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France’s national automotive museum, the Cité de l’Automobile, is the largest of its kind in the world.
Located in Mulhouse, a stone’s throw from the French border with Germany, it’s home to hundreds of models that tell the story of how car manufacturing evolved in France and abroad. Visitors meander through seemingly endless rows of classics featuring anything from odd, egg-shaped one-offs to mass-produced cars that helped millions make the leap from two to four wheels.
The museum also houses the largest collection of Bugatti models in the world; even the carmaker’s heritage fleet is far smaller.
When it’s open - which of course it isn’t right now - the museum is open daily from 10am to 6pm; it charges a €14 (about £12) entry fee. So while we await the happy day when we can visit again, let’s look at the highlights from a recent visit by Autocar:
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Private, public and state-owned
The Cité de l’Automobile exists thanks to the controversial Schlumpf brothers. The wealthy, Swiss-born industrialists were obsessed with cars and they began assembling an immense collection during the early 1950s. At the time, cars made in the 1920s and the 1930s were considered hopelessly outdated and many were undesirable at best. Even race-winning machines could be had for reasonably small sums. The brothers took advantage of this dip to hoard hundreds of cars. They notably had a penchant for anything wearing a Bugatti emblem.
They turned part of their spinning mill into a private museum and restoration shop during the 1960s. The operation remained a well-guarded secret; few knew the collection existed and even fewer were granted the privilege of visiting it. Europe’s textile industry declined during the 1970s and the Schlumpf brothers began closing factories and laying off workers in order to fend off bankruptcy.
The hidden collection (which, by some accounts, included 560 cars) was discovered by laid-off Schlumpf employees who broke into one of the company’s warehouses during a strike. They beat the brothers to the punch by opening the collection, which they called the worker’s museum, to the public. The French government kept the cars together by adding the collection to its list of historically-significant monuments. It later bought it for a fraction of its value and opened the museum in its current form in 1982. The brothers spent their remaining days exiled in Switzerland.
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Panhard & Levassor P2C (1891)
Made in Paris in 1891, the Daimler-powered P2C comes from the first batch of cars manufactured by Panhard & Levassor. An abbot named Jules Gavois purchased the two-seater from its original owner in 1896 and put nearly 65,000 miles on it in 26 years. In 1911, the P2C – which Gavois affectionately nicknamed Antoinette – was certified as being the oldest running car in France.
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La Jamais Contente (1899)
Belgium’s Compagnie Internationale des Transports Automobiles Electriques built the rocket-shaped La Jamais Contente for publicity purposes. The firm wanted to gain a foothold in the lucrative electric car market that burgeoned around the turn of the 20th century and it believed setting a speed record would give it something to brag about. The La Jamais Contente (a name that means The Never Satisfied in English) wasn’t as aerodynamic as it looked because it was tall and the driver essentially sat on it, not in it, but it was light thanks to a body made with partinium, a blend of aluminium, magnesium and tungsten.
Driven by Belgian pilot Camille Jenatzy, the La Jamais Contente became the first car to go over 62mph when it maxed out at nearly 66mph on the far outskirts of Paris in 1899. The origin of its name is lost to history; some attribute it to Jenatzy’s wife while others say he came up with it himself.
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Scott Sociable (1923)
British engineer Alfred Angus Scott developed the Sociable as a vehicle that members of the army could use to tow cannons. He turned it into a civilian vehicle when army officials kindly informed him that they had little interest in his asymmetrical three-wheeler. Motorists weren’t keenly interested in it, either. It wasn’t the only three-wheeler on the market but its offset front wheel made it one of the more dangerous ones. Scott made about 200 units and only five remain in 2019, according to the museum.
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Bugatti Type 40 (1928)
The Type 40 released in 1926 illustrates one of Bugatti’s more obscure facets. It’s not super quick, shockingly expensive or overtly luxurious. It’s a far humbler model powered by a detuned, 45bhp version of the Type 37’s four-cylinder engine. Bugatti made 790 examples of the car during a four-year period.
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Bugatti Type 43 (1929)
The Type 43 was part of Bugatti’s range of straight-eight-powered cars. Its 125bhp eight-cylinder engine allowed it to reach a top speed of 111mph, an impressive figure in an era when many cars struggled to go above 60. The Type 43 was expensive and developed for elite motorists who had the means to go as fast as they pleased.
