Émile Levassor

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Monument to Émile Levassor by Camille Lefèvre
Square Alexandre-et-René-Parodi, boulevard de l'Amiral-Bruix
Quartier de la Porte-Dauphine, 16th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

“By 1891 Levassor had designed a radically new motorcar to house Daimler’s engine. He broke with tradition by placing the engine in front of the driver rather than under him, thereby obtaining better traction for the steering (front) wheels. He replaced the typical belt drive with a shaft-and-gear transmission that could be selectively engaged with a clutch to give different speed ratios. These and other innovations and existing designs were brilliantly combined by Levassor in the automobiles that his firm started selling in 1892. His vehicles were the first true, if embryonic, automobiles, rather than being simply carriages that had been modified for self-propulsion.” (Émile Levassor, Encyclopædia Britannica)