A car rarely seen outside the Schlumpf Museum of Mulhouse: the Maserati 250 F s/n 2530.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Rétromobile, Paris February 7-11
Once again, the latest edition of Rétromobile has raised the bar to the highest standards and it won’t be easy for its British, German or Italian counterparts to reach the same level.
Next to the many dealers showing their best offers, there are plenty of car clubs and associations exhibiting small treasuries, as well as many displays celebrating some anniversaries or putting the light on some unknown stories.
This year, these exhibitions were, among others, the “70 years of Ferrari”, “Bugatti meets Bentley”, the “Four-wheel drive and six-wheel F1 cars” , “30 years of Group B rally cars”, the “1927 Delage Grand Prix cars”, the “Renault Turbo years”, and many others.
On the French Side…
Bernard Pichon and André Parat created their own company, Pichon-Parat, in 1952. With Chapron, they were among the last French coachbuilders present at the Paris Motor Show at the end of the 50s. One of their creations is the Panhard Dolomite which was entered in many competitions, like this one in the 1956 Tour de France. Raymond Loewy also designed some cars that were built by Pichon-Parat like a BMW 507 and a Jaguar E-Type.
One of the exhibitions was about the cars created by Victor Bouffort, a forward-thinking man. Here is the ‘Minima’, a small car conceived in 1968, for city dwellers. There were plans to mass-produce these small cars and to make them freely available in dedicated areas where they would be parked opposite pavements. Of course, Bouffort was a bit ahead of its time, but fifty years later, the idea of a freely available car comes back to light as an urban transport solution.
This Chausson microcar prototype was rediscovered in an auction at Silverstone in 2012. In the early years of the 20th century, Chausson was a leading radiator manufacturer for the car and aircraft industries. In the 30s, Chausson took over Chenard & Walcker. During WWII, some Chausson engineers began to develop this microcar prototype. But the economic situation in France after WWII did not permit to make it into production and it remained the sole example built.
This small car is the Moynet LM75, built by André Moynet, an ex-fighter pilot during WWII who became Colonel in the French Air Force. After two unsuccessful attempts at Le Mans, Moynet entered the LM75 in the 1975 edition with an all-female team, Dacremont, Hoepfner and Mouton. Against all expectations and despite the small Chrysler Simca engine developing 190 HP, they went on to win the under two-liter class.
In 1921, Crossley Motors, based in Manchester, England reached an agreement with Bugatti to produce under license the Bugatti ‘Brescia’. About 25 cars were built and this example, a Type 23, is believed to be the only complete example still in existence.
Joseph Figoni exercised his talent for the most prestigious French car manufacturers of the time. One of them was of course Delage. On the booth of ‘Les Amis de Delage’, the French Delage enthusiasts club, was displayed this 1930 D8S cabriolet built for Maharajah of Holkar.
This 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS s/n 90110 illustrates the “Teardrop” body style that made Figoni so famous, although the original body of this car has been lost and recreated by a well-known artisan in 2003. This car will go on sale at the RM Sotheby’s auction on Lake Como this May.
Begun in 1939, completed in 1947, the Delahaye 135 M roadster by Figoni s/n 47420 was displayed in some of the Concours of Elegance that were popular in France in the postwar years. After being dismantled, the chassis has been converted into a farm trailer. Now it has been rebuilt to its former glory by another French specialized workshop.
On the Italian side…
Although sharing some similarities with the 250 F, the 420/M/58 ‘Eldorado’ was a racing car built specifically for the 1958 500 Miles of Monza, opposing the best Indy roadsters of the time and a selection of European single seaters. Contrary to what one might think, it was not Fangio who drove this car but Stirling Moss, classified 7th after three heats. It was displayed by the Maserati Club de France.
Although no information was available, it seems that this interesting 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 was designed by German coachbuilder Erdmann & Rossi but built by the French workshop of Brandone.