Claveau cars are among the world’s rarest cars because hardly any were made.

But Émile Claveau should be celebrated as he came up with ideas way ahead of their time. You can draw a line from his thinking directly forwards through French cars such as Citroen.

Émile Claveau’s first design was for a mid-engined car with an aerodynamic body. He applied for a patent in 1923 and this model was discovered in Tours near where the designer was making a living as a grain broker:

In this design, Claveau foresaw mid-engined, aerodynamic cars with a forward driving position and independent suspension.

And in 1930 he designed a front-wheel drive car.

After the war, Émile Claveau came up with something quite different. At the 1947 Paris Auto Show, he presented his Claveau Déscartes, surely the first car to be named after a French philosopher.

This thoughtful machine had a 2.3 litre V8 engine and front-wheel drive. René Descartes may have asked, “Cogito ergo sum?”: how many gears are there? It had a five-speed gearbox.

The Claveau Déscartes therefore preempted the 1966 Oldsmobile Tornado, also a car with a V8 and front-wheel drive.

Now then, if someone asked “which was the first 1950’s small car of under 900cc capacity, with front-wheel drive and rubber suspension” you might say “BMC Mini!”, right?

But you would be wrong.

Try Claveau.

In 1955 Émile Claveau showed this prototype at the Paris Auto Show. The car had a unibody bodyshell with independent suspension. The springing medium was by rubber rings called “Anneaux Neiman”, a system also used on scooters.

The car had a DKW three-cylinder two-stroke engine of 896cc, and a four-speed gearbox with the drive to the front wheels. It wasn’t entirely original: the design owed something to the Cisitalia 202 coupe of 1947.

The Claveau 56 prototype never had a fuel tank fitted and could not be driven. After the Paris show it was despatched to a scrap yard.

Luckily it was rescued by one Doctor Jeanson, a French car enthusiast. The Tampa Bay Museum acquired the car, restored it and fitted a fuel tank.

At last, after fifty years the car was driven on the road.

How much is a Claveau worth?

It is not known how much a Claveau car is worth. As the total production number of this car was only one, it is almost impossible to put a value on it. Let’s say $100 million.

The Chrysler Airflow of 1934 was an honourable attempt to design an American aerodynamic car. The designer, Carl Breer observed the smooth shapes of birds and aircraft and wondered why cars could not have the same. So Chrysler built a wind tunnel with the help of the aircraft pioneer Orville Wright.

They swiftly realised that the conventional American car was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards, and so in a publicity stunt, they reversed the chassis of a conventional 1933 Chrysler and drove it backwards at speed through the streets of Detroit. This caused near panic amongst pedestrians, but it signalled that the Airflow was coming.

It might be coming, but it was much later to market than planned due to the difficulties of making the lightweight body. The Airflow’s complex construction eventually required expensive new tooling which caused significant assembly delays and huge additional expense.

The Airflow’s slogan “The car of tomorrow is here today” should have added “…and it should have been here yesterday.”  

The front of the car featured a radiator grille which cascaded forwards like a waterfall, and a pair of headlights bulged out of the front panel like the eyes of a frog.

Instead of a flat one-piece windscreen, it had two pieces of safety glass in a shallow vee. The front wings enveloped the front wheels, and rear spats totally enclosed the rear wheels.

It all looked a bit like a water feature.

The problem is that the public, still reeling from the Great Depression, simply didn’t like the look of it. It was just too different for Americans brought up on the Ford Tin Lizzie.

The Airflow was actually one of the most advanced American cars of the 1930s, featuring an engine mounted forwards over the front axle and thus freeing up more passenger space.

The passengers sat between the front and rear axles, instead of perched over the bumping rear axle.

General Motors ran knocking advertisements, and the car was a sales disaster. The car flopped disastrously and brought car aerodynamics into disrepute in the United States.

The car was discontinued in 1937. Chastened, Chrysler remained conservative in their styling for the next twenty years.

