Retromobile 2013. Le scat sur le table.

[Barrett]

Excellent photos as usual. I was definitely feeling the effects of the previous night and didn't get my camera out nearly as much as I should have, but the amount of super rare tat on display was a little overwhelming anyway

This Le Mans Alpine caught my eye, for being particularly POINTY


and having a rather unusual wiper arrangement


I don't think I'd ever seen a Cisitalia before, and there were about 6 or 7 on display here. I'd love to know the story on the two unrestored cars... Got Patina?


Probably the best bit for me was the collection of 4 Lamberts. This was one of the multitude of tiny French marques straddling WWII and happily beating their own rather unusual path before inevitably going bankrupt at the end of the 1940s. I've been a fan of this coupe for years but assumed I'd never see it in the metal



They're FWD with all the components made in-house with LAMBERT cast into everything. The earliest car had an odd double transverse leaf spring set up. Apparently they're all 'Sans-choc' which I still haven't deciphered


The halls are HUGE and it was inevitable we'd get separated, so for a while I was traipsing around trying to find Seth... Is that him?


It's always nice to see something that not only have I never seen before, but had no idea it even existed. This special Lancia Aurelia was one such car. The others took great pleasure in the fact they'd found a car that I didn't know anything about, although to be fair nor did the show organisers, simply claiming it was a 'Lancia Aurelia with special coachwork': HELPFUL



Oh, is that Seth?


This stretched presidential Fregate was part of the Renault factory display. I'm sure Bickle has one.


hey, there's Seth.... oh, no it's not


The automobilia section was vast, and vastly overpriced. I nearly bought a very early issue of 'Style Auto' but some quick maths made me leave it, which was silly as it was actually a relative bargain. I didn't even bother asking how much these lovely steering wheels were, but this square-holed 'Performance' job was giving me 'wood'


There were lots of other things relevant to my interests...


The clothing section was quite funny, for about 1000 Eurogroats you could buy your very own 'rich French eccentric car owner' costume. They even had a hat stall... oh, I wonder if....


...Yep, here he is!


Tucked away in the corner of the second hall was this lovely early Chapron-built Salmson 2300S. Awkward and dumpy, but I've never seen one before. We were all flagging at this point so called it a day here. We could easily have spread it out over 2 days, there really was that much to see.


A quick stroll to the Parc Andre Citroen, where we got lost (in the beauty* of the place)


And a brief glimpse of the hitherto unknown 4x4 R18 estate...


And that was it! By the time I got home I'd been up for 42 hours, which is unbelievably grim, but it was totally worth it. Hopefully we can convince some other Scatters to come along next time.....

[Seth]

Good shots Barrett. I preferred these hats.



Here's the rest of the Lambert collection.





My favourite was the 'pick up' which according to the literature is chassis no 1.

[Leonard Hatred]

Ooh a Renault 18 Sinpar, nice! I think Bickle has one of those. I keep meaning to 'do' a thread on obscure 4x4 cars, I'm obsessed with them.
Enjoyed the 'not Seths'.

I like the Lambert's pick-up's exposed front axle, it's a mad/beautiful way to do independent suspension.

[tone_depear]

Zut alors indeed! Great work.

If it wasn't for the apparent fact that it seems to be scheduled for the weekend nearest dorta_tone's birthday (presumably every year) I would be making rash promises to tag along on future occasions right now.

WELL PLAYED.

[Jonny69]

Nice write-up chaps! There's a LOT of stuff I've never seen before.

[Jon]

Not much else to add but have my musings, nevertheless. Looking at my past (and perhaps future) history of cars, it seems that I'm an unwitting French car enthusiast (of the 1980's variety), so it's great to see such nice shots and words from the MS visit. Agree with Len that the Alliance is a little jarring in such surroundings but I like to think that it shows an appreciation of documenting past endeavours rather than just ignoring them. A presidential stretched Fregate is perhaps just as silly, really.

I reckon this kind of event is one of the very few things I miss about being on t'other side of the world, coupled with the slight bitterness that such stuff was on my doorstep for years and I did nothing about them. It's a little strange seeing that NZ registered Bristol Zagato there, too.

Len, I'd love to see an article on obscure 4x4s!

[Paul H]

Great write-up & pics!

[start]

Thanks for the writeup and pics. Did anyone notice that both Salmson and Lambert were of the opinion that left hand drive is for the peasantry, real class is RHD.