Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Vedette: A Funky French Ford of the 50s Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Wowsers, looks like it has at least 4" of ground clearance? I can see the Merc undertones especially in the front end.
My neighbor had a Vedette in the '50s/early '60s. The French designers did a great job of getting some performance out of those V8 60s. Maybe it was the gear ratios that did it. His son and my friend used to scare the crap out of me with that thing. Not a hot rod but in city driving it was pretty impressive. That guy drove like a maniac, foot to the floor and zipping in and out through traffic.
Reminds me of the bumper cars from the late 40’s early 50’s that some are motorizing like a go cart recently
Todd has posted pics ^^^ of the HAMB's own @VEDETTE from his thread https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/ford-vedette-53-kustom-from-france.522436/ Only French HAMBer I know of.
Great looking cars - I can't remember ever seeing one here in the States. I do remember, however, when I was young my parents drove a Kaiser Traveler which had a similar hatch/trunk design, but I am too lazy to research which manufacturer produced theirs first.
My wife saw these pictures and said that she would drive one! They are a really neat mid sized Mercury and I wish there were more over on this side of the pond
I'm in Europe and I wish there were more here! Well, the sedans are easy enough to find, though they seem to be expensive usually. The coupes in particular though are really rare. I've had an eye out for one for years. Odd that you posted two pics of the three window coupe, since they never actually made them like that AFAIK. I think they must have been pre-production versions only. There are some fake cabrios out there too. Annoyingly, a cache of cars turned up not too far from here a few days ago - a coupe, a sedan parts car and a Vendome, which was the fancy version of the Vedette, with the fullsized French flatty (not the French V860 that they usually have). All extremely rare, but the condition of them (awful) and the lack of paperwork - and mainly having nowhere to put three cars - makes it a non starter for me. Could have built a Vendome with a coupe body.
I am quite surprised that Americans are seduced by vintage french cars! I always thought that American cars were too big but very well drawn while the French ones were good size but very badly drawn. (Fortunately, the Italians participated in the design of our cars!) The (French) ford Vedette was designed in 41 by an American! but the "small" car will not please you and will be sold to France. later it will give the Mercury 49 to you! lucky! I find the merc much more glamorous than the Vedette! (photo web) that’s why I americanized mine to the maximum..
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