Voitures Anciennes

[RobertArthur]

The first Volkswagen Beetles ("Käfer") arrive in the old city of Amersfoort in the Netherlands on 13 March 1947. Ben Pon officially becomes the Volkswagen importer on 8 August of the same year. On 23 April, Ben Pon Sr. makes the legendary first sketch of the Volkswagen T1 bus.

[RobertArthur]

Christmas days, shopping, and a familiar face: a 1983 Ford Transit 100, with the restyled front of the Mark II generation.

[RobertArthur]

On 30 January 2026, the auction house Bonhams Cars will auction off ‘Les belles Endormies’ (The Sleeping Beauties) in Paris. They belonged to collector Pierre Strinati (1928–2025), one of Switzerland's most famous speleologists. Strinati began buying classic cars in the 1950s. In less than a decade, he had amassed an extraordinary collection. But by the 1980s, Strinati had begun selling most of his cars due to heavy traffic and the introduction of numerous speed limits.

In the garage.

A 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500K coupé Vanvooren.

A 1939 Voisin C30 "Aerodyne" (worldwide only five...). Another postcard from Switzerland. Probably somewhere in or around Genève.

A 1938 Delage D8-120.

A 1956 Jaguar XK140 Coupé.

[RobertArthur]

Classic French cars 1950 / 1960.

[RobertArthur]

Brigitte Bardot as a young woman: the legend and her iconic cars.

[RobertArthur]

A new year, a new start in the US? From diesel to electric: the classic school bus gets a modern makeover. It's big, unwieldy and very yellow: the school bus from Thomas Built Buses. Around half a million of these vehicles transport 26 million US schoolchildren every day. One of the journalists of the German magazine AUTO BILD was allowed to get behind the wheel. Enough pictures to get the message across and at the same time back to school again: an opportunity for those who need it to brush up on their knowledge of the German language. Or - modern times - to use a translation app on it.

Yellow, but not a Fiat 500.

For the "Marriage", the connection between the engine and the body, the cabin floats to the next conveyor belt.

[RobertArthur]

Brigitte, her Renault 4 and her dog in 2018, an inseparable trio. Quite a difference from her former exclusive taste, easily satisfied with the best, as we can read in Lefigaro.

[RobertArthur]

On day one of the New Year already back to the past, again to Germany. First to Belgium: ‘Every Belgian is born with a brick in their stomach’ is a well-known saying that means that almost every Belgian has a strong desire to own and build their own home (often a brick house), a culturally deep-rooted dream that has been reinforced by political and economic factors and is linked to a desire for stability and ownership. You could say that something similar applies to Germans: not a brick, but a small steam locomotive or a car engine. The German broadcasting company ZDF certainly did not escape this fate.

So the Mainz broadcasting company turned to Vogt Autotechnik in Bad Neuenahr in the Ahr Valley. Vogt converted Opel's large series, namely the Kapitän, Admiral and Diplomat (abbreviated to KAD), into practical hatchback cars.

Why did ZDF have Opel saloon cars converted? The ideal vehicle would be a car for four to five people with plenty of space for cameras, tripods, lighting and batteries. With ample payload capacity and with enough power to get the team to the filming location quickly. But now we are at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s at ZDF. VW T2, Ford Transit and Bedford Blitz apparently failed to convince the decision-makers in Mainz. German manufacturers did not have powerful, large vans in their range.

And then you get a car that suggests American origins rather than anywhere on the right or left bank of the Rhine. Enough space for your equipment and even a real spare wheel. Also comfortable car seats and under the hood the showroom condition is not visible anymore.


Source: Autobild.

[ajm]

Brigitte Bardot as a young woman: the legend and her iconic cars.

Nice body and cars were the same

[RobertArthur]

Day one, photoshoot one. Generally speaking, classic cars gradually disappear from the streets when the leaves begin to fall in autumn. They only reappear when the green leaves return to the trees. Preferably when it is dry and the sun is shining. In this way the Citroën DS embodies the French dream: we are going where the sun shines brightly, holidays forever. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, such as visiting family on New Year's Day.