{"id":2735,"date":"2007-04-12T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-12T05:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2007\/04\/channeling-cugnot\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:02","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:02","slug":"channeling-cugnot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2007\/04\/channeling-cugnot\/","title":{"rendered":"Channeling Cugnot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cugnot<\/a><\/p>\n

Alain Cerf<\/a> is a man with a mission. Designer of packaging equipment made by his company Polypack, Inc.<\/a>, in Pinellas Park, Florida<\/a>, he is understandably interested in innovative machinery. As a collector of automobiles he favors those with distinctive engineering: front-wheel drive, rear engines, unusual engines and suspensions. A native of France, he has a particular fascination with his countryman Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alain has ensconced his collection of cars at his Tampa Bay Automobile Museum<\/a>, an eclectic assembly of engineering masterpieces. Not surprisingly, many of them are French, including the groundbreaking Citroën 2CV<\/a>, a Peugeot Darl’Mat<\/a>, Voisin C7<\/a>, Amilcar Compound<\/a> and the last car<\/a> of Emile Claveau. Perhaps the most striking is the Panhard Dynamic<\/a>, a magnificent art deco masterpiece<\/a> with center steering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Front-wheel drive is showcased by a pair of low-slung closed cars<\/a> taking pride of place: a rainbow-hued US-built Ruxton sedan<\/a> and a Tracta Type E<\/a>, the latter designed by Frenchman Jean Albert Gregoire. Tracta is also represented with a 1929 Type A<\/a> that raced at LeMans. Gregoire’s last car, the cast aluminum chassis Hotchkiss Gregoire<\/a> with cantilevered flat-four engine<\/a>, is also on display. British front drive appears in the form of BSA three-<\/a> and four-wheelers<\/a>, the latter a Scout, and a rare Alvis<\/a> with supercharged engine<\/a> and unusual leaf-spring independent front suspension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A phalanx of Tatras<\/a> promotes rear-engine, rear drive. Brainchildren of Czech engineer Hans Ledwinka, Tatras are usually V8-powered<\/a>, though the Tatraplan model makes do with four cylinders<\/a>. We don’t associate Mercedes-Benz with rear engines, but the 130H<\/a> of 1934-35 is so configured<\/a>. For good measure, Alain has acquired a Delorean<\/a> to round out his parade of pusher power.<\/p>\n

Many museums claim to be unique in ensuring that all their cars run. Alain’s cars not only run, they’re all registered for the road. He delights in starting them up<\/a> and giving them exercise<\/a>. You will not be able to drive them yourself, but you can visit the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum any day but Tuesday or holidays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s Cugnot, however, that’s Alain’s current quest. When he learned that the 1771 fardier on exhibit in Paris<\/a> is not the only one extant, that a 1930s replica<\/a> survived in Germany, he persuaded its owners, the Deutsche Bahn Museum<\/a> (German Railway Museum<\/a>) in Nuremburg, to lend it to him. He has studied it carefully<\/a> and manufactured certain missing parts<\/a>. He intends to make it work. So if you see a Frenchman steaming a wooden automobile up I-275 in Tampa…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alain Cerf is a man with a mission. Designer of packaging equipment made by his company Polypack, Inc., in Pinellas Park, Florida, he is understandably interested in innovative machinery. As a collector of automobiles he favors those with distinctive engineering: front-wheel drive, rear engines, unusual engines and suspensions. A native of France, he has a….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2735"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3339,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions\/3339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}