Dutch Dauphine becomes a concours star
When Dutch broker Dick Bloemendaal heard of a 1960 Renault Dauphine that had been locked away nearby 47 years earlier, he wanted to find out more. The news came to him via his niece, whose friend’s father represented the 77-year-old widow of the car’s original owner: “Her late husband had parked it in the barn in 1971, but she didn’t know if it was still there – we had to cut away at least 30m of bushes and trees to reach the barn.”
Mrs Van der Kreeft remembered taking it on a Swiss holiday. “They couldn’t make it up a hill,” said Bloemendaal, “but they’d been told the way to do it was in reverse – so they did, while she stood through the sunroof to give instructions.”
With no keys and seized brakes, the Dauphine was winched out: “The layers of dust had to be seen to be believed.” It looked so amazing that Bloemendaal put it on his stand at Het Loo concours, where it drew great interest. The body is rusty, but the chassis is sound: “I think you could make it roadworthy without too much trouble.”
“We had to cut away at least 30m of bushes and trees to reach the barn”