Retromobile, Paris February 2018

Winter seems to come around too quickly, but so does the annual excursion to Paris to see the glamorous show that is Retromobile. There’s something about the way the French put on the show that has, well something about it. This year it has grown even more than last year with the inclusion of the under 25K Euros for sale section.

Of course there’s lots of home grown classics on display, with the major French manufacturers out in force. The main displays of Renault and PSA group members Peugeot and Citroën were suitably large . Renault’s main display stand has the same position and size as always, but a neat display of representative market segments. Kind of a 3D range brochure spanning 120 years of the marque.

It was stunning and there was plenty on the stand.

Including a fantastic Renault 9 Alliance, Alliance being a French American co-operative producing the 9 and 11 in the USA by the American Motors Corporation,  AMC. This came to end end when Chrysler bought AMC in 1987.

Of course there was a Twingo on the stand. They never made this in right hand drive and they really should have. Still cheap enough to buy, but they will start to appreciate, certainly those that are in this condition.

One surprise to find was the first generation Scenic, but when you think that it is now over 20 years old, being launched in 1996. Will it be a classic in the same way the first generation Espace is? Only time will tell.

The 16 and 30 that sat next to each other on the stand showed the evolving family look of the cars, the profile of the body through to the nose and the quad headlights. Even though these models were introduced a decade apart, the 16 came out in 1965, they are unmistakably related.

Renault made a 20 version of the 30, the same car with a smaller 4 cylinder engine as opposed to the 2.7L V6. The larger engine being a joint development between Renault, Peugeot and Volvo.

The rally prepared 4L (Quatrelle) looked like it wasn’t just capable of completing the crossing the Americas route on the rear door, it looked like it had done it.

Lastly from Renault, anyone for Ice Cream?

The other two big French Manufacturers, Citroën and Peugeot had a stunning collection, some recognisable from the Conservatoire, some new for the show.

I’ve wanted a Mehari for years, so much I’m even prepared to build one.

This plastic bodied utility vehicle is just fantastic, only really useful in nicer climates than we have in the UK as reputedly it takes half an hour to erect the hood and its frame…

Of course there were 2CV’s, both earlier examples with the darker coloured one being the earliest. One of the three prototypes hidden during the war.

It’s an amazing thing from 1939, but the extra time between this and the eventual launch meant the concept was refined nicely. I still love this though.

Presidential transport was represented by the limousines built by Paris based coachbuilder Henri Chapron. The SM below was for Georges Pompidou, the DS for De Gaulle.

The DS21 Pallas being the personal car of De Gaulle.

I loved the Peugeot 504 in Optic 2000 rally colours, this is my kind of car and they really built these well. They just last and last, big rear wheel drive Peugeots were simply fantastic. Incredibly tough, it’s unlikely we will ever see anything like this from them ever again.

At the opposite end of, a world away from the boxiness of the 504 we have something much earlier, the 203 a lovely looking car.

One outstanding car on the Peugeot stand was the 1962 Talbot Lago coupe America, this was stunning and was one of the prettiest cars at the show. But Talbot on a Peugeot stand… well,  at one point Peugeot owned Talbot, but from 1978…

It’s amazing to think that the car pictured didn’t sell in huge volumes, or sell quickly. It was launched in 1955 using Talbot’s last engine, the 2.5L 4 cylinder. The earliest cars had aluminium bodywork, which was soon superseded by steel, but it didn’t matter how good it looked, the underpinnings dated from the 1930s. Not only that the 120hp engine was fragile meaning that Talbot needed to source a replacement, from B.M.W. A neat 2.5L V8 of around 138hp, the America name being applied at this point. This didn’t last long as Talbot was bought by Simca in 1959, who couldn’t use a B.M.W engine and substituted their own 2.5L V8 powerplant.

Oddly up until the introduction of the  B.M.W engine the car was produced in right hand drive even though it was the Lago Paris Talbot factory… They caught up eventually with the rest of the country they were manufacturing in.

Anyway, the car in the pictures had the Simca V8, making around 95hp, which was from 1959 it taking a full three years to sell 5 of them.

Lastly we have the lovely 404 cabrio with hard top. Another stunning car and having a somewhat less complex and difficult history to the Lago.

There will be more to come, I find that I have much more time with Retromobile than other shows. Spending a week in Paris.

Head over to the Facebook page, the Retromobile 2018 gallery is there wit many more pictures.

Simon