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Marquis of Mystery Part 3

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Marquis Catalogue

By Roy Smith

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Shattered Dreams
Unknown to all parties, Reed was being poorly advised by the men he had recruited to put the “Marquis”, the name they had given to the proposed fiber glass car, into production. A former Chief Design Engineer at Ford who had joined PlastiCar was not up to the mark, and he and his colleagues got off to a bad start. They found it difficult to full appreciate the concept of the rear-engine design which they would have on the Marquis, planned to be a direct copy of the Rédélé “Renault Special” which would be made after the Rogue.

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Marquis of Mystery: Dreams of Glass

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Announcing the Rogue.

In Part 1, Smith described the search for the elusive “Marquis” which resulted in the amazing barn find of the Rédélé Special Number 2 in Pennsylvania. Part 2 deals with an eager American businessman, Zark W. Reed, who had a plan for Jean Rédélé and his car. Above, the Rogue; was this design by French racing driver Louis Rosier really the “Marquis”? And what is the connection to Rédélé? Read on.

By Roy Smith

Dreams of Glass
1953 witnessed the first Chevrolet Corvette to roll off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. The concept of an all-glass-fiber production sports car had just become a reality. Glass fiber had arrived on the scene many years before. In the 1880s a glass maker from Massachusetts by the name of Edward Drummond Libbey had first discovered that glass in fiber “staple” silk-like format could be woven as a fabric – he even had a dress made that was exhibited at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.

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Marquis of Mystery Part 1

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From the VeloceToday Archives, August 2012

A rare barn find in the States leads Roy Smith to Alpine’s Jean Rédélé, French Champion Louis Rosier, the post-war US sports car craze, Porsche champion Bob Holbert, and back to France for Retromobile, all in search of a car that never existed. An incredible story in three parts.

By Roy Smith

“The car belonged to my father, Raymond Buckwalter; he drove it for a while, and then parked it. I soon found out why he parked it when I wanted to drive the car for a few months in 1958. Every time I turned the motor off and left it for a while, the car wouldn’t start again without a push. This kind of thing you remember, believe me! I always parked in the same parking lot and the attendant always saved a spot for me. Five days a week they would push me to get it started. I guess my father figured I couldn’t go shopping unless I could find some kind person to push it a few feet, but as I was a young lady at the time, I always found some kind gentleman to give me a push. It was the battery; something was draining it. Rather than fix it my father liked to challenge me and he would often laugh at how I managed these small challenges. Now the memory of it makes me laugh – I can just imagine me in a parking lot at my age trying to get someone to give my car a push! When I went to get it painted in the late 90s we found traces of blue, so I assumed that was the original color.” —Mary Ann Wood

Photo of the strange French special taken by the Wood family in 2009.

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Escape to Perth

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In with the new, but let’s keep the old too.

Story by Ernst Luthi
Photos: Ernst Luthi and Stef Brayley

After 240 days of closure, the West Australian border finally opened up to Victorians on 8 December 2020. The West Australian Alpine and Renault owners had been teasing us out East with their Classic Cars & Coffee displays ever since the rest of Australia went into lockdown. So with a window of opportunity opening up over Christmas/New Year, a trip to Perth was booked to check out the CC&C display on 27 December in Perth and catch up with a few friends.

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Alpine Renault M64 Chassis 1711

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Story and photos by Sean Smith unless otherwise noted

Sometime form doesn’t follow function.

Sometimes it follows revenge.

In 1962, the diminutive Lotus 23 gave the racing world a kick in the seat of its pants. Making its entrance at the Nürburgring, the 1.5 liter, 100 hp racer with Jim Clark at the wheel left cars with 4 times the horsepower in its rearview mirror. The first lap was run in the rain; by the end of lap one Clark was 27 seconds ahead of Dan Gurney in a Porsche, adding more and more seconds each lap until the track dried.

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Alpine Renault M64 Chassis 1711 Le Mans

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Story and photos by Sean Smith

When Mitch McCullough was in junior high school, he was reading Autoweek instead of doing his homework. The magazine was covering the international rally scene. Mitch fell in love with the images of A110s sliding around on foreign roads. It was exciting; exotic. He had dreams of one day driving a rally car. That happened in the early 90s when Mitch raced in the California Rally Series as well as the SCCA Pro Rally series.

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Renault’s Racing Heritage Part 3

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1951 Renault R 1063.

