1923 Jacques Gérin mid engine streamliner
 

I recently got an email out of the blue from Reg Winstone of Les Amis de Gabriel Voisin due to my enthusiasm for the quirky French luxury cars (worth a whole thread by themselves). It seems one of Gabriel Voisin's apprentices built this advanced prototype in hopes of securing a contract with an automaker. It was not to be.

As far as we know, these are the first photos of Jacques Gérin's prototype to appear publicly on the internet, aside from Gérin's numerous patents on the car.

Infinitely variable auto transmission
Four shoe hydraulic front brakes
Easily removed engine, etc. Reportedly takes only 10 minutes.
Aluminum alloy (duralumin) monocoque chassis.

Intended to be skinned with fabric, the single prototype (with its visible workings) was offered to car manufacturers but ultimately refused due to R&D cost.

Now thanks to Mr. Winstone and Les Amis de Gabriel Voisin, I share with you this revolutionary vehicle. Enjoy!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6040/...7beeb447_z.jpg
Gérin prototype, 1923 by Sir Tyler Linner the Loyal, of Grant-upon-Croix, on Flickr

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6036/...642b570a_z.jpg
Gérin prototype, 1923 by Sir Tyler Linner the Loyal, of Grant-upon-Croix, on Flickr

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6103/...8459b3ac_z.jpg
Gérin prototype, 1923 by Sir Tyler Linner the Loyal, of Grant-upon-Croix, on Flickr

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6058/...1cd81737_z.jpg
Gérin prototype, 1923 by Sir Tyler Linner the Loyal, of Grant-upon-Croix, on Flickr

NICE!!! Thanks for sharing the pics!!

Cool- too bad they didn't get further along with it.

..... and nearly 100yrs later, we are still driving aero bricks.

Nice pics, thanks.

..................but does it fit the template?:D

I think it does as a matter of fact, but I've been wrong before.:cool:

Looks like it has rocker-arm front suspension! My guess is for packaging, not for unsprung weight reduction like modern race cars have. But very cool nonetheless!

-soD

Nice.
Any idea where it's located ?
If there are no other public pics, I take it it's not in a museum ?

There is a patent (US - 1928) for this car here

DESIGN FOR A BOUT CARRIAGE FOR MOTOR ... - Google Patents

Didn't he also do propeller driven cars ?

I have to guess it's in France, but it could be anywhere.

Apparently there are about 50 patents on it!

I don't know anything else about Gerin.

Probably trying to figure out how to compound curve the skin, if it was to be metal.

As to how the prototype chassis was to be skinned, apparently just like most
of the aircraft of the time, 1923. Extracted from the link in the OP:

"Intended to be skinned with fabric, the single prototype (with its
visible workings) was offered to car manufacturers but ultimately refused
due to R&D cost."

FWIW, from Wiki:

Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by
using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss
that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork. The term is
also used to indicate a form of vehicle construction in which the body and
chassis form a single unit. The word monocoque comes from the Greek for
single (mono) and French for shell (coque). The technique may also be called
structural skin, stressed skin, unit body, unibody, unitary construction, or
Body Frame Integral. Pure monocoques lack internal longitudinal stiffening
but are heavier as a result.[citation needed] A semi-monocoque differs in
having longerons and stringers.[2] Structures built up from hollow tube
frames, such as bicycles are not usually monococques as the primary
stresses are not applied to the surface of the tube, but rather to the ends.

Monocoque construction was pioneered in boats, such as with the Viking
Longship and the Amerindian Canoe where it offered the low structural weight
neccessary in vessels that were frequently expected to be beached or carried
or portaged overland.

Modern use of moncocoque structures in other applications began in aviation
where pioneers used their experience in boatbuilding to provide the
necessary structures. Early designs appeared in 1912 such as the
Deperdussin Monocoque, and had found widespread use by the late 1930s
when it was applied to metal structures such as on the Douglas DC-3.
Automobiles used monocoque designs as early as 1923 but widespread
adoption did not begin until the second half of the 20th century.

^^ Thanks, I didn't know the difference between the internal/external terminology etc. So technically it's a spaceframe.

Without triangulation, it probably needed a metal skin to have shear strength, otherwise the parallelogram structure could collapse under load.

There is plenty of beef there to support a fabric or non-load bearing shell.

Thanks for sharing! This is interesting indeed!

Voison
 

One of the designers brought in to work on the Tucker saw Voison's "Dolfin" car as a child.
Voison had brought the car to the USA in hopes of attracting carmakers.
Evidently no one bit.

I can't find the Dolfin car in searches. Do you have any photos? :)

Is this possibly it?

Voisin C28 Aerosport

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/image...erosport_3.jpg

Doubt it. That was one of their "production" models, if you can call it that. There were three or four produced.

Voisin C28 Aerosport info

Another source citing production numbers

The second link makes mention of a "car of the future" with a seven cylinder radial engine. Perhaps that is it?

Avions Voisin is one of those companies that you would really need a super detailed book full of technical specs, photos, stories and personalities to really understand. If anyone knows of such a book I'm all ears!

BTW, for those new to it, you pronounce it "Ah-YOH Vwah-ZAH(n)" with nasal N's dropped much like the R in Louvre.

Maybe this car?

The Jalopy Journal » Blog Archive » 1923 Voisin C6

http://www.roadandtrack.com/auto-sho...ign.__photo_25

That is the Laboratoire, an inline six cylinder racing car :)

(The little propeller up front runs the water pump!)

photo
 

I have a book by one of the outside designers Preston Tucker brought in to do parallel body design along side of Alex Tremulis.
In the back of his book he provided the image.