RÉTRO RARITIES LIGHT UP PARIS
After repeated pandemic-enforced delays, the brilliant Rétromobile opened its doors again at last in March
The largest-ever gathering of Gordini vehicles was appropriately staged at Rétromobile as the traditional season-opener finally returned to the French capital from 16-20 March. Appropriate because the equipe’s original workshops were once based across the road from the Parc des Expositions on Boulevard Victor. The site is now a hotel, but the reception area remains decked out in Gordini blue with several historic photographs.
With many cars on loan from the famous Schlumpf collection – or Musée Nationale de l’automobile – in Mulhouse, the group ranged from a cute 1937 Fiat Balilla 508S Special to Le Sorcier Amédée
Gordini’s last Grand Prix sortie with the 1956 chassis 42. There was also a recreation of the Lancia 3RO team transporter, based on a Laffly chassis. Coincidentally, one of the stars of the Artcurial auction that took up much of the lower floor of the show was the Gordini Type 18S coupé driven by Argentinian duo Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán Gonzales at the 1950 Le Mans, which sold for €1,013,200.
Although smaller this year, down to just two halls and with notably fewer UK dealers making the journey across the Channel, the event maintained its reputation for blending exotic highlights with quirky rarities. And easily stealing the headlines from the main manufacturer displays was an outrageous set of Mclaren F1 hypercars brought along by Swissbased specialist Simon Kidston.
Circling the rarely seen chassis 25, ordered new by former Beatle George Harrison in Dark Purple Pearl with Satin Black wheels, were six further F1s including Mclaren’s own long-tail road car and its Gulfliveried racing twin, plus black and white road cars, a Fina-backed racer and the oldest-surviving example, prototype XP3. The car’s stylist, Peter Stevens, was also on hand, and recalled driving XP3 – which was later owned by the car’s creator, Gordon Murray – on the
runway at Bruntingthorpe. “We all had a go at topping 200mph,” said Stevens. “I had done the aero on it so wasn’t nervous, and backed out at 206mph because the brakes weren’t very good until they were hot. Up to that point the fastest I had been was 185mph with my uncle [Denis Jenkinson] on the way back from the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch when he turned up in Bruce Mclaren’s M6 GT road car.”
Another star supercar among the dealer stands was an amazingly original, one-owner 1971 AMX/3 with Koen Heuts of Belgian firm Speed 8 Classics. Chassis six was the last car built, and was secretly stored in a Turin basement by former Bizzarrini factory manager Salvatore Diamante. After five years of chasing, Heuts finally did a deal with the 80-year-old Diamante and promptly sold the car to a Dutch collector. The next job is to get the AMX/3 running ahead of a Giotto Bizzarrini tribute at the Zoute Grand Prix.
A group of classics from the opposite end of the motoring spectrum was to be found across the aisle from the F1 display, as Renault put together a superb centrepiece to mark 50 years of the 5 supermini. A baker’s dozen was on show from across the model’s history, from an electric version via a 370bhp 1987 Super Production 5 Turbo racer to the Le Car Van, a 1979-’83 limited edition by coachbuilder Heuliez based on the 5 TS with no back seat, an external spare wheel and the rear glazing replaced by polyester panels with small porthole-style windows.
Elsewhere, new book launches tempted authors out to engage with enthusiasts – including C&SC senior contributor Jon Pressnell talking about his superb Pourtout history (see Book of the month, p37). The show included two of Portout designer Georges Paulin’s most famous Peugeots: a highly original 402 Darl’mat Spécial Sport with Les Galerie des Damiers, and the spectacular retractable-roof 402 Éclipse in the Artcurial area.
The talking point of the Club Maserati France display was an unrestored A6GCS racer, which was discovered in Cuba by the prolific car hunter Colin Crabbe in 1984. Spotted parked by the roadside near the capital, Havana, this Latin exotic had been crudely painted and fitted with a Škoda engine and gearbox, but Crabbe snapped it up and the ex-luigi Bellucci racer, chassis 2074, features in a new A6GCS history by Maserati experts Walter Bäumer and Jean-francois Blachette.
But it’s the eclectic mix that truly makes Rétromobile stand out. One of the most memorable displays of years past was that of the wild, mid-’60s Aérotrain prototypes by visionary engineer Jean Bertin, and for 2022 there was a smaller-scale – but live-action – tribute to Bertin and his ideas, with his electrified 1973 Tridim cabin train making its silent way up and down a section of track within the show halls.
From propeller-powered vintage cyclecars to a sinister Panther tank and the staggering restoration of an 18-tonne Brockway-quick Way military crane, the diversity of the machines on show was remarkable, nowhere more so than among the combined efforts of the Manoir de l’automobile and the Musée des Blindés. Here could be found a 1923 Salmson that was turned into an amphibious vehicle by its thenowner during WW2 so he could use it to retrieve his fiancée from the other side of the River Seine, even if the bridges were destroyed. Or how about the 1957 Hunting Percival Harrier? Powered by a 650cc BSA twin producing 30bhp, this 317kg machine was designed to be dropped from an aeroplane or helicopter down to waiting troops by parachute. Four were built by the Hunting Percival Aircraft Company, and when not in use it could be transformed into a large packing case, ready to be deployed in one minute.
Another parachute-friendly vehicle parked alongside was the 1952 Voisin TEP (Transport Estafette Parachutable), a tiny prototype amphibious truck representing one of the final creations of Gallic innovator Gabriel Voisin and powered by a two-cylinder Panhard engine with complex chain-drive. Nearby, among a set of cyclecars, was the slightly bonkers 1938 Castarède TM, which mates a front end that does a decent impression of a 1950s Grand Prix car with a long tail that houses a near-complete motorcycle – fuel tank, frame and all. The 800cc three-wheeler sports car was an amateur project by garageowner’s son Paul Castarède, and reputedly has a 90kph maximum.
Welcome back, Rétromobile, we’ve certainly missed you.
‘From propellor-powered vintage cyclecars to a sinister Panther tank, the diversity of the machines on show was remarkable’