Friday 24 November 2017

More Cool Rides

I've owned a few interesting/quirky French cars in my time including two Citroen 2CV's (one of which was a positively glacial 405cc version), a top of the range Renault 16 (don't ask, it was very cheap and frankly a very good car) and a Matra Bagherra, a cute little mid engined sports car with three seats side by side.

These days it's getting much harder to spot the really stand out cars but we saw a couple of interesting examples on our recent visit.


Appreciate this isn't a French car but come on, fastback Mustang, Steve McQueen in Bullitt, and it looks right at home outside this fantastic French country farm house -  tres chic.


You can't get more French than the Renault 4, clearly an automotive piece of art which is presumably why this cafe owner decided to stick it on the wall - the beer and burgers were very good as well as the decor.
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7 comments:

  1. Alden Smith24 November 2017 at 18:46

    Who could ever forget Steve McQueen and Bullit! or for that matter Steve McQueen and 'The Great Escape' - where he did all his own stunts on that motorbike! Yikes!!

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  2. doryman24 November 2017 at 19:41

    I had one of those fastback Mustangs, also a very similar looking Jaguar. Some guys always want to race you and the police are drawn to you like magnets. The car I really loved was a '67 Citroen Pellas. That was a cool ride.

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  3. doryman24 November 2017 at 19:47

    I'd never heard of the Matra Bagherra before this, but have ridden in a Citroen Maserati that looked very similar.

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  4. Bursledon Blogger26 November 2017 at 12:04

    Michael, bet you wish you still had the Mustang now. The Citroen was the SM with the lights that followed the steering and I think FrWD Maserati engine - there's one parked on my way to the office in London being used as a daily driver. Very different to the Bagherra which had a souped up 1500cc Simca engine with twin webbers.

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  5. doryman26 November 2017 at 19:59

    My Pellas had the following headlights, too - the whole car was built by a friend of mine who is a Citroen mechanic - a very rare breed here in the states. I eventually sold the car because my friend was the closest mechanic and he was 800 miles away.
    I confess to have lost my love for cars in general. Collected unique and old cars and restored them for years, but now I believe the internal combustion engine to be the great evil and avoid driving whenever possible. If electric cars ever get going, it might be a whole new game. I think that's right around the corner.

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  6. Steve-the-Wargamer27 November 2017 at 13:14

    First car I ever woned all on my own was a Renault 4 called "Woody"... I loved her to bits.. literally bits... flat floor pan and I was a windsurfer - wet sails booms board wetsuites all got thrown on the floor and it then became an annual event at MOT time to have plates welded back into the floor... loved that car.. umbrella stickshift and all.... sigh...

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  7. Bursledon Blogger27 November 2017 at 21:43

    Steve - my Renault 4 carb would drain if it didn"t run for a day, the fuel pump was so weak that I had to fill the carb manually to start it, worked fine until the rear torsion bar decided to separate from the mounting.
    Michael, I'm petty much the same these days, maybe not electric but I'm thinking of an Up as my next car and roll on driverless.

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