Historical photos from a car mad family - more added Saturday

[carlo]

I'm pretty sure I made up a thread many moons ago about all the old photos I have that my dad took of the hundreds of cars which passed through his hands over the years.  I grew up surrounded by cars, dad traded cars from the fifties right up to the eighties and he had a taste for the unusual and the exotic.  Never a fan of British cars (hated Fords), he had a love of French and Italian mainstream and sports models (rarely had German cars too as I recall).  This is no doubt where I get my love of French machinery.  A lot of these models were very cheap to buy at the time, indeed even British 'exotica' like Aston Martins and E-types were cheap as chips second hand in the sixties - nobody seemed to want to pay much for them.  As you'll see he had multiple examples of both, and some of the stuff he bought for a couple of hundred quid would be worth hundreds of thousands now.

I'll start with a small collection of pictures taken of the garage owned not be dad but by my mum's dad, A Morris dealership in North West London somewhere I think.  It would be nice if anyone could place it.  Loving the showroom antique table with brochures on it.  Looks like NHM 260 was having its PDI and pre sale valet.

[carlo]

Different category here, European holidays.  Mum and dad often went over to France, Italy and Switzerland from the 50s to the 70s and he took hundreds of streetside pictures, here's a small sample.

That's me in the flared trousers next to the Ami 8.  That particular holiday in 1974 was a bit of a nightmare, I had appalling asthma that summer, and the Ami seemed to bust one of its cylinders on the whole journey back through France - we were literally running on one cylinder up hills.

There's some cracking old stuff in there, look out for the '61 Buick looking slightly out of place.

I'm trying to work out what that blue Cabriolet is in the first picture.  Am thinking DB or Panhard, possibly with some French special bodywork, but can't match up those rear lights with anything.

 

[Matty]

Brilliant these @carlo. More if you can 👍

[carlo]

Plenty more on the way.

[artdjones]

Looks like the Hotel Ajoncs d' Or is still open.

I suspect a lot of the others are.

[carlo]

Yes that was one of the few I found still existed!  Need some French market town experts.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Any idea what the two round things are either side of the number plate? Vents?

[Spottedlaurel]

Utterly wonderful! Maybe I've been through one or two of these places on our meandering travels over the years, nothing's immediately jumping out to me though.

Might the mystery blue cabriolet be a Renault Floride?

[carlo]

1 minute ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Utterly wonderful! Maybe I've been through one or two of these places on our meandering travels over the years, nothing's immediately jumping out to me though.

Might the mystery blue cabriolet be a Renault Floride?

Can't be, it has three rather unusual stacked rear lights.

[Spottedlaurel]

2 minutes ago, carlo said:

Can't be, it has three rather unusual stacked rear lights.

And it doesn't look to have the distinctive vent above the rear bumper,  yet the overall shape looks there or thereabouts.

Got to love a mystery blue car....

[carlo]

Remarkably I've just found out what is it, and I remember spending ages in the past trying unsuccessfully.  Will keep the mystery going just a bit longer though...

[EyesWeldedShut]

I'm voting LHD Sunbeam Alpine, please.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Cajarc - kind of midway from Toulouse to Brive. 
You guys really got off the beaten track...

[EyesWeldedShut]

This one I'd give as Uzerche (well, my friend Google helps) 
In a previous life I was about 40 minutes west of there - you're pictures are getting closer ....

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

This one I'd give as Uzerche (well, my friend Google helps) 
In a previous life I was about 40 minutes west of there - you're pictures are getting closer ....

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

Last picture above (Hotel Biselx) may be in a place call Au Vieux Compex in Switzerland (that's what the yellow parking sign seems to suggest). Biselx also kicks in as a family name around there. No sign of the actual building but the whole place looks very swish these days with lots of new hotels and the like. https://www.google.com/maps/@46.0307594,7.1146994,210m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

[carlo]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I'm voting LHD Sunbeam Alpine, please.

It is French and only 200 were made, which makes it quite a capture from the old man.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, carlo said:

It is French and only 200 were made, which makes it quite a capture from the old man.

LHD DB? (Not a tractor)

[carlo]

Yes it's a DB Panhard Le Mans from 1960.

[HMC]

Loving these! IIRC you posted up a few old motorsport pics was well, 1960s personalities like Willy Mairesse. Your Dad was right in the thick of the action.

[carlo]

Yes I was a bit precious about those at the time thinking they may have some value to them.  I will post some of that batch later and let more people enjoy them.

[carlo]

Here's a selection of some weird and wonderful stuff that passed through his hands, some owned for a period of time and then disposed of when something more interesting cropped up.  The Cord actually belonged to a family friend I believe.  Sorry if a lot of this was posted in the last thread but that was many years ago.  Look at those E-types and Astons!  That's me, the small fat mechanic under the bonnet of his pedal car J40.

[DSdriver]

I think the vents in the back of the CX are there because that is where French seem to put their dogs. A relative picked us up from Calais  and it was only after several stops we arrived back at their house and he opened the boot and a spaniel hopped out.

The Slough built DS looks wonderful.

Back in the 1970s I used to lift share with a mate to get to that London where we worked nights. He either used his Aston DB2.4 or his Pinto, I used my DS Safari.

[Spottedlaurel]

On 28/06/2024 at 14:19, EyesWeldedShut said:

This one I'd give as Uzerche (well, my friend Google helps) 
In a previous life I was about 40 minutes west of there - you're pictures are getting closer ....

I stayed just up the road just last year and we went to Uzerche quite a few times! Excellent 2-day car show and autojumble there, presumably coming up this July.

I imagine this photo is from the days before the A20 autoroute was built to the west so the RN20 went right through town, I think this is it in the photo - must have been insanely busy sometimes.

[carlo]

I would really like to place some of these French and Swiss towns, does anyone know of a French language 'Autoshite' style site I could post them on?

[Marina door handles]

1 hour ago, carlo said:

I would really like to place some of these French and Swiss towns, does anyone know of a French language 'Autoshite' style site I could post them on?

Could always try   Merde-L'Automobile.fr   

[Tayne]

1 hour ago, Marina door handles said:

Could always try   Merde-L'Automobile.fr   

They do a nice line in a faux dealer stickers, in beige like ours but with an address in Brittany and the “Brest 80085” phone number.