French and Italian Classic Cars at the Goodwood Revival Car Show

Story and photos by Gary Axon

Following on from my colleague Jonathan Sharp’s excellent reports from the on-track action at this year’s Goodwood Revival, here is my take on an event Jonathan didn’t cover.

Always a personal favourite attraction from my full-on work duties at the annual Goodwood Revival are the exceptional vehicles in the dedicated Pre-1966 and Tax Free ‘Revival Car Show’ parking areas. The area is a short hop away over the road to the Revival Car Show from the enthralling wheel-to-wheel racing action at the historic Goodwood Motor Circuit and is worth every moment and the extra shoe leather.

Split into two distinct groups, for pre-1966 vehicles, plus later post-66 tax free classic cars, the Revival Car Show consistently attracts many of the UK’s (plus mainland Europe’s) best and rarely seen older road registered machinery. (As for ‘tax free,’ these are vehicles 40 years or older that don’t have to pay the annual road tax fee in the U.K.)

This year, due to other ‘on duty’ pressures, I was frustratingly only able to make it over the road to inspect the two main Revival Car Show areas a couple of times, but when I did, I was rewarded for my minimal effort by an outstanding array of exceptional classic cars, commercial vehicles and motor cycles.

Randomly dotted in between arguably the UK’s finest and most diverse annual variety of older British classics including Aston Martins, Bentleys, MGs, Rileys, Bristols, Rolls-Royces, Jaguars, early Land Rovers, Austins, Triumphs and other great English marques, the spread and diversity of lesser-spotted Continental and American machinery was simply breathtaking, especially for some older mouth-watering French and Italian machinery. This year, a truly outstanding selection of overseas-registered classics had made the long journey to Goodwood just for the Revival, with a staggering amount of Belgian-registered cars outnumbering the many that had also driven over from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and so on.

Listing all of the exceptional cars parked up in the Revival’s dedicated Classic zones would take much of the remainder of this year, so I will instead concentrate on my Top Five personal French and Italian-built favourites (in no particular order) and let you enjoy some of the other great Revival spectator cars at your leisure in the photo gallery.

Among the neatly parked rows of vehicles, French highlights included countless Citroens (2CVs, Traction Avants, DS, etc.), plus a few pre-1966 Peugeot, Simca, Panhard, Facel Vega and Renault models, as well as pre-war Bugattis, Amilcars and even a delightful 1920s BNC 527 Sport Monza cyclecar. Waving the Italian colors were a huge variety of classics such as numerous charming Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Maseratis, Lancias and Ferraris, many of which can be seen in the accompanying general Revival Car Show photographs.

Though very difficult to narrow down, my personal Top Five favorites were:

1. Citroen Traction Avant ‘Light Fifteen’ Cabriolet Roadster 11 B. Developed by Jean Daninos (later of Facel Vega fame), working in harmony with Andre Citroen, the Cabriolet Roadster version of the advanced front-drive ‘Traction Avant’ was expensive when new and thus a rather rare machine. The immaculate example at Goodwood was an even scarcer English-built Light Fifteen from around 1938; one of around only 200 Slough-constructed Roadsters, out of c.5,500 British made Tractions built before WWII. These Slough-built Citroens differed from their Parisian cousins with a strong English ambiance, thanks to their chrome trim, quality Connolly leather upholstery, sports sprung steering wheel and solid walnut dash, plus 12 volt electrics compared to just 6 volts for the French made models. The Slough-built Traction Roadster was a real treat to see for all admirers of rare and unusual automobiles and worth the walk over to the Pre-66 Car Show field alone.

2. Zagato Rover 2000 TCZ. This exotic Rover 2000 P6-based coupe was a striking concept car styled by the legendary Ercole Spada for Milan-based coachbuilder Zagato to display at the 1967 Turin Salone (in LHD form), with another example prepared with RHD steering for the 1967 London Earls Court Motor Show. I tried to buy this car in the early 1980s when it was advertised quite innocently in my local newspaper, with its then-owner clearly oblivious of what it was. As an impoverished student, I couldn’t quite afford this TCZ, so regrettably had to let this unique unicorn opportunity pass me by!

3. Darl’Mat Peugeot 203 Constantin Coupe. Having built some wonderful Peugeot 302-based competition cars in the 1930s, the early 1950s saw Parisian Peugeot dealer Darl’Mat re-body and tune eleven special competition Peugeot 203 two-door coupes for Constantin. With power increased to 65bhp to give near-100mph performance, the Darl’Mat 203 Coupes were fitted with a special Constantin blower supercharger. A rare beast indeed.

4. Autobianchi Primula. At a cursory glance the Autobianchi Primula might not have been the most earth-shattering or attention grabbing vehicle parked in the Pre-66 zone, but arguably it was one of the most rare, significant and influential of all the cars in attendance. This innovative Primula featured the mighty Fiat Group’s first production front-wheel-drive (FWD) layout with transverse engine; a format popularised in 1959 with BMC’s Issigonis Mini but arguably perfected by a cautious Fiat, that used its lesser Autobianchi brand as its guinea pig to test the system and consumer acceptance in 1964, before introducing the first FWD Fiat-badged model (the game-changing 128 sedan) in 1969. In five-door hatchback form, as seen here at Goodwood, the FWD Primula pre-dated Renault’s acclaimed 16, as well as the 1969 Austin Maxi, 1972 Renault 5, VW’s Golf of ’74, and so on. The Autobianchi’s contemporary styling closely resembled BMC’s Austin-Morris ADO16 1100-1300 family, and around 75,000 examples of this far-sighted but largely forgotten Italian car were sold by the time production ended in 1970.

5. 1951 Saurer 3C-H Coach. Granted, it’s neither French or Italian, but sandwiched in between the two countries was this handsome early 1950s Swiss coach. Built by the long-lived (1903-82) Swiss truck maker Saurer, this 3C-H coach had pleasingly airy aerodynamic Avantgarde contemporary styling. Saurer used a period American Chevrolet Suburban commercial vehicle chassis and engine. It transported a large group of happy and enthusiastic regular Revival visitors over from Luxembourg to Goodwood in fantastic 1950’s style, with all of its occupants wearing appropriate period fashions. An amazing and rare sight to behold.

I can’t wait to see what astonishing automotive delights the 2027 Revival Car Show parking zones (September 17-19, 2027) will attract.

Below is a photo gallery of some of the other interesting cars of 2026.