One of the nicest things about having friends living in Europe is the prospect of them buying cool stuff for you, bring it to you when they travel back home for their annual vacation and accepting payment in local currency during their annual vacation in India. I am grateful to have one such friend. And he landed last…
If anyone deserves the title of Monsieur Le Mans, it’s Henri Pescarolo. He’s driven in the race an incredible 33 times, winning four including the rare threepeat from 1972-’74. He was also team boss at 15 more. In addition, he started 57 Grands Prix, was a top F2 driver in the glory days along with Stewart, Rindt and…
Look at that riesen autobus hidden a bit behind the Ricard wall. Riesen? So it’s big? I’d say so yes...
Who on earth comes up with Purple? This is somewhat Lilac right? No. I got nothing. And I’m of to Techno Classica in Essen anyway...
The Toyota GT-One is one of the special cars in my collection, ticking off most of the boxes on my check list - the scale, the car type and the back story.
Darned. I hoped I’d be able to show it in it’s full finished glory. But I still need more appropriate bricks...
Abarth is for FIAT. Gordini is for Renault. The world is awesome in it’s simplicity. Right? Wrong. Because SIMCA worked with ‘m both. Actually, despite Gordini is known for his creations for Renault, he started at SIMCA. Henri Pigozzi, the guy producing FIATs in Nanterre and therefor creating SIMCA, recognized the…
The stash from Ck Model Cars finally came home yesterday with my friend who is here on a vacation. Originally I thought that it was a mistake to splurge like this, but on hindsight, with the kind of deal I got (with flat shipping), I can’t think of even one of these that I wouldn’t want in my collection. And I am so…
The biggest Opel was the Admiral, a big saloon with a V8. One step down, but a little bit sportier, was the Commodore. Just as in real life. A senior captain, assigned to command more than just one ship. But he ain’t an admiral.
It’s about time I’d do another car from Jean Graton’s mind. So I present you: the Vaillante Ipharra. And it was that special it was good enough for our hero Michel Vaillant himself to drive one in his private life. In the same episode I’ve talked before actually: the 8th episode with the title Le 8e Pilote.
Yeah yeah, the Samba is like an Alpine from PSA to me: I’ve shown ‘m before and it won’t be my last. I just love ‘m.
I’ve done a Delahaye before, the 175 Coupé with a Motto body. The one we see here is a 235, built in de same era (1951-1954). Delahaye still mainly sold chassis to have a coachbuilder create a body for it but with this 235 it took a new path and added a body production facility in it’s factory.
This has to be one of my favorite French cars ever. The MVS Venturi. And yet there’s limited choice from the world of diecasts. So when I found this one in black I had to get it, despite my little aversion against black cars: many lines and details disappear and they’re a little hard to shoot as well.
One of the most distinctive looking sportscars ever. I’ve mentioned it before, as it is the successor of the HBR5 I wrote about a little while ago. Well, successor... The HBR5 was a DB with a Panhard engine, this one was a Panhard developed by Charles Deutsch.
Today we’re going to see quite some Ligiers if all goes well. Opponaut Jonee is doing a masterpiece on Ligier and it’s background, TFritch is showing some racers from the company from Abrest (France, obviously) and I will show some of their scaled roadcars. Another Kinja-triptych!
The history of this little French brand, Salmson, is a bit like that of BMW. As they started manufacturing engines for airplanes first. In fact they’ve done this way before WWI whereas BMW entered the purpose-built aircraft engines market when WWI was all the rage already in 1917.
I’ve told the story of this one before in our last LaLD Car Week. And I mentioned the black pre-face lifted edition there already. Well, recently I found it. Somewhat.
What’s this, another Bread Box? Well, it is. And maybe it sheds a light on Small Scale Sydney’s theory on his Simca 1000 Rallye 2 “Prototype” as well. As there was a sporty edition other than the Rallye on the first gen Simca 1000 (‘61-’68) that wasn’t from Simca them selves. And it came from Italy.
It’s called the “Panamericana”. From the Carrera Panamericana. Just like Porsche took the Carrera part from this epic race. And it’s another cast from Jean Graton’s Michel Vaillant-comics. From which I’ve shown stuff before.
Is it a Benz? Is it an American cruiser? Nope, this is French. With an American engine/transmission. From a brand I’ve shown a few two-doors voitures from before in my early LaLD-days: Facel-Vega.
