front-mounted engine to the rear wheels via a traditional three-speed manual gear box, with synchromesh on the upper two ratios. The Juvaquatre featured independent suspension at the front. Renault were the last of the "big 3" French automakers, in 1937, to offer independent front suspension on a passenger car: Peugeot had claimed a world first for independent front suspension in the volume car sector, with a 1931 upgrade for the Peugeot 201, and Citroen had made a start back in 1934. The front suspension assemblies on the Juvaquatre were intended to minimize the risk of wear on the components leading to misalignment of the wheels, featuring just three joints on each assembly and the transversely mounted leaf spring constituting the fourth flexible element of a simple parallelogramme structure. The rear wheels were attached using the tried and trusted combination of a rigid axle mounted with transverse leaf springs. The brakes on the Juvaquatre were mechanically controlled on the early cars, but Lockheed Corporation Hydraulic brakes were introduced in 1939. Market positioning A feature of the French auto-market during the final years of the 1930s was the emergence of a modern category of small family cars in the 6CV taxation class, offering modern body designs clearly influenced by the streamlining fashion of that time. The Renault Juvaquatre was one of three major players in this category which, thanks to the intervention of war, was still significant in the late 1940s. The Renault's side-valve engine positioned it at the bargain-basement end of the class, confirmed by an advertised starting price for the two-door sedan/saloon of 16,500 Francs at the 1937 Paris Motor Show. The Peugeot 202 was not exhibited at the 1937 show, but went on sale early in 1938 with a starting price of 21,300 Francs for a car with four doors and a more modern engine, while the Simca 8, essentially a rebadged, locally assembled Fiat, appeared at the 1937 show already with hydraulic brakes, a four-speed gear box and independent front suspension, advertised at a sticker price of 23,900 francs for the four-door "Normale" sedan/saloon. Half a class up, the front-wheel-drive 7CV Amilcar Compound, was advertised at the Motor Show at an aggressive 21,700 Francs for a "coach-normal" (2-door base version) with independent front suspension. Despite its side-valve engine, the Amilcar was in several respect more technically ambitious than the other three cars identified here, but the manufacturer lost