N.D.B. Cars and Coffee 3rd Running - June 19th 2011 at 8am in Weston

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Vive la France

In honor of Bastille Day, I thought a list of top ten French cars would be in order. Some may question whether French cars are indeed worthy of a top ten list. I say check out the innovative, stylish, quirky and just plain cool autos on the list below, then try to deny that the French have made some real contributions to the motoring world. Remember, this is my list and it largely ignores some great pre-War cars. If you disagree with me, make your own list and post it to the comments.

Citroen DS – Shown above, it is difficult to understand today how radical this car was at its launch in the 50s. So iconically French that the Griswolds drove one in European vacation.

Citroen 2CV - An umbrella on wheels, this is the car that got the French back on the road after WW2. It remained in production for forty years virtually unchanged.

Peugeot 205 GTI – Peugeot’s answer to the VW Golf GTI. Try finding one today that hasn’t been absolutely destroyed by teenage heroics.

Citroen SM – Basically a DS coupe with a Maserati engine. Maybe not the most reliable mechanically, but it sure was stunning.

Renault Alpine A110 – I can still remember seeing these in rallies when I was a kid in France. Based on a Renault 8, this was France’s answer to the Porsche 911.

Citroen Traction Avant – The first mass produced unibody front wheel drive car. It may not look futuristic, but its basic layout underpins most of today’s cars.

Bugatti Type 35 – A beautiful and wildly successful race car introduced in 1924 with over 1,000 victories to its name.

Renault 5 Turbo – Take a run-of-the-mill econobox, stick a monster motor where the back seat should be, connect it to the rear wheels and hold on for dear life.

Citroen C6 – Citroen rediscovered its design heritage in 2006 after 25 years of building bland cars. This car has real presence; too the bad public hasn’t discovered it and they only sell about one a week.

No comments:

Post a Comment