On the road with the Cotal miracle technology of yesteryear
10/06/2023
In the 1930s, the Cotal pre-selector gearbox was quite popular in powerful and expensive French cars. It consisted of a planetary gearbox whose gears could be changed by electrical impulses without having to operate a clutch by foot. Gears were selected using a small switch on the steering wheel, which was modeled on the conventional "H" of other manual gearboxes.
I have always wondered how this technology can be operated and how it feels. Recently, I finally had the opportunity to try it out for myself.
First of all, the car, in this case a Delahaye 135 M from 1949, does have a clutch pedal. However, you only use it to change direction and drive off. To control whether you want to drive forwards or backwards, there is a "gearshift" above the cardan shaft, which you can move forwards or backwards to set the direction of travel.
Once the car is moving, however, the four gears can simply be engaged using the small lever on the steering wheel. This works surprisingly well across all four gears. You can help the gearbox to change gear by briefly lifting the throttle when shifting up.
The Cotal transmission shifts through the four gears, which would also be available in reverse, surprisingly smoothly and with just a short finger movement. This is a really welcome feature, especially for frequent speed changes, and you can understand why rich people were happy to use it from the 1930s onwards.
P.S. An alternative to the Cotal gearbox was the Wilson pre-selector gearbox , which was particularly popular in racing cars.
