When a gaggle of 4th year architecture students went to France in late summer of 1970 to attend the University of Illinois program in Versailles, we expected to be surrounded by historic architecture and urbanism on nearly any street; that was part of the point. Only a few of us were prepared for the daily car show put on by ordinary morotists going about their business. It was like "cars & coffee" about 4 decades before the idea took hold. Here my housemate Ron checks out a Talbot-Lago* 15CV from 1949-53, with engine options including a 2.7 liter inline 4 cylinder and a 2.6 liter six. We thought it was pretty trad looking, but not really ancient, as it had been born in the same era we had...
On the way to our student lodging on Rue du Marechal Gallieni, we happened upon this Ferrari transporter one afternoon. I noted that two of the cars were not Ferraris…Lolas, I thought, and we weren't sure about the red car, which looked a bit like the short-chassis racers Ferrari once built for hillclimbs.
The Ferrari transporter, if not its cargo, had already suffered a bit of wear and tear from Paris traffic. Note the wrinkled service door behind the cabin...
Here a Lamborghini Miura* parks on the Rue de Rivoli, appropriately enough behind a BMC Mini. The luggage rack, along with a few dimples and nicks, shows that the car was in regular use, if not a daily driver. The thought of daily driving (or worse, parking) in Paris had prompted the two other students who shared an old Fiat 1500 with me in Scandinavia to sell it at the American Express as soon as classes started...
Why, you wonder, is the Mini an appropriate parking mate for the Miura? Because Lamborghini had originally approached BMC about making a low-cost, mid-engined GT car using the Mini engine / transaxle unit. BMC refused, so the Lambo crew made an expensive GT with their own 4-cam V12 mounted transversely behind the cabin. One feature it shared with the Mini (at least, until the last 98 Miura SV models) was that the engine shared its oil with the transmission.
The lady in the photo above may be considering the possible maintenance and repair expense that will result from this faiblesse de la boite de vitesse, while the guy standing at the other end of the car appears to be deep in negotiations with the dealer. We hope they liked this color, and that they changed the oil frequently after they closed the deal. These photos are from the Salon de l"Auto, which opened at the Parc des Expositions at the Porte de Versailles on October 1, 1970.
Our smart-shopping couple might have had lower maintenance expenses, if a bit less interior space, with this De Tomaso Mangusta*. Like the Lambo Miura, the Mangusta first appeared in 1966 and went into production in 1967. The Ford V8 was mounted longitudinally behind the cabin, and did not share its oil with the ZF transmission. But a less-than-rigid chassis design made for somewhat unpredictable handling. I sampled a friend's Mangusta 2 decades later, and loved it anyway...
Mostly I loved just looking at the thing, a sign that designer Giugiaro and coachbuilder Ghia had done their jobs. They also produced the Maserati Ghibli* shown below, and it went into production in 1967 as well. So even though the Miura, Mangusta and Ghibli were 3-year old designs by the time they hit this show, they looked as modern as tomorrow to us. To some eyes, they still do. Overall, the Maserati was the pick of the litter if you wanted to actually go places and take your stuff with you...
The biggest star of that Paris show over 50 years ago was the Citroen SM, a product of the recent partnership with Maserati, and powered by a new Maserati V6 which, naturally, drove the front wheels as with all Citroens. In addition to the hydropneumatic suspension shared with the new mass market GS pictured in the background, the SM had the new Diravi speed-sensitive power steering...
It was a space ship on wheels, and especially looked the part when the hydropneumatic suspension was on its low setting, with the car nesting somewhat menacingly on the ground plane..
Also at that 1970 show, the French aerospace firm Matra showed off their Tour de France-winning MS650 road racer, powered by a 3 liter V12. When we drove around the Le Mans track with our French student friend Bernard in his Simca, we got passed by Matras doing tire tests, and flames shot out the rear of the racers. Bernard's humble Simca 1100 was nearly blown off the track. By this time, Simca was sponsoring the Matra team, but had nothing to do with the design of the racers, which seemed like the product of rocket science...
A few months later, Jean Rédélé released his new Alpine Renault A310* at the Geneva Show. This rear-engine design shared the Space Age, multi-headlight frontal aspect of the Citroen SM, but was more conventional in other aspects. Then again, nearly anything would seem conventional compared to a Citroen Maserati...
