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Thursday, 26 December 2019

Ten Fabulous French Racing Cars at the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse.

1949 Talbot-Lago 26C
There are so many fabulous French racing cars in the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse France.  Amazingly, I am not even including the wonderful Bugatti's in this statement!    There is something for everyone, no matter which era you are interested in.  Here are ten or so of my favourites:

1949 Talbot-Lago 26C
The Talbot-Lago Formula One cars that raced in the late forties and early fifties have always been one of my favourites.  They complied with the first ever F1 rules and had six cylinder 4.5 litre engines.  They were heavy but had the advantage of reliability and good fuel consumption that meant less pit stops.  This meant that they had a number of famous GP victories including the 1949 Belgian Grand Prix (with Louis Rosier driving) and the 1949 French Grand Prix (with Louis Chiron driving). After the World Championship started in 1950 they were still able to do well and Louis Rosier finished third in the 1950 Swiss and Belgian GP.  Even in 1951 they still scored World Championship points at the Belgian GP.  As well as the much raced example shown here that competed in 23 Grand Prix, the museum also has a very original un-raced version.

1978 Renault Alpine A442
1978 Renault Alpine A442
The Renault Alpine A442B is a famous car as it achieved Renault's ambition to win the Le Mans 24 Hours race in 1978.   Renault entered four cars and the one in the museum is an A442A (chassis A4422), the one driven by Jean-Pierre Jarier and Derek Bell that retired after 162 laps of Le Mans.  It had a 2 litre turbo charged V6 engine.  This particular chassis took second place at Monza and Dijon-Prenois in these 1976 World Sportscar Championship races.

1954 Gordini 20S
1954 Gordini 20S
This car was not the most successful creation of Amédée Gordini but is still a beautiful sports racing car.  This two seater car one has a 2.5 litre six cylinder engine.  However, these cars competed in the major sports car races of the mid-fifties such as the le Mans 24 hours and Mille-Miglia.

1962 Panhard-Levassor CD
1962 Panhard-Levassor CD Dyna Coupé
This car has a great history as the little 702cc car won the Index of Performance at the Le Mans 24 hours in 1962.  It was driven by André Guilhaudin and Alain Bertaud and they won in a very close finish with a Bonnet D-Jet on the same lap.  It also won its class and finished 16th overall.   Its average speed for the race was nearly 89mph and its fastest lap was nearly 100mph.  Not bad for such a small engined car!

1908 Panhard-Levassor and 1902 Serpollet.
1908 Panhard-Levassor
This two seater racing car was one of the last that the pioneering company Panhard-Levassor built for Grand Prix racing. It entered the 1908 French GP at Dieppe.  In the first ever fatality in GP racing (ignoring the city to city races later renamed as GP) both the driver, Henri Cissac, and riding mechanic, Jules Schaube, died when the car burst a tyre and rolled over.

1902 Serpollet Type H
Leon Serpollet, backed by the American Frank Gardner, entered seven of these cars in the famous and tragic 1903 Paris-Madrid race.  All cars were still going when the race was stopped in Bordeaux because of all of the fatalities.  The two best cars had averaged 83 kph.    Unusually, these cars were powered by steam engines and rather streamlined!   This is the only surviving example in the world.

1952 Gordini T16
1952 Gordini T16
This F2 Grand Prix car was relatively competitive during the 1952 World Championship season driven by such as Jean Behra, Robert Manzon and others.  The latter did well in beating all but the dominant Ferraris to finish third in Belgium and fourth in France.

1904 Mathis Hermes-Simplex
1904 Mathis Hermers-Simplex
This car has a Bugatti connection as Ettore Bugatti designed this car and worked with Emile Mathis to produce this four cylinder 12 litre racing car of 1904.  It was a light and powerful car that also looked good.

1921 Ballot 3-8 LC
1921 Ballot 3-8 LC
This Ballot was rather successful as it took the first two places in the1921 Italian GP, came second in the 1921 French GP and finished third in the 1922 Indianapolis 500.   The winner of the Italian GP was Jules Goux in this 3 litre eight cylinder car.  Other drivers of this car included the great American driver Ralph de Palma.

1908 Sizaire-Naudin 12HP
1908 Sizaire-Naudin 12HP
This single cylinder 1.5 litre car won many times in early voiturette races, such as the Coupe l'Auto, for smaller engined cars.  One of its features was the unusual front suspension seen clearly in the picture above.   Voiturette racing flourished in the years after the decline of city to city racing.  The Coupe l'Auto ran on a road course around Rambouillet in 1906 and 1907 before moving to Compiègne in 1908.  All three races were won by Sizaire-Naudin cars. Georges Sizaire as a driver won the 1906 race whilst Louis Naudin as a driver won the 1907 and 1908 races.

2009 & 2010 Renault F1 cars
2009 Renault R29 F1
This car was driven in 2009 by Fernando Alonso Nelson Piquet Jnr and Romain Grosjean.  Its best race was in Singapore where Alonso finished on the 3rd step of the podium and took fastest lap.  Renault finished 8th in the constructors championship.  It was a V8 engined car.  The No.7 car was driven by Alonso.

2010 Renault R30 F1
This car was driven by Roberto Kubica and Vitaly Petrov.  Kubica came 3rd in both Monaco and Belgium.  Renault finished fifth in the constructor's championship.  The No.11 car was driven by Kubica.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.
John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

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