What's your favorite French car?

[nzcarnerd]

1 hour ago, capngrog said:

 

Were they all Chrysler hemi V-8s, or did they use the engines of other manufacturers?

 

Cheers,

Grog

 

 

As I noted they used whatever was current - mostly Chryslers. They may have used others, I don't know. So hemis only until 1958, then regular wedge heads after that.

 

I think it was through the Facel connection that Chrysler used the Pont-a-Mousson four speed manual gearbox for a while. 

 

I am not up on Chrysler gearbox history. I hope somebody can enlighten us.

[1935Packard]

If we're in dream world, a Bugatti Type 57  (and related variants) is the ultimate for me.  But in a slightly more realistic bracket, I love the Delahaye 135 cars like this one.   So elegant. 

 

[zipdang]

12 hours ago, capngrog said:

My favorite French "car":

 

 

I know that it's technically a van, but it's still my favorite.

 

Cheers,

Grog

 

 

I would have to agree - most likely because I own one and, as they say, a bird in the hand....

 

[alsancle]

7 hours ago, 8E45E said:

Here's a pre-brass era Panhard & Levassor from 1892, and a post-brass era P&L from 1939.

 

Craig

 

 

I always had a strange attraction to the Dynamic.   They made a few coupes which I think would be the hit of any show.

 

 

 

[Buick35]

15 hours ago, Billy Kingsley said:

When I think of French cars, the first vision in my head is of a Citroen 2CV. So I guess that's it.

I saw one for sale on Craigslist Daytona,Fl. under barter or for $15000.

[Buick35]

I had a 1960 Renault Daulphine in high school ,paid $50 for it.Greg

[AHa]

As long as we're dreaming, I could dream of driving one of these. French Porthos.

I also like this 6 cylinder

Edited July 4, 2020 by AHa (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

An amateur video (4 minutes) taken at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California:

 

[DavidMc]

Bugatti Type 55

[Marty Roth]

A more complete look at the Mullin Automotive Museum - Oxnard, California

At the time, Peter Mullin had maybe 3 or 4 non-French autos on display,

but the museum and collection are essentially of French cars.

 

We were invited into the adjacent warehouse which was used mostly for storage of cars not currently on display, as well as for restoration and construction. A automotive artist was building a "buck" to construct a duplicate of the Bugatti Atlantic Coupe, the one which was riveted along a central seam because the extreme lightweight metal used for the body (titanium?) would catch fire if welding was attempted.

 

 

[8E45E]

43 minutes ago, Marty Roth said:

A automotive artist was building a "buck" to construct a duplicate of the Bugatti Atlantic Coupe, the one which was riveted along a central seam because the extreme lightweight metal used for the body (titanium?) would catch fire if welding was attempted.

 

 

The body was magnesium, and would ignite if one attempted to put a torch to it.  The light from burning magnesium is very intense and blinding.

 

Here is a rebuilt one on an original chassis.

 

 

 

[1912Staver]

Postwar it's got to be a Renault Alpine or Renault Gordini. Both are France's equivelent to the Fiat Abarth.

 

Greg

 

[JV Puleo]

Panhard e Levassor, before the Knight engine and Delauny Bellville before WWI. I've had a very early Panhard but have never even seen a Delauny Bellville.

 

 

[Billy Kingsley]

I totally forgot that Bugatti was French. For some reason I thought Italian. 

[bryankazmer]

Ettore Bugatti was Italian, but moved to Alsace as a young man.

[Billy Kingsley]

I'm pretty sure that's what threw me off. I saw one of the riveted cars a couple years ago mentioned above...I'll post some photos shortly, can't do it from my tablet.

[Billy Kingsley]

All of these images are from the Saratoga Automobile Museum's Bugatti exhibit, which I photographed on September 6th, 2018. I took 150 photos, which are on my website here: https://public.fotki.com/ElCaminoBilly/automotivephotography/car-museum-trips/saratoga-bugatti/ However, it wasn't all Bugattis. They had some other cars on display for their auction, plus there was a Lamborghini convention going on outside, which I also photo documented, and is all there. 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Billy Kingsley (see edit history)

[alsancle]

17 hours ago, Akstraw said:

Voisin

 

If we eliminate the Royale and the Atlantic then I would want this exact car.

 

[alsancle]

Or this one,  which is similar to the one  in the Rich collection.

 

 

 

[JV Puleo]

1 hour ago, bryankazmer said:

Ettore Bugatti was Italian, but moved to Alsace as a young man.

 

Which was actually in Germany when he moved there. It didn't revert to France until after WWI.

[JamesR]

16 hours ago, nzcarnerd said:

 

 

This 1961 HK in NZ has a 361 in it.

 

 

 

 

Looks like original paint, maybe.  I love that color, but I don't seem to see it often in photos. Cool to see a right hand drive version. Thanks for posting.

[TerryB]

My son took this photo in NorCal. Many French movies featured this make.

 

[padgett]

European cars with American engines were quite popular as the tax on engine displacement meant European engines were small as were most of the roads.. The Cad-Allards come to mind and the Cobra is another example. Unfortunately, in the early 60s "Baby Blue" was a popular color that never aged well. Facel-Vega had an arrangement with Chrysler for the big V-8s. And then there was the Facillia.

[Marty Roth]

1 hour ago, TerryB said:

My son took this photo in NorCal. Many French movies featured this make.

 

 

This is the "CHARLESTON" Edition of the Citroen Deux Chevaux (Two Horse - 2 Taxable Horsepower). Ours was a gray 1964 model 435 cc engine. The pictured model is actually, likely a "Big Block" 602 cc engined version, so technically a 3-CV, although never really called that. These are a magnificent, memorable, basic form or transportation, sometimes considered France's answer to the Model-T Ford, mass produced and affordable, almost impossible to kill.