The example shown here originally belonged to King Leopold of Belgium. While he cruised at triple-digit speeds, his wife Astrid drove around in one of the 10 electric Type 56s Bugatti made during the early 1930s.
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Bugatti Type 47 Torpedo (1930)
Bugatti began developing a 16-cylinder engine in 1929. Instead of fusing two straight-eights at the crankshaft, the company positioned them side by side and linked them to the transmission via a series of gears arranged in a U. The 16-cylinder delivered 197bhp in the 1930 Type 47 shown here.
The French firm canceled the project in the wake of the Great Depression, which sent shockwaves across the global economy, and it didn’t make another 16-cylinder car until it released the Veyron in 2005.
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Tracta Type EI (1930)
French engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire formed Tracta in 1926 to prove his theory that front-wheel drive cars could work just as well – and, possibly, better – than rear-wheel drive models. He overcame the significant hurdle of sending power to a set of wheels that turned by developing and patenting constant velocity joints. The engines that powered Tracta cars came from third-party suppliers like Continental.
Tracta participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on several occasions but never won. Grégoire shut down his unprofitable carmaker in 1934. Historians disagree on the number of cars Tracta made during its eight-year existence but most estimates hover around the 300-unit mark.
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Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 (1932)
Swiss coachbuilder Graber made the convertible body worn by this 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300. Powered by a 178bhp straight-eight engine, this roadster was expensive, desirable and fast. It shared DNA with the 8C race car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1931 and 1934, among other events.
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Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 (1936)
This Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 shows how quickly car design evolved during the 1930s. It was made four short years after the 8C 2300 featured previously yet it looks markedly more modern. This example led the 1936 edition of the Mille Miglia by a comfortable 14-minute margin until an electrical problem took out its headlights. Italian pilot Antonio Brivio soldiered on in the dark and won the race with a 32-second lead.
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Mercedes-Benz 170 H (1937)
The first mass-produced rear-engined German car wasn’t the Volkswagen Beetle. It was a humble-looking Mercedes-Benz model named 130 that made its debut in Berlin in 1934. It was replaced by the 170 H two years later; H stood for heckmotor, or rear-mounted engine. The 170 H wore a more contemporary design than its predecessor and it received a bigger, more powerful four-cylinder engine.
Mercedes sold the 170 H alongside a similar model named 170 V. The H cost a little bit more than the V and it was slightly quicker but its styling was an acquired taste (it notably lacked the bold, upright grille traditionally found on Mercedes models) and it wasn’t offered in as many different body variants.
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Mercedes-Benz 170 H (1937)
Mercedes-Benz made 1507 examples of the 170 H between 1935 and 1939. In comparison, the firm manufactured 67,579 units of the 170 V. The German army seized private cars during WWII but it wasn’t interested in the 170 H because it initially didn’t want rear-engined vehicles. The 170 Hs quickly became sought-after on the used car market for that reason and a shockingly high number of them survived the war, though most were worse for the wear.
They quickly disappeared after the conflict as more modern cars became available. Very few remain in 2020.
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Steyr Type 220 Cabriolet (1938)
Austrian rifle manufacturer Steyr made a wide range of cars between the 1910s and the 1930s. The Type 220 shown here stood out with a straight-six engine, a relatively aerodynamic body and an independent front suspension. It was the flagship of the Steyr range, a quick and relatively expensive machine developed to prove the firm could build a car as well as it could build a gun. Production ended during WWII, partly because bombs decimated Steyr’s factory.
Production resumed after the war but Steyr decided not to develop a successor to the 220. Instead, it built a series of Fiat models under license and later became a contract manufacturer. Called Magna-Steyr in 2020, the firm makes the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the Toyota Supra/BMW Z4 duo and the Jaguar I-Pace, among other models.
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AFG Grégoire (1941)
Jean-Albert Grégoire didn’t step out of the automotive industry after closing Tracta. He worked for several automakers, including Donnet, Chenard & Walcker and Hotchkiss, and secretly developed a lightweight four-seater during WWII. The cartoon-esque design hid an air-cooled flat-twin engine and an independent suspension. The prototype weighed 400kg yet it could easily reach 60mph.
