We did, may be until the 50's - Facel is a kind of sexy no ? (even with a swedish engine ) About renound to be sexy, It's because of the smelly cheese fume, it's sort of some local LSD, it can cause drowsiness and hallucination for those who are not use to....
Sorry for the huge pic! This is a Citroen Traction Avant. No sexy French cars, huh? The Citroen DX and CX series, introduced in 1964 (and therefore HAMB-friendly!) are friggin' beautiful cars, too! The hydraulic systems on these cars is a veritable work of art! And very functional, too! If you've never ridden in a DX or CX, you are missing a truly magnificent ride quality and a great driving experience.
I am into the late 20's early 30's stuff, and their manufacturers produced cars that looked pretty similar to ours. But yes they did have some ugly stuff. My wifes first car was a deux chevaux an interesting car to say the least.
Man that was a cheezy comercial!!! I'm glad I never saw it when I was young, I'm sure it would of given me nightmares!!!!
Thunderace, That alternator looks cool enough to put on a shelf in the garage for a conversation peice.
I understand there's a yard full of french war surplus tanks that are in really good shape except reverse is stripped out in all of them.
i like the size of that alt...real easy to hide.. 12 volt? how many amps? where to get one? externally regulated?
That would be the Citroen plagiarism of the 1933 Ford Model 40, which is a scaled up Brit 1932 Ford Model Y, designed by E.T. 'Bob" Gregorie - yes?
30 amps, plenty to run the basics for a rod, external regulator, found under the hood of many small french cars 70's & early 80's. As to the French not making Sexy cars, Alpine Turbo, SM, Goddess, piles of Bugatti's. I got to admit that years back someone gave me an aging French stationwagon, it's done over 300,000 miles, engine has never been touched, and it starts on the key every morning. The BX would never be thought of as Sexy, but as a daily hack it sure takes some beating, it's not a undersized midget car it's a full sized car that will carry a one ton load, the turbo gives the thing more than enough go to keep it fun while still returning an out of this world 45 mile to the gallon. The only remotely sexy about the thing is the hydrualic system ( first seen on the Goddess back in the 50's ) intergrated brake/steering/suspension which gives that famous 'Magic Carpet' ride only every equalled by Rolls Royce ( by paying Citroen for use of thier design ! )
blah blah blah ,more racist comments from the worn out key board of Doc Watson in Lovely boring bald hills, the Inala of the north side.
...and Volvos aren't boring shit piles driven by greenies and bad drivers who see their swedish tractors as ESV's?
I understand what he means though - the French do seem to have a slightly more err... relaxed attitude to leaving scrap metal lying around their country than a lot of other places!
The fact that channeled 33-34 Fords ended up looking like Citroens was pure coincedence. Citroen was building excellent cars while Henry was more concerned with financing the Fuhrers rebuilding of Germany and selling very basic cart sprung cars to the masses. French built Fords had real style compared with the home styled Versions. French Built Ford,body by Kelsch. MatFord Coupe
I have to admit that a lot of the cars we have here old and new are cr*p. At least in the old days they had the excuse that due to 2 invasions etc. the country was so broke that people needed cheapness above all else but that means that now there are very few nice old cars, or even few old cars that can be made nice. [please take note that now, when the country is supposedly not more broke than the others, we still have cr*p new cars ... but this time there is no excuse ] However, it IS possible to see some nice stuff from time to time : These were both initially 4-door saloons with huge glass areas and a square-ish roofline, so it's a brave man who will attempt this !
I spent a lot of time driving around France for a few summers circa 1970. I'm sure everything is all gone now, but some memories: A big commercial junkyard in central France...I had a hard time getting in, local culture did not recognize gibbering tourists with a academic interest in junk. Every few rows, there was an early Renault hood, the bulldog kind for cars with cowl radiators. Each housed a guard dog, chained up for daytime. A back alley in a little village disclosed a very rare traction avant cabriolet. On the ground by the incoming crap pile was a block from a Ford V8-60...NOT the one familiar to us, but the very rare '35-6 version with 4 mains and reversed port order...THAT made my eyes bug out! I could clearly recognize the thing as a Ford, but I had never heard of this version, and in fact did not find any info on it til a couple of years ago. On my migration path south to Andorra (Radio Andorra was the only source of real rock music--French and other countries radio was government controlled crap) was a big field of WWII American vehicles used by the French army in the fifties. Rows of Willys and Ford jeeps (the French by this time were using their own Hotchkiss built ones), Dodge weapons carriers, etc. Many farms still had circa 1930 Renaults, big Ford-like cars that were usually sedans with a rear door like a sedan delivery...perfect enclosed Ute type bodies for farmers. I used to camp in the hospitable entrance of the Huge Bedheilac painted cave, near Tarascon sur Ariege...right outside was an AA truck, its cab dumped aside and the chassis converted into a mobile crane. In Andorra, Garages, which all had neat junkyards filled with Citroen TA's, were busy installing Benz 4 cylinder diesels into old jeeps for use on the smuggling trails...
Hmm.. I wonder if that's the chassis from the car that was used in 'League of Extrodinary Gentlemen?'
Patrick66, Citroen DS was introduced in 1955 and not in 1964 and was build until 1975. So it´s even more HAMB friendly if you like it. Citroen Traction Avant was build until 1957 if i´m correct. Founder Andre Citroen came originally from the Netherlands.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- The shorter wheelbase model handled better in city traffic. TwoChops
After I posted that, I read that very information elsewhere, but thanks for the information! The DS is such a gorgeous car - it really is art rolling down the road! There are a few in the US, but finding a nice one for a decent price is a challenge. That is one of the very few pre-'65 European cars I want to own one day. In fact, in the mid-'60s, there was an assassination attempt on Charles deGaulle while he was President of France. His chauffeur, driving a DS, saved his life. No one was injured, IIRC. The DS and the Traction Avant are just timeless, rolling beauty! How Citroen could build such amazing cars, and yet, build seriously ugly cars like the Dauphine and the 4CV, is really something!
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