France
France
France is regarded as the cradle of the car, because it produced the first self-propelled vehicle (Cugont’s Fardier), and the first manufacturers of cars on an industrial scale. Prominent amongst these were Panhard & Levasor who made an agreement in 1889 with Gottlieb Daimler for the France rights to his engine, and in 1891 put their first car on the road.
Count De Dion and an engineer, Georges Bouton, founded a company for the production of cars and in 1894 the company brought out a gasoline engine, an air-cooled, single-cylinder with a maximum power of ½ bhp. More than fifty car producers bought manufacturing rights to De Dion-Bouton engines.
In the meantime, Louis Renault, together with his brothers Marcel and Fernand, founded a firm that with time would become one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. Initially, the firm produced small-engined cars , but the three brothers quickly saw that the way to make a name for themselves abroad was to go into racing. They abandoned De Dion and Aster engines and successfully ventured into producing their own engines: a 1728 cc twin-cylinder and 3800 cc 4-cylinder. The latter powered the car with which Marcel Renault won the 1902 Paris-Vienna race.
In 1908 Fernand retired and the company changed its name to Société Anonyme des Usines Renault. By then it was a manufacturer of international standing, but the Second World War dealt it an serious blow. Renault passed entirely into the hands of the State and it became Regie Naitonale des Usines Renault. Its recovery began with the 4 CV, and continued with a series of front-wheel-drive models. Peugeot’s progress was very similar in small, gradual stages.
Possibly the most enterprising, imaginative and commercially gifted figure in the France car world was André Citroën. He was the first manufacturer to realize that the car was first and foremost a means of transport and his Spartan cars were well received by the public.
Ettore Bugatti was a manufacturer for whom the car was synonymous with perfection, elegance and refinement. He has gained his place in history through his pearls of engineering, such as the legendary Royale.
Gabriel Voisin, on the other hand, was an innovator, delighting in this innovating ability, irrespective of the welcome that the public gave his machines.