McLaren F1 ahead of the London Classic Car Show. Rhomboid shaped cars and special tributes to Renaults, all at this year's Rétromobile.
Rhomboid-shaped oddities (well, strangely-shaped wheels), futuristic concepts and a loving tribute to a Renault designer made Rétromobile so different this year
An exhibition dedicated to cars with their wheels in a diamond-shaped ‘rhomboid’ format and a large-scale celebration of the work of Phillipe Charbonneaux, a designer who refused to accept convention, were the key attractions at Paris’ flagship classic show.
The intended star of ‘ les Rhomboides’ was the 1960 Pininfarina Fiat PFX, designed for minimal aerodynamic drag and even intended for production, but even this was upstaged by the 1968 Automodule. Designed by Jean Pierre Ponthieu purely as a promotional advertising vehicle, the Automodule could rotate through 360 degrees within its own wheelbase, and resembled a 1960s’ helicopter minus its rotor blades.
The tribute to Charbonneaux – the designer best known for inventing the modern hatchback with his Renault 16, as well as devising the Renault 8 – was honoured with a selection of his more unusual designs. A mobile recording studio built for Marconi and based on a Panhard lorry loomed over the nearby Renault stand, its wraparound windows and angular avant-garde bodywork marking a fusion of Charbonneaux’s experiences working for Delahaye in the 1940s and General Motors in the 1050s. A pair of mid-engined, centrally-steered J-P Wimille threeseater prototypes, Charbonneaux’s Cisitalia-inspired Delahaye and a radical vision of a future Salmson also lined up alongside the designer’s forays into television sets and refrigerators. Sam Dawson