Automobiles Voisin - 1922 Strasbourg A. C. F. Grand Prix

1922 Strasbourg A. C. F. Grand Prix

In 1922, after years of participating in various speed trials and hillclimbs all over France, Voisin decided to contest the Touring Car class of the Automobile Club de France's Grand Prix to be run on a road circuit around Strasbourg.

On July 16th, four somewhat strange-looking Voisins lined up on the grid next to their Bignan and Peugeot rivals (only these three marques being represented). For his first major competitive motor race, Gabriel Voisin had entered a singularly unusual design dictated by an imaginative interpretation of one of the rules: that the body must be at least 1.3 metres wide at the height of the front seats.

The Voisin's pilots for this Grand Prix are:

Arthur Duray

Pierre Gauderman

Piccioni

Henry Rougier

Being based on the production short-chassis C3C sports model with a 900mm chassis width, the light body he designed for the race therefore featured bulges at each side to bring the total width in line with the regulations. The resulting reduction in frontal area, together with the 120 bhp output of the specially prepared 4-litre sleeve valve unit, made for a competitive car - and so it proved when the factory entries took the first three places and the fifth after 53 laps and 709 kilometres.