Rétromobile 2020

[Largactil]

After 2018's moment of madness, deciding to go on a day trip to Paris on my ownsome to visit Rétromobile, I decided to repeat the exercise this year.

Caught the 06:05 red eye yesterday from Edinburgh to Paris, returning to my gaff in Dublin on the 21:55 from CDG. 

Obviously loads of mega-money F cars / Gullwing Mercs / Lambos present, but also some chod I thought I'd share - I really liked the Bertone collection in particular

(€24.5k for a Mk2 - G60, or not!)

(Yours for €9k)

(Had the toy car version of this - Pretty cool to see the real thing)

(1972 Citroen GS Carmargue)

(1976 Ferrari Rainbow)

(1979 Ovlov Tundra)

Lots of over-priced automobilia tat, so didn't buy anything, but did have a good chat in pidgin French /English with the guys at the 104 Club Peugeot stand, boring/wowing them with some pics of my LNA ("right hand drive?! Zut alors!!")

[Yoss]

^ That Volvo has more than a hint of BX doesn't it? 

[High Jetter]

Uncannily similar, though the grille badge says ovlov. Good to see the R12 estate, Dad had 2 of them during his Renner period.

[Yoss]

And not a million miles from the Favorit Coupe... 

...which never made it to production. One prototype was built but with a standard windscreen so it was more upright than this. Bertone obviously didn't waste their designs. If one company doesn't want it we'll sell it to someone else. 

[barrett]

Hey @Yoss, what publication is that Favorit drawing from???

[Asimo]

Always liked that green one, the Corvette-based Ramarro.

 Especially the seats!

The doors are as dumb as all doors that aren't proper doors.

[Mrs6C]

I had forgotten about Retromobile! I went many years ago and it was great.

I would have loved to see the Bertone collection 'in the metal'. I suspect they will be let out again somewhere, sometime...

[hairnet]

must do this at some stage

was in ireland last year and going usa on weds so couldnt this year

ffs

@Largactil larg - are ya goin terenure in the summer??

 

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, barrett said:

Hey @Yoss, what publication is that Favorit drawing from???

It's from this. A book so niche that I think it was written just for me. 

It has a brief history of Skoda up to the Favorit then goes into the whole development, testing and building of it. 

Some other development sketches. 

There's some BX in the first one and the bottom left one says XM a bit doesn't it? All unmistakably Bertone anyway. 

[Fat_Pirate]

I always forget this, keep meaning to go.  Is the Bertone stuff always there?  Would love to see that in the metal/plaster, especially the Barchetta(?) which became the X1/9.

[Mrs6C]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

^ That Volvo has more than a hint of BX doesn't it? 

Wikipedia says of the Citroen BX: "The angular hatchback was designed by Marcello Gandini of Bertone, based on his unused design for the British 1977 Reliant FW11 concept and his 1979 Volvo Tundra concept car."

That would be it, then!

[Yoss]

Reliant FW11. That's a new one on me. 

 

 

[Yoss]

Also just realised I inadvertently included this paragraph in the pics above which is quite amusing. 

Basically Bertone could do what they wanted with the body but had to have those headlights because Skoda (or more likely PAL who seem to be responsible for all the electrics on my car) had already started producing them. It seems Bertone favoured narrower headlights which would have made it look even more BXey. 

[HMC]

Great pics and a brilliant Skoda book. The stipulation of using pre designed light units reminds me of the maxi and those 1800 doors; but I suppose that was a bigger issue to style around.

 

[High Jetter]

Reliant might have sold quite a few of those, if priced right.

[face]

HOW COOL IS THAT SAMBA?!?!?!

[barrett]

Brilliant, I have ummed and ahhed about that Favorit book but will have to pick one up at some point for the 'Eastern Europe' section.

I thought Retromobile was a little underwhelming this year, but the R17 on the Renault stand was something else. Absolutely mint perfection and a really gorgeous interior.

[wuvvum]

7 hours ago, Yoss said:

Reliant FW11. That's a new one me. 

 

Poor man's Moskvitch Aleko.

[Largactil]

16 hours ago, barrett said:

Brilliant, I have ummed and ahhed about that Favorit book but will have to pick one up at some point for the 'Eastern Europe' section.

I thought Retromobile was a little underwhelming this year, but the R17 on the Renault stand was something else. Absolutely mint perfection and a really gorgeous interior.

I'm inclined to agree - Most of the automobilia stands were peddling the same overpriced tat that they were 2 years ago. Lots of very high-end dealers with lovely cars, but not the oddball French stuff I'd like to see, like Renault 14's and Talbot Tagora's ?

22 hours ago, Fat_Pirate said:

I always forget this, keep meaning to go.  Is the Bertone stuff always there?  Would love to see that in the metal/plaster, especially the Barchetta(?) which became the X1/9.

No - They have a different 'special display' every year - in 2018 it was 1960's Abarth and Jean Pierre Wimille