Tracta
Car : Tracta
Year : 1930
Engine : 4 cylinders in line
Bore and stroke :67?105 mm
Cylinder capacity : 1487 cc
Gears : 4 forward
Brake horse power :-
Maximum speed : -
Wheelbase : 8 ft 6 ins (2.59 m)
Suspension : front and rear : telescopic shock-absorbers and sliding swinging half axles
Tracta was only in business between 1925 and 1934, but it was one of the first car manufacturers to adopt front wheel drive. The firm was founded in 1925 by the engineer J. A. Gr?goire and Pierre Fenaille at Asni?res and it was intended to produce high quality cars.

The front wheel drive Tracta made their name at Le Mans in particular, where they were always successful. Gr?goire used a SCAP engine and the Cozette supercharger. A feature of front wheel drive cars was the lack of a transmission (propeller) shaft tunnel and this allowed cars with a very low centre of gravity to be designed, which made them very stable. Pierre Fenaille devised a constant velocity joint which overcame the problem of connecting the transmission directly to the steerable wheels. The car illustrated has an unusually long hood, a tiny passenger compartment and minimal ground clearance.
The development of the constant velocity joint absorbed almost all the small factory’s resources, and production ceased in 1934. However, Gr?goire and Fenaille continued to work on the constant velocity joint for front-wheel drive and this was later adopted by many car producers, and was even used on the Jeep.