The first Émile Claveau prototype, the 7 CV Sport, contrasts dramatically with its neighbors in the 1926 Paris Salon.
By Karl Ludvigsen
From 1924 Claveau began thinking through the design of an auto from first principles, guided as he was by the Discours of Descartes. On 5 September 1925 he lodged a patent on a suspension system that he pictured as applying to two vehicles, both open models and both teardrop-shaped in plan view. At that time French makers Cottin & Desgouttes and Sizaire-Naudin were leaders in deploying transverse leaf springs as a means of giving independent suspension.