Retromobile 2013. Le scat sur le table.

[Seth]

Early in January I discovered that I had a little bit of money left over after calculating my tax/savings ratio so being the clear romantic I am I offered to take Mrs_Seth to Paris for the day. It was a long day out but look, here we are just about to tuck in to our candlelight* dinner for two*.



WTF! What are those guys doing there! Oh no! They pitched up at our house after we had already left in the morning (leaving a beige car parked there for the day), followed us at some distance all the way to St Pancras before forcing us to drag them to the Gare du Nord on Supertrain then on to the Metro across the French capital to a bloody car show! I tell you, they completely ruined all the plans I'd laid for that day trip. They even ate half our lunch!

[Seth]

While most of the above is 100% true, (not the bit about me being a romantic obviously) I will admit that we did willingly attend said car show. Here's the first photo I took once we'd got in via the terribly disorganised and clearly very un-British queue for tickets.



At Retromobile you almost instantly become totally blase about the cars you are seeing. Its not like the indoor shows I've been to in the UK, eg the NEC, where the majority of the displays are by enthusiastic clubs for run of the mill porridge, almost everything there is special if not unique for one reason or another. The focus is very much on French cars but I would say Italian marques are the next most common and then probbaly German and British.

I am very much going to rely on Barrett to fill in any gaps in my commentary as I usually spend too much time trying to take photos instead of concentrating on remembering exactly what the subject matter is, who constructed it and what the designer's wife's middle name is.



What I can tell you is that this 3 wheeler was excellent in a grim way.



Look at the simplicity of the steering wheel and I was particularly fond of the fuel tank location.



I don't believe that the UK Talbot owners club would have such nice looking photo album/document.



Racey.



The bookstalls are great! Mostly quite expensive though. And mostly in French which is inconvenient.



When I have seen swoopy coachbuilt cars at Goodwood I have normally found them a bit over the top. But for some reason this one really floated my boat.



Maybe it was the colours, maybe the details?



I wasn't sure what the two handle things on the rear deck were for but liked the symmetry of the twin fuel fillers.





Another nice dash, this one made of wood* in a Facel.



And I'll end on this one for now as Barrett made me take it.



Why? Oh, because of the great facial hair.

[Seth]

Cisitalia became possibly the favourite marque of the day.



These ones were still broken.





Opposite them was this great Citroen display.



I can't imagine I ever will own a DS but, ooh, this looks like such a nice place to be.



A brilliant motorbike.



Such a pity this MG got hit by the chrome wire MG police.



Another lovely dash though.



This was possibly the bit of 'art' I'd have most like to have taken home, a two foot tall Voisin mascot. Only just bigger than a standard one then.



Stanguellini, Fiat 1100



Another Cisitalia





Bristol Zagato is not a badge you'll often come across.



The French manufactures really get behind Retromobile, with big displays of some of their own collections. Peugeot was the first we looked at but we did flit about a bit.



Urgh! Englishman and a Simca!



This 203 looked like quite an upmarket version.





They had this perhaps in order to draw people into having some sort of modern lifestyle but fortunately it was mostly being ignored.



There was a good display of Peugeot models too.

[Seth]

Moving on, Skoda represented themselves with a couple of performance machines.



POINTY.



Some expensive Alpha Romeros.





This Bentley Continental was doing its best to look like a much cheaper early/mid fifties generic American car with hints of Chevy and Ford/Mercury



There was a magnificent display of DSes to celebrate some anniversary or other including this wonderfully colourful trio of early models. (I am not Kenjonbroand you cannot claim your five pounds)



This Chapron coupe was the exclusive Father Ted version.



I think we saw 4 Chapron coupes in all. And held a tally of DS Decapotables vs Mercedes 300SL Gullwings. Decap's won by six to five I think. COMMON.

This Delahaye brought the genuine* barn with.



The main Citroen stand was as big as the Peugeot or Renault ones but I only took photos of three cars for some reason.

