It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce that Concours Cars | Concours Motorsport has ceased all business operations as of September 3, 2024

Full Announcement Here

Brett Weiner

Citroen Traction Avant restoration and upgrades

The Traction Avant, French for "front wheel drive", was designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933 / early 1934. While not the first production front wheel drive car, it was the world's first front-wheel drive steel unitary body frame production car. The Traction Avant used a longitudinal, front-wheel drive layout, with the engine set well within the wheelbase, resulting in a very favourable weight distribution, aiding the car's advanced handling characteristics. The gearbox was placed at the front of the vehicle with the engine behind it and the differential between them.

Another technical significance of Tranction Avant was the cast aluminium alloy transaxle, which was pioneered by Hans Ledwinka in the early 1930s for Tatra V570 used in front of the engine located in the rear, but was quite radical at the time.

As well as being a considerable part of the weight savings, the manufacturing facility for this transaxle contributed to the below mentioned financial crisis. But when John Cooper looked for a light transaxle case for Formula One rear engine revolution.

This Traction Avant was cosmetically very nice, but the mechanicals were poor. We rebuilt the transaxle, rebuilt the entire braking system and then on to the motor. These produces 35hp originally and up at 6,000ft it was severely lacking in power. We start off with custom JE high compression pistons, larger valves, Weber carburetor and porting the cylinder head. With these upgrades, this Traction Avant will do 60 mph with ease on the highway and cruise the colorado mountains!

Austin Healey Bug Eye Race Car

Our office manager has been racing British cars for decades and she wanted something that would be competitive against new cars.  She settled on a Bug Eye Sprite. They weight nothing and we put a 125 hp  motor in it with big brakes and significant suspension upgrades. It also has very wide R compound tyres. She regularly takes it to autocrosses and wins against Porsches and Corvettes!

Jaguar E Type Series II Restoration

As some of you know the Pebble Beach Concours d' elegance took place recently and we had a gentleman that was there and bought this very pretty Jaguar E Type. It had a noise in engine and gearbox. That is how these projects generally start. The fix for the engine rattle was to install tappet guide retainers. The gearbox has a noisy input shaft. Maybe a five speed in the future? In the mean time with put a vintage looking radio in, with all the modern hook up for an Ipod, with accompaning speakers. Next we went to the underside. The whole rear suspension needed to be dissambled and rebuilt. While we are at it, why not the front? Now the hardest part of all, the windscreen squirters. Some of you may scoff but those little bits took close to four hours and special tools!! Fishing welding wire and your index finger thru tiny holes and then trying to put it together, good luck. But yes we accomplished it by distorting time and space. Next we did a stero install. The trick to a vintage install is make it look period correct, hear it with the top down and plug in an iPod. The finished product looks pretty incredible.