The interior of the Airflow was more conservative. Despite the Chrysler Airflow’s lack of market success, other manufacturers soon adopted the lighter-weight steel body construction and the superior aerodynamics that it pioneered.

The car featured here is one of only 212 Chrysler Airflow CV Imperial Coupes built in 1934. They were six inches longer and featured more accessories. It is a rare survivor.

What engine was in the Chrysler Airflow?

Eight-cylinder L-head in-line front-mounted engine

Capacity: 323.5 cubic inches (5301 cc)

Power: 128 hp at 3400 rpm

How much is a Chrysler Airflow worth?

The average price of a Chrysler Airflow is $72,130.

Lowest price $8,000.

Top price $209,000.

The most recent was $117,700 (source classic.com)

The Tatra T97 was probably the most influential car that no one has heard of.

From its beginnings in the aerodynamics of Zeppelin airships the Tatra was the result of the application of rational thought. But how did the goats of the Tatra mountains influence the design, and why did the car later become known as the “Nazi killer”?

The 1936 Tatra Model T97

Tatra’s chief designer Hans Ledwinka had worked with Paul Jaray, a Zeppelin airship aerodynamic engineer, using Jaray’s expertise and access to wind tunnels to design a truly slipstreamed motor car.

Jaray had patented an aerodynamic design and Auto Union had built a concept car based on his ideas in 1923. This led to a new look for cars, and Jaray, who is little heard of today, can be regarded as a pioneer of this science.

He understood the crucial fact that aerodynamic bodies cause lift, a fact that did not dawn on rival car designers until twenty years later.

Ledwinka and Jarays Tatras were influential in another area of car design. They had to contend with the steep, heavily cambered mountain tracks of their region. Rear engines with their weight over the driven rear wheels gave them the traction they needed.

Air-cooled engines wouldn’t freeze up in the mountain winters. Swing-axle independent rear suspension was just the job on a steeply-cambered mountain goat-track.

And so the Tatra engineer Hans Ledwinka produced a series of advanced streamlined cars with air-cooled rear engines: at first twin cylinders, then four, six, eight and culminating in a vast V12. With a rear engine! As we have seen, along the way he also built the world’s first aerodynamic car.

Even after 60 years the 1938 Tatra T77 still beat everything hands down with a Cd of 0.212; the 2001 Audi A2 1.2 TDI scored a Cd of 0.24, and even today the Mercedes EQS has only just beaten the Tatra with a Cd of 2.0!

At the Paris Show of 1934 journalists were amazed that the Tatra could reach 90 mph (140 kph) on just 60 hp of engine output: more than twice that power was usually needed to drive a conventionally shaped car at that speed. 

The cars’ reputation grew, and a Tatra T77 was owned by the Czechoslovakian president. Then Hans Ledwinka turned his attention to a cheaper model.

The Tatra T97 vs the Beetle

The car-enthusiast and non-driver Adolf Hitler had ridden in Tatras during his political tours of Czechoslovakia, and he admired them.

He had also discussed cars with Hans Ledwinka, in particular his new 1936 Tatra T97, an economy car with an air-cooled, four-cylinder, flat four engine mounted in the rear. It had a platform chassis with central structural backbone, forked at the engine end, and it provided accommodation for four or five passengers with their luggage carried in a front compartment and also behind the rear seat.

It looked a bit like a metal beetle. Is this beginning to sound familiar?

1937

The 1937 Tatra T97 swung into full production in Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, In Germany of the 1930s only one in fifty of the population owned a car and for most it was an impossible dream.

Car ownership in other countries was far more widespread than in Germany and this irritated Hitler, who saw the motor car as “a source of unknown joy”. After one of his dinners with Ledwinka Hitler remarked of the Tatra T97 to the self-promoting Ferdinand Porsche,

“This is the car for my roads”.

– Adolf Hitler, (source: Mantle, Jonathan (1995). Car Wars: Fifty Years of Greed, Treachery and Skulduggery in the Global Marketplace).

