Sunday 29 June 2008

Big Boys Toys

In May I went to the Musée Auto-Vélo in Chatellerault's old arms factory with Susan's parents.

I was surprised (and not a little excited) to see they have some seriously good cars in there, a brace of Bugattis included. I am not a car expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate beauty - and some of these cars are beautiful.
A Bugatti (Type 44?)
I am fairly confident this is a Bugatti type 35

Maybach DS8 Zeppelin: 8 Litre V12 200 hp (150 kW) weighing 2.3tonnes

OK - I accept that the Zeppelin is a hefty brute, and not exactly beautiful, but it does have a hydraulic jack on each wheel and a clutchless gearbox. It is huge - just the sort of car you need for running peasants off the road - and it looks the part!

1929 Voisin C14 coach - just how stylish is that?

A Peugeot, possibly type 58 (or not - according to what I can find on the interwebby thing, the type 58 was a pre WWI car of a really old pattern) There are very few (ie almost no) resources on the Musée Auto-Vélo on the net, which is a pity. I can't find a list of the cars they have, nor, apparently, have any car enthusiasts ever visited the museum with a camera. Even the publicity literature they produce to hide in the main tourist office doesn't present it in a terribly enticing light. The day we went there we were the only people visiting, and my main reason for visiting was to see the walkway between the chimneys - the museum was a bonus.

Simon

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to see the motor cars. I'm saving my visit till a rainy-ish day. The blue Bugatti is a jewel. Several years ago I came out of my local paper shop to see one of those outside. I was quite astonished and utterly shameless in fawning over the car and owner in order to get him to lift the bonnet, which he did, luckily with enthusiasm.
One criticiesm though, Simon: it is several days now since I got my fix of Traction Avant. So if they had one there, why no picture!

Many thanks again,
John

Simon said...

John
They have a Standard 15 - so I guess it does count as a Traction, but for me the 11 is the real thing.

Plus, I forgot to photograph the 15 anyway.........

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