Paris, France
February 1-5, 2012
Superb, brilliant, wonderful. All these superlatives and more can easily be applied to this year’s Retromobile in Paris. No one spoken to demurred from that point of view and it was easy to see why.
From the glitz and sheer presence of the big player’s stands—Fiskens, Hall and Hall, MMC, Lukas Huni, to name but a few in no particular order—through the features such as the incredible cars of the Mullin
Collection over from California, to the smaller dealers such as the Marcais’ Automobiles Historique, Christophe Pund’s Galerie des Damiers and Klaus Werner and the French clubs, it was a sheer delight to navigate around the halls at the Porte de Versailles.
It was, at times, difficult to decide what to look at next with the simply stunning Mullin Collection of quite amazing carrosserie on one side of an aisle and fascinating French confections never encountered before on the other. Where would a French show be without a Panhard? Or how about a cabriolet conversion on a 24CT? The further one went, the more it became clear that Delahaye is a marque that is fast becoming a darling of exhibitors and dealers alike.
Paris was intensely cold and the whole of France gripped in appalling weather but Retromobile was a haven for anyone even on the periphery of the classic vehicle movement. For this year, it was the place to see and be seen by friends and colleagues on the continent.
The downsides however, are that it features incredibly high prices and, crazily, it was scheduled in the same week as the Monte Carlo Rallye Historique. It is too good a show to compromise, so why this ridiculous clash of dates in an otherwise barren part of the calendar? There will be more of this problem as we move through the ever more crowded calendar that will make up 2012 as this is also the year of Monaco Historic GP and Le Mans Classic —Peter Collins
