Editor’s Choice: The booth of the Swiss dealer Lükas Hüni is always one of the attractions of the show. This particular Bugatti Type 55 Roadster is considered to be the most original as it is the sole example that remains unrestored.
Photos and text by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Again this year, Rétromobile proved to be the best classic car show in the world due to the variety and the quality of the cars presented. Not only did the most important European classic car dealers show their best offers, but many different exhibitions with various themes were organized inside the show by the Rétromobile team.
Thanks to that are shown to the public some treasures that are only visible in museums or private collections.
Now let’s take a tour through the ages …
Where it all began … After a first attempt in 1875, Amédée Bollée presented his ‘La Mancelle’ at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition where it attracted the attention. The license was then bought by a company from Berlin. It is estimated that about 50 examples were built, what makes it the first individual production car in automotive history. This is the sole remaining example and kept at the Musée National de la Voiture of Compiègne, near Paris.
A bit younger although from 1903 is a Richard-Brasier Type H. The Richard-Brasier brand only lasted from 1902 to 1905 but it won two Gordon-Bennetts Cups in 1904 and 1905. After the departure of Georges Richard, the company continued under the Brasier name until 1930 when it has to cease activities following the great depression.
One of the exhibition was entitled ‘One woman, one collection’ and featured the cars owned and driven by Julia de Baldanza, a long time figure of the classic car scene. Here is another woman’s car as this 1928 Bugatti Type 40 of the ‘Fiacre’ style was especially designed by Jean Bugatti for his sister Lidia. Alongside is a 1929 Type 35B driven by Julia in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix.
Another Type 35 from a well-known Bugatti specialist.
Also from a private collection, a Type 59 Grand Prix, mostly driven in period by French ace René Dreyfus, winner of the 1934 GP of Belgium with this car.
Introduced in 1937, the Bugatti Type 57 S (for ”Surbaissée” or lowered) featured a modified Type 57 chassis with lower center of gravity. Here is a supercharged SC version owned by Dr. Williamson from 1974 until his death in 2008.
Is the new Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo concept the classic Bugatti of the future?
Another exhibition was dedicated to the French designer Philippe Charbonneaux. At an early stage in his career, he teamed up with French champion Jean-Pierre Wimille to build some prototype aerodynamic cars. The project came to an end after Wimille was killed during practice for the 1949 Grand Prix of Buenos Aires.
Charbonneaux designed several advertising vehicles including this car that hides a Citroën 2 CV. Only the top of the body and the interior has been kept from the original “2 chevaux”.
The “Pathé-Marconi” truck, also from Charbonneaux and bodied by Antem, took part in several advertising caravans of the famous cycling Tour de France.
Designed by Charbonneaux in 1954 or 1955, this plastic body clothes a Salmson 2300 S chassis. Although presented at the Paris Salon by the Paris Salmson dealer, it found no customer and remained a one-off.
In charge of the Style department at Renault, Charbonneaux designed the Renault 16 which was a hatchback. But he also developed this prototype with a normal trunk. Alongside is a futuristic TV with rotating screen, also due to Charbonneaux, that sold 18,000 examples.
Not from Charbonneaux although it could have been, this 1968 advertising vehicle has the particularity to be able to stand on its feet and turn on its own wheels. This car was part of the URO exhibition, (for Unidentified Rolling Objects).
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organizer of the famous Le Mans 24 hours, was celebrating 110 years at Rétromobile. For this occasion, the ACO brought out of its museum some of the cars that marked the race since 1923 like the Chenard & Walker Tank, entered in 1925 and … 1937!
After the war, French manufacturers were mainly concentrating on small displacement cars, very light and fuel efficient. This 744 cc D.B. Panhard finished 9th OA in 1959, winning the Index of Performance.
It is with the Matra team that France regained top positions in the famous Le Mans double header. With this Matra Simca 670B, Larrousse and Pescarolo won the last of three consecutive wins for Matra in 1974.
Four years later in 1978, Renault beat Porsche with the Renault Alpine A442 B driven by veteran Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and young gun Didier Pironi.
But the French manufacturer has been linked with Grand Prix racing since the beginning, as demonstrated by the Renault Type AK, winner of the first Grand Prix in history, the ‘Grand Prix de l’A.C.F.’ at Le Mans in 1906 with Ferenc Szisz. The example shown here is a replica.
Nearly 80 years later, in 1983, Renault and Alain Prost missed the World Drivers Championship by 2 points behind Nelson Piquet and his Brabham-BMW.
Although coming back again in Formula One in 2016, Renault is also present in the new Formula e for electric powered single seaters with this car and a team involving Alain Prost as well as his son Nicolas as a driver.
Back in time and to rallying with the Renault Nervasport, an 8 cylinder model that won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1935.
Another star of the Monte Carlo Rally was the famous Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 of the Group B era. Ari Vatanen won the 1985 edition with this car which will be auctioned in Monaco next May.
Before WWII, Peugeot was present in competition due to the efforts of Parisian dealer Emile Darl’mat who built 104 examples of the Peugeot Darl’mat speciale, in roadster, convertible or coupé form. Here is a 1938 roadster sold to England where it competed before and after the war.
Although the celebrations of the Citroën DS 50th anniversary are now finished, it is interesting to note this rare coupé built by a craftsman of North of France called Hector Bossaert with a design by Pietro Frua. It is the sole surviving example of the 12 built.
The French elegance was well represented by this 1938 Delage D8-120 Vanvooren cabriolet once owned by Prince Aga Khan.
For their Jubilee, the Delahaye Club de France showed this 1936 Delahaye 135 S competition bodied by Figoni & Falaschi.
Another Figoni realization on a Delahaye 135 chassis. Shown here is an MS version built for ‘la Môme Moineau’, a successful French singer of the 20’s who later became the richest woman in the world.
Do you remember last year’s Rétromobile sale of the Baillon collection, plenty of derelict cars that brought crazy prices? Here is what the the Talbot Lago T26 Record by Saoutchik looked like a year ago...
…and now what it looks in 2016. Work is in progress and will surely be completed a year from here. One of many reasons not to miss next year’s Rétromobile!