[nzcarnerd]

6 hours ago, JamesR said:

 

 

Looks like original paint, maybe.  I love that color, but I don't seem to see it often in photos. Cool to see a right hand drive version. Thanks for posting.

 

Re the paint it could be original. The current owner's father bought it in the 1970s.

 

As far as how many were right or left and drive I don't know. Back in the day all of the European luxury cars were right hand drive. I guess by the 1960s there was demand for them to be available with left hand drive.

[yachtflame]

Back in the early ‘80s I ran a yacht for a Manhattan attorney named Roy Cohn. I kept the yacht in Greenwich CT where he had a house with an amazing garage full of cars. He told me I could use any car as long as I washed it when I brought it back. There was a ‘35 Mercedes convertible, a ‘46 Rolls stretched limo, a ‘61 MK 2 Jag, a 1950 Jag XK 120 among several others but my favorite was a 1949 Delahaye Sloped back sedan.
This wasn’t the actual car but one like it.  

 The car was amazing and a blast to drive!

[chrysler75]

my favorite French car is the Delahaye ;

 

 

[padgett]

My father had an ID-19 (TOL was a DS-19) with four on the tree, would sing to you in top. Had no jack, just a jackstand: raise the car (air suspension), place the stand, lower car to raise wheel off ground. Typical French three bolt wheels. Single spoke steering wheel. Was a neat but strange car.

 

 

 

 

[Hudsy Wudsy]

I don't have very much knowledge when it comes to French cars, but I recall reading once that when it comes to cars, "the French imitate no one, and no one imitates the French." Is there truth in that?

[bryankazmer]

consider the Deux Chevaux gearshift and the Citroen "twist the beer can" control - you may have it there

[padgett]

And the Citroen "mushroom" brake.

[bryankazmer]

yet "crushing the mushroom" in France means flooring the gas

[chrysler75]

here are my favorites:  Matra Muren S, , but also our 1929 Chrysler 75 roadster

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by chrysler75 (see edit history)

[Walt G]

The Renault Reinastella straight eight.  Huge cars. If you are of a certain age many  people think of the Renault Daulphine from the 1960s as the only Renault of memory as it was imported here to the USA. So were these cars, and in the late 1920s their showroom was on 5th Avenue in New York City . Many European cars made it to these shores and landed in New York City because of the port facilities available and N.Y. City was the closest place to land when importing as well as see the cars coming in because of all the ocean liners that would carry them as cargo in the lower portion of the ship. Air travel was not in place yet at a low rate on a regular basis ( Zeppelin travel was expensive) so everyone came and went to Europe via ocean liners. I have lots of other 8 cylinder Renault period photographs but they are slated to go with a story I am in the process of writing.

[wayne sheldon]

A friend I have known for fifty years bought and kept a HUGE 1925 Renault open-front towncar/limousine. It was a solid original car, not running. I saw the car before he bought it (about 45 years ago). He never restored it, but spent many years locating the parts it was missing (including a correct carburetor). He is a fine fellow, and really wanted the car (he was born in Paris France!), just not the type to dig in and do a major restoration. He sold the car about eight or ten years ago through a mutual friend that had better connections. I don't know where it went, but was told it went to a collector that will restore it. I certainly hope it is done and done well. That Renault was one of the biggest and most impressive cars I have ever seen!

[alsancle]

2 hours ago, wayne sheldon said:

A friend I have known for fifty years bought and kept a HUGE 1925 Renault open-front towncar/limousine. It was a solid original car, not running. I saw the car before he bought it (about 45 years ago). He never restored it, but spent many years locating the parts it was missing (including a correct carburetor). He is a fine fellow, and really wanted the car (he was born in Paris France!), just not the type to dig in and do a major restoration. He sold the car about eight or ten years ago through a mutual friend that had better connections. I don't know where it went, but was told it went to a collector that will restore it. I certainly hope it is done and done well. That Renault was one of the biggest and most impressive cars I have ever seen!

 

There was the largest car I have ever seen in the Larz Andersen musuem when I was a kid.  It was a Renault town car.   HUGE.    I tried to find a picture but they don't have it anymore.   They have this one which is pretty cool.

 

[Walt G]

No one in the USA really knows or shall I state is aware of the larger 40hp - 45hp Renaults  due to the fact few were produced and fewer made it over here when new because of the economic depression in late 1929.

I have collected period photographs and sales literature on these for decades. Dinosaurs lost to time - most with formal coachwork but a few had open touring car/phaeton coach work. Those that were made were usually featured in Concours events when new and then reported in the show issues of L'Illustracion and Omnia and La Carrosiere magazines.

[J.H.Boland]

Don't know anything about this Citroen but saw it back in the late sixties and thought it was pretty radical.

[8E45E]

1 hour ago, Walt G said:

No one in the USA really knows or shall I state is aware of the larger 40hp - 45hp Renaults  due to the fact few were produced and fewer made it over here when new because of the economic depression in late 1929.

I have collected period photographs and sales literature on these for decades. Dinosaurs lost to time - most with formal coachwork but a few had open touring car/phaeton coach work. Those that were made were usually featured in Concours events when new and then reported in the show issues of L'Illustracion and Omnia and La Carrosiere magazines.

Has this concept Renault Initiale gone into production, it would have been the modern day equivalent with a V10:  https://www.motor1.com/news/145016/concept-we-forgot-renault-initiale/

 

Craig

[bryankazmer]

The Citroen convertible looks like a DS21 by Chapron.