Retromobile 2006

To my mind the historic motoring season starts with the Retromobile exhibition in Paris in early February. Not only does it constantly provide surprises, in the shape of the cars and other exhibits, but the opening Friday is normally the international meeting place of the historic players from all over the world.

This year was no exception with Steven Earle, organiser of the Rolex Historic Monterey Races at Laguna Seca and the ever-improving Lime Rock Historic event, present along with his partner in the Lime Rock adventure, Murray Smith. Plans are well ahead for Laguna and though there has been a certain amount of excitement, Stateside, about the possibility of a historic 500cc Formula 3 race being part of the programme, Steve still has an open mind and it all depends on how many people have race-worthy cars to take part. He also commented on the changes being made to the circuit and the enormous success of the MotoGP that was held there and brought in a huge crowd.

The  number of stands devoted to historic touring events amply illustrated just how many were now taking place. A potential competitor could chose an event on almost every continent in the world if he were so inclined.

To underline some of the interesting vehicles on show, however, we present just some of the special cars that featured on the stands this year.

One of the best looking stands at Retromobile was the stand of Ivan Dutton. Tim Dutton, in picture, explained that it was their first time at Retromobile and though the best thing was not just to show a car – see below – but to show a partially rebuilt chassis and car to illustrate their workmanship. “ It is much easier to answer someones question by showing them exactly what we can rebuild or reconstruct there and then” Tim explained. By the smile on his face at the end of the first day the reaction to his stand, particularly in France and particularly as he specialises in Bugatti’s was clearly proving to be a success.

This Bugatti 35TC – chassis 4938 – was one of the stars of the show and was shown on the Ivan Dutton stand. It was the 2.3 litre eight cylinder supercharged car that won the 1929 French Grand Prix in the hands of Englishman “Williams” (William Grover Williams) It was later  driven by Louis Chiron and Achile Varzi and with the latter won the Spanish Grand Prix.
Apparently the car was bought in 1946 by a US Army officer for very little money and taken to the United States where it was refurbished and remained there until 2001 when it was bought by the present owner. Duttons have been doing a thorough overhaul of the car and it looked very original on the stand.

All of the large French manufacturers are well represented at Retromobile and I was intrigued by this Michelin van of the 1930’s. The Michelin representative was dressed up in 1930’s style and explained that Michelin went to a lot of trouble to make sure everything was authentic. The van itself was a 1930 Morris Light Van and all the correct equipment as used in the 1930’s was neatly fitted inside with air lines, tyre mounting equipment etc. Even the uniform he was wearing had been painstakingly recreated from the correct hard linen cloth of the period specially woven and even the mechanics hat was made to the original design. In the middle of the hat, however, he had a small round Michelin badge. How about that ?  “Oh, I managed to find this original one on Ebay !”
 Such is progress.

With so many historic car dealiers showing it is no surprise that you come across some intriguing cars. This, for example, is what remains of the prototype Lister Formula 2 car. It appeared in its battered state on Christoph Pund’s stand. It looks like an interesting project for someone in the historic motor racing business. In the background to the photograph is a rare Arnolt-Bristol and in fact no fewer than three Arnolt-Bristols were on show on different stands so maybe they are not so rare after all.

Of particular interest to the writer was Jaguar XKC 006, the second production C-type Jaguar to be sold by the factory. When it was decided to build a series of C-types Jaguar offered their factory drivers first chance to buy one. Hence XKC005 was sold to Duncan  Hamilton and XKC 006 was sold to Scotsman Ian Stewart, one of the founder team members of Ecurie Ecosse. Indeed in order to finance the purchase of the car Ian took out a hire-purchase contract on it but when his father found out this had happened, he went to Edinburgh and demanded that David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse actually buy the car and save the family the embarrassment of having anything on hire-purchase! The car was raced by Ecurie Ecosse then sold the car to Hans Davids in the Netherlands. A later owner, Tony Barratt-Greene brought it back to Scotland to do the Rest and Be Thankful Hill Climb but by 1959 it had gone to the United States. Bill and David Lake have owned it for the past twenty or so years and now it was up for sale at Christie’s. The light green Jaguar behind the C type is the Jaguar XK120 roadster raceed by Bob Lawrie and Ivan Waller at the 1951 Le Mans race. Their performance with the car was overshadowed by the factory cars in the race and yet finished 11th overall.

Another interesting Jaguar powered car, this Lister-Jaguar (BHL12) that was the first Lister ever to be powered by a Jaguar engine. The chassis was originally that of a Lister-Bristol but a London Jeweller, Norman Hillwood, put a Jaguar 3.4 litre engine into it and had Maurice Gomm fashion this bodwywork with its distinctive tail fin. The car is owned by the French collector and ex-film stunt driver Roland Urban who is a dyed-in-the-wool Jaguar fan. It is now beginning to show its age and Roland admitted that he would probably not race it again.

You always get surprises at Retromobile and certainly this car came as a great surprise. Built in 1905 this Darracq was taken to Florida where it set a new land speed record of 197 kph in January 1906.

This is the very first Connaught L2 sports car and is one of two identical looking cars with consecutive registration numbers built by Connaught and financed by Kenneth McAlpine. The car was on sale at the Marreyt stand and, it was interesting to note that the same company had the fourth Connaught L2 out of the six built, also on their books.

You cannot mention Retromobile without mentioning at least one of the many Ferrari’s on show. This one I found interesting as I had never seen it before. It was on a stand where the Rotary Club in France raise money. The car itself is a 250MM ( Chassis 0338MM) that was originally sold to Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan back in 1953. He used the car and then donated it to the Le Mans Museum. In 1989 it was decided that the car should be sold and the well known French auctioneer Herve Poulain sold the car for nearly $2 million. Michel Seydoux ran the car on the Mille Miglia and though I am not sure but believe the car is now owned by Ferrari France. It looks stunning in this dark grey colour with the red and black rings.