1951 Renault R 1063. (photo Renault Communication)

Story by Gijsbert-Paul Berk

There was more than just record cars at Montlhéry. Only a few people will still remember that, during the fifties, the small Renault Quatre (4CV) shown above was a very successful participant in a large number of European rallies and road races, and even won its class several times in the famous 24 hours’ endurance race at Le Mans.

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Goal Achieved: Alpine Clinches the LMP2 Titles

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Alpine A460 n°35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine at Le Mans, 19 June 2016 CREDIT: ALEXANDRE GUILLAUMOT / DPPI

Story by Roberto Motta, Photos by Media Renault – DPPI MEDIA

One round before the end of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Signatech-Alpine won the LMP2 Teams’ title, while Nicolas Lapierre, Stéphane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes secured the Drivers’ crown.

Rounding off an exceptional season that saw the team win four races including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Signatech-Alpine A460 claimed the LMP2 Category Teams’ and Drivers’ titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

In light of this prestigious result, Michael Van der Sandem, CEO of Alpine, said “…this victory is the best advertising medium that we could give to the production cars that will be on sale from next year.”

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March, 2016: Alpine, Alpine Celebration and Alpine Vision CREDITS: ANTHONY BERNIER

[Read more…] about Goal Achieved: Alpine Clinches the LMP2 Titles

New Alpine Prototype Seen at Le Mans

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By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

Shedding light on the Alpine rebirth

Just two hours before the start of this year’s 24 Hour of Le Mans, spectators got a surprise glimpse of a speeding blue sports coupé. It was the first public appearance of the new Alpine Celebration AS 1 (for Alpine Sport).

This appearance of the new Alpine was also a birthday party to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the company that made the name Alpine famous by producing small Renault-based and rally winning sports cars. [Read more…] about New Alpine Prototype Seen at Le Mans

The Marquis of Mystery Part 3: Shattered Dreams

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By Roy Smith

In Part 1, Barn Find, and Part 2 Glass Dreams Smith described the Rédélé barn find, the relationship to Jean Rédélé, Zark W. Reed, Renault Rosier and the search for the elusive Fiberglas car called “Marquis”. Part 3 explains how everything went badly for Reed and how Porsche-Meister Bob Holbert played a part in this incredible story.
[Read more…] about The Marquis of Mystery Part 3: Shattered Dreams

Marquis of Mystery Part 2: Dreams of Glass

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Rogue-Catalogue

In Part 1, Barn Find, Smith described the search for the elusive “Marquis” which resulted in the amazing barn find of the Rédélé Special Number 2 in Pennsylvania. Part 2 deals with an eager American businessman, Zark W. Reed, who had a plan for Jean Rédélé and his car. Above, the Rogue; was this design by French racing driver Louis Rosier really the “Marquis”? And what is the connection to Rédélé? Read on.

By Roy Smith

Dreams of Glass
1953 witnessed the first Chevrolet Corvette to roll off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. The concept of an all-glass-fiber production sports car had just become a reality. Glass fiber had arrived on the scene many years before. In the 1880s a glass maker from Massachusetts by the name of Edward Drummond Libbey had first discovered that glass in fiber “staple” silk-like format could be woven as a fabric – he even had a dress made that was exhibited at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.
[Read more…] about Marquis of Mystery Part 2: Dreams of Glass

Marquis of Mystery: Barn Find

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A rare barn find in the States leads Roy Smith to Alpine’s Jean Rédélé, French Champion Louis Rosier, the post-war US sports car craze, Porsche champion Bob Hobert, and back to France for Retromobile, all in search of a car that never existed. An incredible story in three parts.

By Roy Smith

Barn Find

“The car belonged to my father, Raymond Buckwalter; he drove it for a while, and then parked it. I soon found out why he parked it when I wanted to drive the car for a few months in 1958. Every time I turned the motor off and left it for a while, the car wouldn’t start again without a push. This kind of thing you remember, believe me! I always parked in the same parking lot and the attendant always saved a spot for me. Five days a week they would push me to get it started. I guess my father figured I couldn’t go shopping unless I could find some kind person to push it a few feet, but as I was a young lady at the time, I always found some kind gentleman to give me a push. It was the battery; something was draining it. Rather than fix it my father liked to challenge me and he would often laugh at how I managed these small challenges. Now the memory of it makes me laugh – I can just imagine me in a parking lot at my age trying to get someone to give my car a push! When I went to get it painted in the late 90s we found traces of blue, so I assumed that was the original color.” —Mary Ann Wood

Redele Found-in-a-barn

Photo of the strange French special taken by the Wood family in 2009.

[Read more…] about Marquis of Mystery: Barn Find

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