Jean-Albert Grégoire
Jean -Albert Grégoire (* July 7, 1899 in Paris, † August 19, 1992 ) was a French engineer, inventor and automobile pioneer.
Grégoire studied at the École Polytechnique and earned a doctorate in law. He was known by he developed successful front-wheel drive vehicles of the brand Tracta. He constructed in 1924 with a Tracta the first production car with front wheel drive. In 1935, he won with a two-seater vehicle in aluminum frame construction of one of the French " Societe des engineer de l'Automobile (SIA ) " public competition to develop a simple and affordable car for "everyone".
Later he worked with the French aluminum manufacturers aluminum Français and developed the made largely of aluminum alloy Alpax Car Compound of the French manufacturer Amilcar, which was sold between 1936 and 1939 in France and England ( Hotchkiss et Cie as Hotchkiss Ten). From 1941 he developed together with aluminum Français prototype AFG Grégoire, from which the Panhard Dyna X was born. He also designed the electric car CGE Tudor for CGE and 1945 Grégoire R, from which the Hotchkiss -Grégoire was. In 1952 he was involved in the creation of the first French turbine car of SOCEMA ( Société de constructions et d' équipements mecaniques pour l' avition ) with approx 200 km / h top speed as an experimental car. On this car is also an imaged in comic Spirou and Fantasio model is based on. At the motorcycle manufacturer Monet et Goyon named Radfederungssysteme have been used in the 1950s after him. In 1956 he produced the Grégoire Sport in small series. His last project was the automotive Grégoire Charbonneaux from 1969.
In addition to his work as an engineer Grégoire was also active athletic and as an author. He played rugby and was French champion over 100 meters. In the years 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930, he participated with a Tracta the 24-hour race at Le Mans. Later, he wrote several books on automotive history and automobile construction as Des cars et des mots, Toutes mes automobiles and Vivre sans pétrole.