I caught the rainy end of the Tour de France Auto in September 1974, and an Alpine A310 was parked on the coast road after finishing...
…along with its brother, the smaller, more aggressive rally champion A110...
A month later Citroen would release its last car designed as an independent company, the aerodynamic CX shown below at the '74 Salon. It shared the hydropneumatic suspension and Diravi power steering with the SM, and did better during the fuel crisis because of its 4 cylinder engine. A concave rear window eliminated the need for a wiper...
The oil embargo and fuel cirsis would eventually spell the end of the Citroen-Maserati partnership, but not before Pietro Frua designed a sleek, front-drive GT with the Citroen hydraulics, power steering, and using the Maserati engine from the SM. This Citroen SMS was shown at Geneva in 1972 and again in '73. The standard SM is in the background...
The creased, angular wedge design theme of the Frua SMS appeared a bit later in a product of the short-lived CItroen-Maserati union, but this time styled by Marcello Gandini for Bertone. Unlike the SMS, the Maserati Khamsin that went into production in 1974 was a rear-drive design featuring the dry sump 4-cam V8 of the Ghibli, but retained CItroen hydraulics for the brakes and the Diravi power steering. I photographed this one dozing at a parking meter in 1974 on the return trip from the Tour de France to the school in Versailles. Here was a shiny new design engineer's dream being casually and somewhat irreverently used as a car. Sometimes things turn out the way they're planned...
*Footnote: The following makes and models have been featured in previous photo essays:
"Talbot-Lago: Darracq by Another Name", May 22, 2020
"Lamborghini Miura: Mini-Cooper's 2nd Cousin, Twice Removed", July 11, 2017
Maserati Ghibli and De Tomaso Mangusta: "The Italian Line: Ghia Part 2—From Custom to Corporate", October 31, 2020
Alpine Renault: "Forgotten Classic: Alpine Renault A310", January 9, 2021
Photo Credits:
Top thru 5th from top: the author
Top thru 5th from top: the author
6th thru 9th: Ronald Budde
10th:: Jean Marc Felix
10th:: Jean Marc Felix
11th:: flickr.com
12th:: classiccarcatalogue.com
13th:: Pedro Daza
14th:: pinterest.com
15th & 16th:: the author
17th:: formtrends.com
18th: citroenvie.com
Bottom:: the author
Was briefly in Europe in, I think, ‘73. Driving a Beetle with a brief stint on a French Autoroute. The technique in a Beetle was right foot on the top of the throttle so it’s weight held it floored, stay in the right lane, and keep an eye on the mirrors. What sure looked like an MS650 came up and blew past us in the left lane. Had cop markings, a gumball machine on the rollhoop, and two guys in the open cockpit in pale blue full face helmets. Don’t know what they were doing, but they looked real serious about it.
ReplyDeleteWas briefly in Europe in, I think, ‘73. Driving a Beetle with a brief stint on a French Autoroute. The technique in a Beetle was right foot on the top of the throttle so it’s weight held it floored, stay in the right lane, and keep an eye on the mirrors. What sure looked like an MS650 came up and blew past us in the left lane. Had cop markings, a gumball machine on the rollhoop, and two guys in the open cockpit in pale blue full face helmets. Don’t know what they were doing, but they looked real serious about it.
ReplyDeleteWell, that open cockpit is a clue. I know the Alpine A110 (16th photo) was used by the French highway patrol because we watched them catch a scoff-law at the Belgian border in 1970. This was the same era that some police used Porsche 911s in Austria. But you have to wonder just who the cops were chasing with an MS650, or if it was just a joyride, how they managed to arrange it...
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, for those who pay attention to their surroundings, Parisian streets are like tuition-free college. I myself have learned much about graffiti art and scarves wandering aimlessly and broke around the city.
ReplyDeleteIt was that way. I cancelled one of the travel break trips to stay in Paris instead of going to Greece, where the fascist junta was haulting students off buses and telling them to cut their hair. Saved money, learned better French, and saw great buildings on almost every street corner. Plus, there were those patisseries...
ReplyDelete