Channeling Cugnot

Alain Cerf is a man with a mission. Designer of packaging equipment made by his company Polypack, Inc., in Pinellas Park, Florida, he is understandably interested in innovative machinery. As a collector of automobiles he favors those with distinctive engineering: front-wheel drive, rear engines, unusual engines and suspensions. A native of France, he has a particular fascination with his countryman Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot.

Alain has ensconced his collection of cars at his Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, an eclectic assembly of engineering masterpieces. Not surprisingly, many of them are French, including the groundbreaking Citroën 2CV, a Peugeot Darl'Mat, Voisin C7, Amilcar Compound and the last car of Emile Claveau. Perhaps the most striking is the Panhard Dynamic, a magnificent art deco masterpiece with center steering.

Front-wheel drive is showcased by a pair of low-slung closed cars taking pride of place: a rainbow-hued US-built Ruxton sedan and a Tracta Type E, the latter designed by Frenchman Jean Albert Gregoire. Tracta is also represented with a 1929 Type A that raced at LeMans. Gregoire's last car, the cast aluminum chassis Hotchkiss Gregoire with cantilevered flat-four engine, is also on display. British front drive appears in the form of BSA three- and four-wheelers, the latter a Scout, and a rare Alvis with supercharged engine and unusual leaf-spring independent front suspension.

A phalanx of Tatras promotes rear-engine, rear drive. Brainchildren of Czech engineer Hans Ledwinka, Tatras are usually V8-powered, though the Tatraplan model makes do with four cylinders. We don't associate Mercedes-Benz with rear engines, but the 130H of 1934-35 is so configured. For good measure, Alain has acquired a Delorean to round out his parade of pusher power.

Many museums claim to be unique in ensuring that all their cars run. Alain's cars not only run, they're all registered for the road. He delights in starting them up and giving them exercise. You will not be able to drive them yourself, but you can visit the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum any day but Tuesday or holidays.

It's Cugnot, however, that's Alain's current quest. When he learned that the 1771 fardier on exhibit in Paris is not the only one extant, that a 1930s replica survived in Germany, he persuaded its owners, the Deutsche Bahn Museum (German Railway Museum) in Nuremburg, to lend it to him. He has studied it carefully and manufactured certain missing parts. He intends to make it work. So if you see a Frenchman steaming a wooden automobile up I-275 in Tampa...