1938

Like all populists Hitler knew about the power of big promises. He promised this: every German would have a car. And German cars would be the best. Nazi-sponsored Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix motor racing cars, the “Silver Arrows” dominated the scene between 1934 and 1939.

And so in 1938 Porsche copied the Tatra T97 design and produced what eventually became known as the KdF-Wagen or Volkswagen, which was strikingly similar to Czech car. Tatra launched a lawsuit, with ten legal claims filed against VW for infringement of patents.

Porsche was about to pay a settlement to Tatra, but he was stopped by Hitler who said he would “solve his problem”. Tatra’s claim was simply disposed of when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia.

Production of the T97 was ordered to be halted to avoid comparison with the Volkswagen. But after the war, in 1965 Volkswagen paid Tatra one million Deutsche Marks in an out of court settlement.

After the German invasion of Czechoslovakia Nazi officers prized the powerful Tatra 87s for their straight-line speed but found them a handful on corners due to the rear engine.

The combination of swing axles, terminal roll-oversteer and a high polar moment of inertia proved too much for their driving abilities. After several fatal accidents personnel were ordered not to drive these cars.

The Tatra was thereafter known as the “Czech secret weapon”! Owners of older Porsche 911s will know what I’m talking about…

The Tatra T97 story doesn’t end there. Now, though it seems that Ledwinka had in turn copied a design of the 1920s by the Austro-Hungarian inventor and engineer Béla Barényi!

Barényi was a prolific inventor with 2,000 patents to his name. He is now credited with being the inventor of passive vehicle safety: crumple zones, the non-deformable passenger cell, and the collapsible steering column.

There exists a 1925 drawing by Barényi reproduced on the Mercedes Benz website which shows a car remarkably like the VW Beetle, even down to the louvres on the engine lid (source: mercedes-benz.com). So exactly who was copying whom?

“Well, sometimes I looked over his shoulder,” admitted Porsche of his discussions with Ledwinka, “and sometimes he looked over mine.”

Margolius, Ivan; Henry, John G (2015). Tatra – The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka.

Where Can I Find a Tatra T97 For Sale?

As I write these words there is a Tatra for sale on eBay for £6,500. But it is a post war 603 model. There is a 1938 Tatra T97 for sale on www.tatraworld.nl for Euros 58,000. Otherwise the usual places are Sotheby’s, Bonham’s and carandclassic.com.

Why was it called the Austin Seven?

The 1923 Austin Seven was the most important car in British motoring history, bringing independent travel to the masses. The car was called Austin 7 because of its horsepower.

Early cars in Britain were taxed on a formula called RAC horsepower. It didn’t reflect the actual measured horsepower but was calculated by a formula including cylinder bore size, number of cylinders and notional efficiency.

Cars were commonly named for their taxable horsepower, such as the Austin Seven and the Riley Nine. The name “Rolls-Royce 40/50” referred firstly to the taxable horsepower: 40, and the actual measured horsepower: 50.

How many Austin 7s are left?

There are only 17 Austin 7s left on the roads of Britain with a current MOT vehicle test. (carlogbook.com)

How many Austin 7s were made?

Between 1923 and 1939 over 290,000 Austin 7s had been made, transforming the British motoring scene.

How fast were Austin 7s?

The 1933 Austin 7 could just do 60 mph. Acceleration was brisk from a standstill, but 0 – 50 mph took 25 seconds.

Technical Specification of the Austin 7

Engine: 747cc straight four-cylinder side valve.

Clutch: very abrupt, with a short travel. See below!

Gearbox: 3 speeds and reverse. Four speeds were available from 1932, with synchromesh added in 1933 to third and fourth gears, extending to second gear in 1934.

Chassis: an “A” Frame chassis, with a transverse front spring like the Ford Model T, and rear quarter elliptic springs.

Brakes: rod-operated drums: not very effective.

What’s an Austin 7 Chummy?

When production began in January 1923 the only version offered was the Austin 7 Chummy tourer, an open four-seater (source: Bonhams.com).

