Voitures Anciennes

[RobertArthur]

The DKW in Italy, Mille Miglia 2008, 1000 miles, 34 hp, 3-cylinder. In the 1950s this DKW was a common sight, not only at the major touring and rally events, but also as a competitor on the race circuit. Many other classic cars on the road there in Italy. And the winner was this Alfa 6C 1500 Super Sport.

[RobertArthur]

A Lisbon barn find - rescuing a forgotten 1955 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing. This legendary sports car remained in the same Portuguese family since new. It was partially dismantled decades ago for an intended restoration that stalled due to high costs and technical complexity. This disassembled classic car and all its original parts were successfully transported to HK-Engineering's main facility based in a converted monastery in Polling, Bavaria, Germany for a full factory-level restoration. NIce little red roadsters there in the courtyard, not little red roosters.

[RobertArthur]

Now that we’re on the subject of car doors. We’ve already looked at the ‘suicide doors’ of the first-generation 2CVs. We’ll leave out the sliding doors of the later-generation MPVs, as well as the ‘no-doors’ models, jeeps, the Citroën Mehari and another even smaller model.

By chance, my eye fell this morning on the Belgian website ‘Vroom’ on a 1986 Citroën concept car, the Zabrus. Those doors, perhaps inspired by the Gullwing, show that there is another way, eye-catching.

Lessons to be learned, infotainment designers and addicts, please read this: " The interior was designed to be user friendly, so all of the instruments were grouped together as far forward and high up as possible, so the driver didn’t have to take their eyes far from the road ahead. "

Images gradually fading from everyone’s memory, below the radar.

[L Austin France]

A Lisbon barn find - rescuing a forgotten 1955 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing. This legendary sports car remained in the same Portuguese family since new. It was partially dismantled decades ago for an intended restoration that stalled due to high costs and technical complexity. This disassembled classic car and all its original parts were successfully transported to HK-Engineering's main facility based in a converted monastery in Polling, Bavaria, Germany for a full factory-level restoration. NIce little red roadsters there in the courtyard, little red roosters.

When we were frequent visitors to Paris there was always a gull wing SL in the Champs-Élysées Mercedes show room opposite a bar we liked to frequent.
No idea if it's still there now.

[RobertArthur]

The Gullwing in early 2014, in the Mercedes showroom, formerly known as the Mercedes-Benz Gallery, in those years still located at 118 Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. A total renovation in 2010. This iconic space frequently rotates historic and concept vehicles with today's mix of digital immersion screens. LIfestyle and the Av. des Champs-Élysées still go hand in hand....the best or nothing, the place to be for designers. A July 2024 picture: not there anymore?

[RobertArthur]

Keep them on the road, even when they’re no longer in showroom condition, a 1967 Citroën DS Break.

[Hotrodder]

Nothing wrong with that beast. A new bonnet and a respray and she's good to go.

[L Austin France]

Talking oldies;
A lad up the road from me owned a magnificent citroën traction avant which he inherited from his father along with the house he now lived in.
Fañch, the deceased, a died in the wool Breton, was the local Scrappy who owned the Traction which had been fully restored by a local specialist garage & only took the car out on rare special days hence it was in A1+ condition.
Laddy inherited the car, used it as his daily drive & thrashed it everywhere.
I tried to get him to sell it to me on several occasions offering strong money but he wouldn't sell.
Not long after my last offer he rolled the thing causing lots of €damage & as it almost certainly wasn't insured, it now resides permanently in his garage as he hasn't the wherewithal to mend a widow let alone the thousands it'll take to repair the car.
Bet he wishes he'd sold it

Remind me sometime to recount some of the things Fañch got up to in his complete indifference to the locals, the law & all things 'normal' folk abide by.
A self educated often generous bloke , he spoke perfect English along with Breton, French & others I've no idea what they were.
He was deffo a legend in his own lifetime & a great bloke to be with when not sitting drunk, insulting folk in the bar he lived in & sometimes opened.