Something different today! Like many Eastern Bloc cars, the Dacia 1300 had an unnaturally long life. Changing economic and political circumstances, and some clever updating and modifying, meant that what began as a licensed 1969…
Posts tagged French Cars
1937 Hispano-Suiza K6 Break de Chasse: Supreme Spanish-Swiss
Behold, Wagon Wednesday’s ultimate warrior: a 1937 Hispano-Suiza K6, complete with an original, one-of-one woody wagon body by Franay. Technically, it’s not a “wagon” but a “Break De Chasse,” which is French for “Shooting Brake,”…
Renault Clio Williams: The F1 Hot Hatch
These pictures look like screenshots from Forza Horizon 4, but I assure you they’re real. We mostly post original photos, but because Renault exited the U.S. market in 1987, there are very few Renault Clios…
Simca 1204: Mésaventure Américaine
Almost 2.2 million were made. It set the template for countless small cars, including legends still with us today, like the VW Golf and Honda Civic. But in the U.S., this little car is all…
Renault R6: La Régie’s Forgotten Overachiever
Practical, plebeian and cheap, the Renault R6 was a forward-thinking hatch sold in the millions but survivors are very rare today.
Renault Goélette: Martinique Minibus
A gaggle of rare French machines from the OldMotors archive today; once again from Martinique. A trio of Peugeot 403 pickups are fronted by a Renault Goélette minibus, set to take people from Fort-de-France to…
Peugeot 305: The Inflection Point
1.7 million of them were made and the car was a staple of European roads for decades. And yet, few people ever seem to talk about the Peugeot 305. It was an excellent family car….
Flashback: The Detective’s Renault 16
A Renault 16 from the OldMotors archives today as we flash back to booming 1970s Abidjan, the cosmopolitan heart of Côte d’Ivoire. Admittedly, it doesn’t look so “cosmopolitan” here, but at the time Côte d’Ivoire…
Bonnet Djet: The Mid-Engined Arms Race
The “D” in Djet was there purely for pronunciation purposes. The car’s creator, the already famous René Bonnet, wasn’t sure if his fellow French would properly pronounce the English-language word “Jet!” the way he wanted….
Flashback: Peugeot 204 en Bourgogne
Today’s photo from the archives goes back to 1960s France, where somebody’s looking for directions to the next winery behind the wheel of a Peugeot 204. Like the wines of famous Côte-d’Or vintner Jacques Seysses,…
Peugeot 604: Sochaux’s Chief Executive
The 604 was Peugeot’s first “executive car,” and the first time in 40 years that it had fielded a large car at all. Though the 402 was a fairly big car for a pre-war European,…
Panhard PL 17: The Two-Cylinder Tiger
Today our feature car is a 1960 Panhard PL 17, a highly unconventional car with its origins in the 1940s and the imagination of talented French engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire. But to really understand where it…