Grégoire fine-tuned the car and ultimately convinced Panhard to build it. It gradually morphed into the Dyna X released in 1948. The design evolved during the 1940s, and sources say Grégoire’s wasn’t satisfied with the changes made, but his original recipe of wrapping an aluminium body around a flat-twin engine and a four-seater body remained the same.
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Arzens Oeuf (1942)
Better known for designing trains than cars, Paul Arzens built a diminutive city microcar made of aluminium and Plexiglas in 1942. France was occupied by Germany’s Nazi regime at the time and fuel was scarce so the car – which Arzens referred to as the egg – was powered by an electric motor. He replaced the heavy battery-powered drivetrain with a single-cylinder, 125cc Peugeot engine after the war, unlocking a higher top speed, and used it occasionally until his death in 1990.
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Bugatti Type 73A (1947)
Ettore Bugatti hoped the Type 73A would help him relaunch the carmaker he founded after a hiatus during WWII. Working from an office on the outskirts of Paris, he developed an aerodynamic coupé that put an equal emphasis on performance and luxury. He envisioned the 73A would spawn a full range of models available with several different four-cylinder engines.
Bugatti made a single Type 73A before his death in 1947. It was the last car he designed.
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Panhard Dynavia (1948)q
Panhard began studying aerodynamics before many of its rivals. Never seriously envisioned as a production model, the Dynavia was a Dyna X-based prototype with a streamlined body that gave it a 0.26 drag coefficient. To add context, that’s on par with a 2020 Jaguar XE and better than a Subaru BRZ. Its oddball, science fiction-esque design played a key role in helping stylists achieve such a low figure.
Power for the Dynavia came from an air-cooled flat-twin engine that sent 28bhp to the front wheels. It could nonetheless reach 80mph while carrying four passengers.
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Gordini Type 26S (1953)
Amédée Gordini’s name is often associated with hot-rodded Renault models like the 8 and the 12 but the tuner also developed and built race cars from scratch. This Type 26S took first in class (and sixth overall) during the 1953 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It finished ahead of many bigger, more powerful cars including a Jaguar C-Type and a Cunningham C4-R.
Gordini took this knowledge with him when he joined Renault in 1956 to make a quicker Dauphine.
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Grégoire Sport (1955)
After developing a small economy car for Australia’s Hartett, Jean-Albert Grégoire again set out to design, build and sell a car under his own brand. The Sport was a two-door model designed, as its name implied, for performance. It used a flat-four engine shared with the 1950 Hotchkiss Gregoire and supercharged to 123bhp. It rode on a chassis made with cast aluminium and it used an advanced four-wheel independent suspension with variable firmness. The cutting-edge technology was hidden under a body made by Henri Chapron (1886-1978), one of France’s best coachbuilders.
Grégoire made less than 10 examples of the Sport before canceling the project and leaving the automotive industry. He briefly returned to design an electric powertrain for a city-friendly van made in tiny numbers during the 1970s.
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Panhard CD (1962)
Panhard asked French engineer Charles Deutsch to design a car for the 1962 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Working with superhuman speed, Deutsch made a batch of five prototypes including one fitted with a steel body and four wearing a composite body. An evolution of Panhard’s venerable air-cooled flat-twin spun the front wheels.
CD’s work paid off; one of the four cars (pictured) earned first in its class during the event. The CD later spawned a production model of which 159 units were built.
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Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 (1985)
Peugeot turned the 205 city car into a flame-belching rally monster named Turbo 16 to compete in the FIA’s Group B category. It won over a dozen events between 1984 and 1986; it was one of the most successful rally cars of its era. The FIA canceled Group B after the 1986 season but the Turbo 16 wasn’t ready to retire.
It received a handful of modifications in preparation for the desert and won both the 1987 and the 1988 editions of the Paris-Dakar.
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Ford RS200 (1986)
Ford developed the RS200 to compete in the FIA’s Group B category; it competed directly against the aforementioned Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, among other comparable machines. The mid-engined, four-wheel drive monster of a coupé featured a fibreglass body manufactured by Reliant, the same company that spent decades peddling homely three-wheelers. Back at Ford Motorsport’s headquarters, engineers tuned the turbocharged, 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine to generate up to 450bhp.
The RS200 was tragically involved in a pair of accidents that convinced FIA officials to ban Group B racing after the 1986 season. Ford canceled the Evolution model planned for 1987 but it nonetheless had time to build the 200 street-legal examples required to obtain homologation.
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