manufacturers rather than individual drivers. Only the 2-car Avions Voisin team were late scratchings. With the cars all painted in their national racing colours, there was a predominance of French blue cars except for a single green Bentley from Great Britain and two Belgian Excelsiors in yellow. The cars were assigned their numbers in the order of their engine size. Many of the car models were co-identified with the French CV-system of automotive horsepower tax. The biggest-engined cars in the field were the 5.3-litre Excelsiors, luxury car-makers from Belgium founded in 1903. Success in racing and sales to the Belgian royal family established the company. The 1922 Adex C had a straight-six engine putting out 130 bhp and could reach 145 km/h (90 mph), however its hefty weight impeded its acceleration rate. It had perhaps the first anti-roll bar suspension running on Belgian Englebert tyres. Works drivers, Belgians Nicolas Caerels and André Dills, were pre-war veteran riding mechanics from Grand Prix and Indianapolis. Lorraine-Dietrich had been founded as a locomotive manufacturer in 1884 in Alsace-Lorraine, moving to automobiles in 1896 entering the early inter-city road-races. At war's-end the factories but soon resumed car production. The B3-6 appeared in 1922 with a straight-6 engine and 3-speed gearbox and three body-style variants were sent to Le Mans under competition director Maurice Leroux. The fastest was the lightened Torpédo bodystyle, capable of almost 145 km/h (90 mph). Delage was another famous French car company with a strong pre-war motor-racing pedigree already, including winning the 1914 Indianapolis 500, and quickly resumed racing after the war with its big 5- and 6-litre racing cars. The DE raced at Le Mans was a 1-off special of the current popular production model fitted with its engine modified to carry an overhead-valve cylinder head. It was raced by new works driver Paul Torchy and test driver Belbeu. Chenard-Walcker was a major Parisian automotive company, established in 1899 and one of the city's biggest suppliers of taxis. They had a close relationship with coachbuilding company FAR who built their bodywork, led by André Lagache and Raymond Glaszmann (both keen racers). Lucien Chenard, son of the founder, had set up a works racing team in 1921 with the company test-driver René Léonard. Active in post-war racing they sent a trio of cars with the latest Torpédo bodystyle from FAR. Two had the new U3 3-litre engine that put out 90