All-round independent suspension is provided by trailing arms acting on triple concentric coils mounted in oil-filled horizontal spring/damper units, the patent for which was adopted by André Lefebvre (another ex-Voisin man) for the suspension of what became the Citroën 2CV. The unusually sophisticated rack and pinion steering is Gerin’s own design.
Braking is via inboard drums at the rear, and four hydraulically operated shoes acting directly on the inside of each front rim – a design lifted from that pioneered by Lefebvre for the Voisin XIII light bomber.
The twin plug/twin ignition, 2-litre, ohv four-cylinder engine was built by Janvier Sabin (alongside the 10-litre straight 8 of the Djelmo record car) to Gerin’s specifications, with roller bearings throughout – even on the rockers. The engine was yoked to Gerin’s own infinitely variable friction drive transmission, and the entire tractor unit, including fluids, was designed to be removed or replaced by one man with two spanners in six minutes.
Apart from the gigantic front hydraulic brakes, the manually adjustable steering rake, swivelling headlamps and streamlined trigger-grip door handles are among the car’s other design ‘firsts’.
Gerin drove the car some 9000 development kilometres in its current unclad state, but though influential, the patents it embodies were too far ahead of public taste to be adopted by mainstream manufacturers. Discovered by the vendor three years ago after a 15-year search, it has been preserved unaltered since it last appeared in the press in 1929 apart from proprietary electrical ancillaries and a replacement steering wheel.
Of the world’s first-generation streamliners (the two remaining Rumpler Tropfenwagen, the North-Lucas Radial and the Persu Rational Car), it is the sole survivor in private hands rather than a national museum, and has never before been offered for public sale.