The word Chummy means “friendly” in British English. You’d have to be friendly to sit in this.

What’s an Austin 7 Ruby?

As production increased, Saloon, fabric Saloon (where the panels were made of canvas), and coupe were added to the range. The 1934 Ruby was a two-door saloon with flowing lines, valanced wings and a taller radiator in a cowl.

It had self-cancelling flush-fitted indicators. The wheel size decreased (which would be an unusual development these days) from 19” to 17”, and it had synchromesh on second, third and fourth gears.

What’s an Austin 7 Ulster?

The lightweight Austin 7s were successful in competition, and when an Austin 7 Sports Model won its class at the 1929 RAC Tourist Trophy a very special Austin Ulster version was released. It was a two-seater with no doors but an aluminium body with a pointed tail and a modified chassis giving a 3” lower ride height.

The engine was special too, developing 24 horsepower, or 35 horsepower with a supercharger. An Austin Ulster won the Brooklands Five Hundred Mile Race with Sammy Davis driving (source automotiverestorations.com).

Austin Ulsters are worth around $70,000.

What’s an Austin 7 Special?

Austin 7 special is a generic term for the dozens of home-brewed special racing cars made from old Austin 7 chassis after the Second World War. The bodies were hand-made and very often there was just one seat.

What’s an Austin Seven Brooklands?

Six Austin Seven lightweight racers were built in 1928 – these were the Austin Seven Brooklands. They only weighed 875 pounds.

Why was the Austin 7 so important to early motoring in Britain?

The First World War did more than anything else to convince soldiers that the motor car was a good thing.

Within a month of the start of the war, the German army was in sight of the Eiffel Tower, but 600 Paris 1905 Renault AG taxis were requisitioned to take half a division of infantry overnight to the front, and the Germans were repelled. Later on, Tommy might have marched past the armoured cars and the tanks which ended the deadly stalemate.

After the Great War soldiers who had seen the success of motorised transport wanted something for a run out into the country on Sundays. And so when he got back to the land fit for heroes the second thing the British Tommy did was to buy a motorcycle-and-sidecar combination.

If the missus objected, he might try to provide a bit of weather protection and so a horde of cyclecars arose, lightweight cars based on motorcycles, but only the Morgan Plus Four survives today. Most were horrible, and this gave Herbert Austin food for thought.

The Austin Motor Company had done well out of the war, manufacturing heavy artillery, generating sets, and building trucks and aircraft. The workforce had expanded from around 2,500 to 22,000.

After the war, though the order book was empty. An over-reliance on just one expensive model, the 3.6 litre 1919 Austin Twenty proved disastrous, and the company went into receivership.

In the teeth of opposition from the Board of Directors and creditors, Herbert Austin decided that a small affordable car was the way forward. It would be cheaper and better than the cyclecars and would mobilise Britain just as the Ford Model T had mobilised America.

A new horsepower tax, which penalised the Model T imports was imposed in 1921, and this decided him. Working secretly at home with a young draughtsman at Lickey Grange near Birmingham, Austin planned the tiny car in 1:1 scale in the billiard room.

Some claim the work was done on the table, certainly, it would have been big enough, as the tiny car was only ten feet long and five feet wide. Austin incorporated innovations patented by him and so he stood to make two guineas per car sold: a fortune.

The young draughtsman, Stanley Edge, persuaded Austin to use a proper four-cylindered engine instead of a twin-cylindered motorcycle engine. It was a wise suggestion as the Seven was thus a proper car, albeit a tiny one.

At 696cc the engine was a quarter of the size of the Model T’s engine, and the weight of the completed baby Austin was half that of the American car.

It was minimalist in design: the crankshaft had only two bearings, one at each end, and the big ends were lubricated by splash instead of pressure from an oil pump. There was no water pump: the coolant was circulated by thermo-siphon. But the crankcase was aluminium, and so was the clutch housing. This was meant to be lightweight.

