most car museums strike me as being filled with whatever nice-to-have vehicles that pop up on the market, creating a sort of random effect.  But the Tampa Bay museum's collection core is built around two poles.  One is cars with engines in the rear, the other is cars with front-wheel drive.  And those cars had to be from the era 1920-1950.  Because most cars with those characteristics were built in Europe in those days, I saw many cars that I've never encountered in person before.  (Sadly, I've visited few European Automobile museums; one does have to make travel compromises with one's spouse, after all.)

Let's take a look at some photos from my visit:

Gallery

Ruxton - 1929
Ruxton was an American front-wheel-drive car that reached the market when the Great Depression hit; only a few hundred were made.  The four-tone paint scheme was designed by Joseph Urban who also created a similar scheme based on blue.

Tracta E - 1930
Another low-production fwd car, this by Jean-Albert Gregoire (1898-1992) of France, father of numerous automobile engineering innovations.  I confess not to have heard of the brand before.

Aero - 1937
Another brand previously unknown to me. This fwd car was built in Czechoslovakia.

Tatra T87 - c.1942
The Czech Tatra firm built several series of rear-engined cars from the mid 1930 to the late 1970s. The one shown here is to me the archetypical version.

Tatra T97 - 1938

Tatra Tatraplan - late 1940s

Voisin C7 - 1927
The power train layout is the traditional front-motor-rear-drive. I include it because it's a Voisin and its body is constructed of wood and doped fabric of the Weymann type.

Panhard Dynamic - 1938
Some (many?) French cars are rather ugly, and this Panhard is near the top of the list.  The drive train is conventional.   But note the covered wheels and three-piece wraparound windshield.   And if you look closely, you'll find that the steering wheel is mounted at the middle of the dashboard -- neither right nor left.   In the 1930s, luxury French cars had right-hand steering while mass-market cars mounted the steering wheel on the left.   Traffic in France followed the German and American pattern, so expensive French cars were better suited for driving in Britain or Czechoslovakia.   Apparently Panhard wanted to split the difference.