Throughout the period since 1945, French motor manufacturers have been preoccupied with size and, more particularly, with how to minimize it. The reasons for this are not hard to find. After the end of World War II, a new motor-taxation policy added to the existing levy on gasoline: this was a tax based on fiscal horsepower – the French CV rating – which was itself largely dependent on engine capacity. Any engine over about 2.7 liters in capacity was heavily penalized, with the inevitable result that French manufacturers phased out their larger engines. This automatically led to the demise of large cars, at least until advances in engine design allowed smaller-capacity type to provide enough power and torque to haul large and heavy cars around at acceptable speeds.
For the convertible, this new taxation policy was catastrophe. The traditional French open car of the 1930s had been a grande routiere, designed to go far and fast across the European continent and endowed with a large capacity engine and heavy, coachbuilt body. In post war France there was no welcome for such cars, and the few manufacturers who tried to build them found the market too restricted to guarantee their survival.
On the other hand, no French manufacturer could deny the value of an open top, whether it was to admit the Mediterranean sunshine or to permit the transporting of oversized loads.
MERAUP DOLLAR
17 years ago