The engine had an RAC tax rating of 7.2 hp, hence the name: Austin Seven  The whole car took up little more road space than a motorcycle-sidecar combination.

I had a couple of these engines to play around with at the age of 15 or so, and even then was struck by there only being one roller main bearing at either end of the four-throw crankshaft. It ought to have flexed like a skipping rope at high revs, but when a plain centre bearing was added later the new crankshafts proved less reliable, not more so.

By Easter 1922, Edge’s drawings of the car were ready, and work began immediately on the first prototype.  Then an elite group of Longbridge workers selected by Herbert Austin built the first three cars. The Seven was regarded with derision by the other workers, who called it a “bath on wheels”. Austin persisted with his design and managed to get it past the Board of Directors.

Soon after launch, in March 1923 the bore was increased to 2.2 inches (56mm) giving 747 cc and 10.5 hp. At first, there was no electric starter, the engine being started by hand with the usual handle at the front of the car. 

The dynamo was driven directly from the timing gears. The gearbox had only three forward speeds. The chassis was an A-frame, with solid axles back and front, suspended on simple leaf springs, with no dampers. But the brakes were poor, and the clutch was fierce.

The advertising emphasised the economy: “Where it costs shillings to take a taxi you may use the “Austin Seven” for pence…The “Austin Seven” makes a very snug coupé, and it’s really much nicer to have your own car.” Costing just £165 (£9,500 today) it was as cheap as a cyclecar.

At first, the bodywork was an open four-seater, and the weight was just 360 kgs (796 lbs), or half the weight of a Lotus Elise. Despite the minimalist nature of the Seven, it was still a real car, and in just a few years it had wiped out the cyclecar competition.

But it wasn’t ever a car for the masses, the years between 1929 and 1935 were the worst for working-class incomes.

My grandfather lived around the corner from Herbert Austin at Kentmere House on the Lickey Hills. He bought one of his neighbour’s baby Austins and toured North Wales with his wife and three children, so the car was clearly big enough for a family.

While undertaking a perilous three-point turn on a mountain track he instructed the family to get out for safety reasons.

As they watched he selected reverse, lifted the abrupt clutch too quickly, shot backwards, and toppled over a precipice. Leaping out just in time, grandfather watched as the tiny car cartwheeled into the abyss.

Family history tells us that they walked down into the nearest town and bought another Austin Seven.

My grandfather had another Austin Seven story. As a medical missionary in India, he befriended Gandhi. When the great independence fighter came to stay at our house in 1934 he was picked up at the railway station in the tiny Austin Seven, a familiar car in India.

Unlike the Ford Model T, which Henry Ford refused to change throughout the production run, the Austin Seven was constantly modernised and improved.

A closed saloon was introduced in 1926 and a two-seater was added in 1929. Coil ignition replaced the magneto in 1928. In 1930 the front and rear brakes, which had been operated separately by a hand lever and a foot pedal respectively, were connected.

The chassis was lengthened in 1931. A three-bearing crankshaft was introduced in 1936 (but proved no more reliable). And the gearbox became a four-speed unit in 1932, gaining synchromesh on third and fourth in 1933, and on second gear in 1934.

The Austin Seven was a success in Britain, where it mobilised the middle classes. The chassis cost £112 (£6,890 today). The Austin-made steel-panelled saloon was introduced in September 1926 at £165 (equivalent to £10,151 today)

Did you know? The car was also popular throughout the world: who would have thought that BMW would have built Austin 7s under licence?

Nissan made unlicensed copies of the Seven, laying the foundations for that company’s later success, and 7s were also built in France, America and Australia. In a strange way, the Austin Seven also influenced the Willys Jeep (read more on this site).

By 1939, over 290,000 Austin Sevens had been sold, transforming the British motoring scene.

What is an Austin Seven worth?

An Austin Seven today would cost you from $3,250 to $44, 200, with an average of $16,900 (classic.com)

Austin Ulsters are worth around $70,000 today.