Astra (1922 automobile)

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The Astra was a small French cyclecar made by E Pasquet in Paris. The automobile was manufactured only in 1922.

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Cyclecar tiny car designs briefly popular in the 1910s–20s

A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car.

Features

It had a twin-cylinder two-stroke engine of 496 cc.

It featured independent suspension on all four wheels, as well as friction drive.

Independent suspension

Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects the wheel on the other side. "Independent" refers to the motion or path of movement of the wheels or suspension. It is common for the left and right sides of the suspension to be connected with anti-roll bars or other such mechanisms. The anti-roll bar ties the left and right suspension spring rates together but does not tie their motion together.

Friction drive

A friction drive or friction engine is a type of transmission that, instead of a chain and sprockets, uses 2 wheels in the transmission to transfer power to the driving wheels. This kind of transmission is often used on scooters, mainly go-peds, in place of a chain. The problem with this type of drive system is that they are not very efficient. Since the output wheel has width, the area of contact is spread across various radii on the primary disc. Because the tangential velocity varies as radius varies, the system must overcome velocity differentials across the surface. The compromise is slippage of the leather to metal contact area which creates friction, which in turn converts much of the energy transfer of this system into heat. Heat generation also requires a cooling system to keep the transmission working effectively.

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