The French & Italian car show -- 2

And now, the French cars, again without the "normal" (if you can call them that) Citroens, Peugeots, etc....

This one stirred memories. I owned a Renault Le Car, years and years ago. I lie; I owned four of them, and my ex-wife and another friend each had one. I learned more about the innards of these little beasts than any sane person would want to know. Most of the scars have healed fully. Still, if parts were readily available, I'd have one now, because it was the most comfortable and practical car I've ever owned. Especially the one that had a French hot-rod engine with almost twice the power of the U.S. model...



Another oddity, in the form of the plastic-bodied Citroen "Mehari"...



From the strange to the sublime, a magnificent Peugeot 402 from the late 1930s. The rear deck lid is open for a reason...



The reason being that the hardtop lowers into the space behind the seats when the owner wants a convertible. Other companies (Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda and VW) are doing the same now...



When a company that makes motor scooters decides to go into the car biz, you get something like the Vespa 400...



But when you go back to the 1930s again, you find that the French could create magnificent cars like this Delahaye...



By the 1960s, they were coming up with strange machines like this Matra "Djet," which is better to drive than to look at...



One more wrap-up entry coming soon...