Xanthia had what looked like a ZX81 on the dash.





Pearl white CX convertible.



Daft SM T top thing, with the concertina roof sections that disappear into the central bar.





Right I'll leave it with this quite mobster looking (in a very good way) Delage for now.



Rest in the morning I expect.

[Amazo]

Nice pics; worth it for the Facel-Bentley and the Xanthia. Hope you got some shots of the Alliance convertible and Blitzen Benz. Now there's a combo.

[Vulgalour]

swoopy blue and white car is quite likely a Delahaye, it has a lot of the styling queues the coachbuilders seemed fond of applying to that particular chassis. This is triffic stuff, looking forward to more.

[Seth]

Right where were we. Oh yeah. This Aston DB3S clearly demanded a close inspection.



We then came across Mrs_Seths favourite car of the show, another Cisitalia. Obviously I managed not to take a picture of all of it but here's the interior. Quite unusual for interior metalwork to be painted to match the interior colour but it worked really well.



It had portholes and trafficators.



Voisin Biscooter sort of thing though some Googling just now shows it to be a single seat version designed for postmen.





Porsche had a nice display of 911 variants to celebrate its 50th anniversary, this one being older than that, a 1959 prototype.



The Renault stand was next door and at some point I had bee busy taking a photo of 911s, turned round to say something to Mrs_Seth and had one of those double take moments. No, that really is a roof chopped Renault 8 I'm looking at.



Its engine attracted much attention though the glimpse I got looked pretty normal.



This 4CV was nice.



Had a bizarre 'airflow' vent in each front window that would prevent the window from being opened.



While we did leave the Renault stand and return a couple of times I'll put this here for continuity's sake. Perhaps the most surprising car to stumble across.







The area full of cars from the auction was close by but the cars were all crammed in and you need to queue and/or show your left knee to get in for a closer look. Ferrari Dino spoils shot of curvacious lovelies by being too new and lairy in colour.

[Seth]

All of the above was in the main hall but through a passageway, decorated by more bookstalls and a Lamboghini amongst other things,



there was the main hub of the French model collectors world.



This hall was smaller and was full of smaller stands, some autojumble etc but it seemed they stuffed some of the star attractions in there to draw people in. Not that we wouldn't have gone anyway.

Extraordinary to see five Helicars together in one place.





Another Stanguellini.



The English gentlemen were learning about SUAVE.





I am sure we had a recent discussion here about cars with hp ratings on badges, related to an '80s Alfa? Anyway, here's another.



Rover/Railton. You decide!



Sadly I think this was the only DB in the whole show. Shame as the road cars are very swoopy.



Ze English look at Simca. We spent some time looking at and discussing the books/flyers they had on the counter there but either the chaps there didn't speak any English at all or they were disgusted that an English speaker owned one of their cars.





I think the note on the screen says it all.



The Delahaye club definitly had the best selection of branded goods, from the ubiquitous key rings through to wine and perfume.



A realistic get up.



And, err, no jackets were purchased,



Nor Simca lights. Which was disappointing.



So there you go. Fin. We got in to the show at about 11ish and had been around pretty much everything and seen what we wanted and had mega tired legs by about 5. So with a little time to kill before dinner we walked to the Parc Andre Citroen (on the site once occupied by a factory on the bank of the Seine) which was, erm geometric. I think Barrett took a photo there.

The train back to Blighty was efficient and we eventually got back to chez_Seth at about 11:30. After a coffee we wished farewell to the Southerners, shortly afterwards being called out into the street to try and help get the Maestro started. A grand day out all in all.

Other photos are here if you want to look. http://s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa65/sethke/Classics%2013/Retromobile/

[Leonard Hatred]

Zut alors! Some incredible stuff there.
The Renault Alliance convertible is odd, you'd think it was something they'd rather forget.
I approve of that basic beige 604.

[I.K.Brunel]

Literal amazement