Salon Retromobile 2017 Paris Glamour Part 2
There was simply too much to cover in one post, Retromobile is an absolute delight for anyone interested in historic vehicles. It’s not just cars and motorcycles but tanks….
The Musée des Blindés from Saumur in the Loire Valley always bring something unusual and very large. The Fluer D’Amour tank was pretty big and striking with it’s nicely painted camouflage.
Speaking of motorcycles, there was a really impressive display in one of the upper halls, of course the French manufacturers were well covered. Peugeot made motorcycles long before they made cars and produced some absolute beauties.
Ok, so this one was more of a bicycle with an engine but considering the age of the bikes on display it was pretty special. I could imagine running around happily on one of these, I mean just look at the little V twin engine.
Something a little more racy from Peugeot, this was stunning. Another simply styled bike that looks just right. I’m not sure what it would ride like as the hardtail rear end and the girder front end might be a little harsh. It’s old teck and somewhat crude compared to today, but has an uncomplicated feel to the machine.
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The rest of the motorcycle display was just as impressive with the absolutely gorgeous blue Bleriot complete with solid wheels.
Back out to the cars and the smaller displays of the upper hall were dedicated to clubs and they were very well turned out with this wonderful Yacco display complete with a Hotchkiss. Yacco are a French producer of oils and lubricants, yes they are still going. The instantly recognisable yellow and green logo adorning silver plastic bottles these days. Hotchkiss on the other hand aren’t.
Also buried at the back was a lovely Facel Vega FVS. Built in Paris, this stylish coupe featured an American powerplant, firsly from DeSoto before moving to Chrysler with the development of the car into the HK500. The engine grew from 4.5 to 6.3 litres over the car’s lifespan. Who wouldn’t want a Paris built car like this?
I think I’d like on in a darker colour, a nice shade of blue, but I didn’t dislike this red one. Against the black baground of the stand it really stoof out from a distance.
The Peugeot and Citroen displays were as fantastic as ever with Citroen showing the 2CV in a few of it’s variations and a rather special Henri Chapron, also of Paris, CX cabriolet.
The fire service, or Pompiers, Mehari was really stunning and not something I had ever seen before. Mind you, they seem to have found multiple uses for Citroen’s fun utility vehicle.
The 1939 Traction Avant Commerciale was showing off it’s 500kg payload capacity and it’s hatchback rear end. Yes, that’s correct it’s hatchback. Long before the 1974 VW Golf and the later trend for all these sorts of things. It still looks like a Traction, but the extra length showing in the side window behind the door. There was a Familiale version with 9 seats, an early people carrier too.
And also there were a nice pair of Vans, one a Type H and the other a Type C. You can’t go to any outsode food event or street food market without finding a H Van. They made loads of them and for a long time. They still look great and lend themselves well to a range of uses.
Peugeot had an equally impressive collection, one of which was a cracking example of the little Simca 1100. Peugeot owned Simca for a while before turning the marque into Talbot in 1981. You don’t see these very often now.
This was paired with a pretty 403 cabriolet. Columbo drove one, just not nearly as nice as this one. I do like these and this one was in exceptional condition.
But it’s the 203 that I am really drawn to, there’s something rather elegant about it. The regular saloon being quite nice. But, this cabriolet is just pure style. It is obviously from a nother era to the 403, but not that many years separated them. The 203 lasting into 1960 but being very much an earlier design having been launched in 1948. It was quite an advanced car for the time, being Peugeot’s first monocoque design.
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