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Retromobile 2016

Where the lost, lonely and mentally ill can now be found chatting about MISERABLE motor vehicles. No O/T posts.

Retromobile 2016

Postby Seth » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:02 pm

For Mrs_Seth's birthday a couple of weeks ago I presented her with this voucher.

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As luck would have it she decided the ideal date to cash it in would happen to coincide not only with the date for which I had already bought Eurostar tickets but when, coincidentally, Retromobile was on. Fab! Left home about 05:20 to catch one of the first tubes down to Kings Cross to then jump on the 07:01 to Paris Gare du Nord. Arrive a Paris at about 10:20, Metro to the Porte de Versailles and we were in the show by about 11:00 local time.

It was in a different hall to the last couple of times we'd been so it took a little while to get some bearings and work out a route round to hopefully see most of what was there. First photo was Voisin, obvs. Dissapointingly ordinary looking interior.

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Peugeots.

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(with Simca)

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One of the main secial attractions/displays was of a bunch of vehicles and other things designed wtih the involvement of Phillip Charbeneaux. Many of the vehicles are in the car museum at Reims which we visited a few years ago but it was good to see them again and there were others in addition.

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Can you tell what it is yet?

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Interesting to see amongst the manufacturer stands that Jaguar/Land Rover had a big display, with a kit E type and several whole vehicles and restoration projects. Good to see a UK company getting in on this promotion of its heritage.

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I think a person on this stand look at me scaldingly for taking a photo of this over the the 300S Grand Prix car that was next to it.

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Mrs_Seth wanted to take this DB pedal car home.

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There were obviously quite a few Bugattis around but perhpas loosing out to the Ferrari quotiant this time.

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I'm not sure what the signigicance of the Fruit and Veg stall was here.

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This is part of a Talbot Lago that came out of that French barn find collection last year where many of the cars were rusted & damaged heaps. Looks like they are retaining some small elements of the original wood here.

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BMW badge on this. Might have been bike engine'd

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I wanted this.

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A pair of 2 inch SUs on a B series! In an Elva.

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If someone saif they'd half restored their car this is probably not what you'd have imagined.

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Modern supercars rarely interest me. But this. This was astounding.

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But being Retromobile it was just the other side of a gangway to this monstrous beast!

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8 cylinders, twin plugs in a Bugatti means a lot of HT leads.

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We were impressed by the simplicity but effectiveness of this display.

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Dark car.

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Phwoar.

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A group of Rhomboid cars was another of the special themed displays. Again, a couple had come from Reims but not all.

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This is the front. You can tell because there are headlights.

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This is the back. Note tailight glued on.

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This is from the future. But it is a future where people stare and point and laugh at you.

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Whereas this is also from the future. But this is a future where you are fuggin' cool and jet set and everyone wants to be you.

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'I come from Barthelona' Pegasso.

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Do Mercedes do a wooden bodied car these days?

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'Yeah, so I bought a '50s Porsche, you know like those really cool shaped ones. I haven't seen it yet but I know it is something special'

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'WHAT HAVE I DONE!'

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Panhard.

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White bumpers!

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Cute Abarth.

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Get that ass in the air!

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Renault had a great selection of racey cars.

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Smaller hall 2 coming up....
Not Always Auto

Rootes built Cortinas under licence and just changed the badging.
Seth
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Re: Retromobile 2016

Postby Seth » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:19 pm

There was a second hall in use, mostly for the auction cars but they had made great use of the bridge you had to cross to get to it by putting on a display relating to 110 years (or something) of the club behind the Le Mans race.

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Into the hall there was another mix of trad stands, clubs, dealers but mostly it was the auction cars.

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Ooo, I do like these. This had a proper crazy fabric interior.

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Mrs_Seth also wanted to go home with this VW XL1.

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So, we go all the way to Paris and then tucked away in the back with barely anyone noticing it was a Zimp!

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One auction was one chaps Citroen collection.

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The other was the usual array of magnificent (expensive) machines.

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This is a Geroges Irat. Or at least the body is.

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RIght, back through to the main hall and we had a bit of a mooch through the trade stands.

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How does the steering work? With Darraq.

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I thought I could start a collection of slightly out of kilter branded objects, such as a Harley Davidson espresso cup.

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And once we were done there we headed back though the hall to the artist area 'cos we'd seen a couple of prints we quite like that were only 6Es. Obvs we saw things we hadn't spotted earlier.

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And that was that! Pretty knackering but of a size you can just about get around and see it all in a day trip.

Off for that dinner then. A candle was not supplied.

Paris itself seemed pretty normal but there was much greater security before entering the exhibition, bag searches and metal detectors. And then in the area where we went for dinner we saw a girls school emptying out and there was a very obvious (ie fully uniformed and gun wielding) French military - as opposed to police - presence, acting as security which is quite a sad thing to have to see. I didn't take my camera out to take photos....
Not Always Auto

Rootes built Cortinas under licence and just changed the badging.
Seth
IAN DURY
 
Posts: 342
Joined: Thu May 10, 2012 7:37 pm

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Re: Retromobile 2016

Postby I.K.Brunel » Sun Feb 07, 2016 12:17 am

Excellent stuff. Like your style*. Mrs_Brunel often intimates that a trip to Paris would be appreciated. Not sure I would get away with the plodding round old cars element.

Also:
Seth wrote:A group of Rhomboid cars was another of the special themed displays. Again, a couple had come from Reims but not all.
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Earnshaw Diamond!?

Seth wrote:Image

...and their ill-fated 'Super Gumby'???
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I.K.Brunel
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