By now the Internet is full of the major premiers and unveilings of the Paris Car Show, the Mondial Automobile. In addition to the pavilions and stages of car manufacturers and industry, the Mondial offers lots of exciting exhibitions. True to its French spirit, the Show usually includes special expositions that relate somehow to the world of automotive, but its thematic go well beyond the role of a traditional trade fair.
In 2016, the main featured event of the Mondial Automobile was a special exhibition dedicated to cars in movies, and I must say, I welcomed the refreshing change, after spending hours wandering around cars. These were memorable moments also for those who do not care much about cars. Also, the vehicles were very well chosen, from Steve Mcqueen’s Le Mans movie and Fantomas through Ghostbusters and Back to the Future to a recent Aston Martin from Quantum of Solace (with the damages from the scene that is among my favourite movie car chases ever).
This year’s special exhibition is called Legendary Roads (“Routes Mythiques”), and showcases an exceptional historic exhibition gathering automobiles, motorcycles and the decoration on the road itself. The contributions to the show are really impressive, I recall many one-off concepts and historical masterpieces like the Renault Étoile Filante (Shooting Star) record hunter, that I saw in Autoworld Brussels, as part of the special exhibition commemorating Renault’s 120th anniversary.
or another record hunter, the electric Jamais Content, that broke the speed record of 100 km/h for the first time (I saw its replica in the National Car Museum in Turin, but this replica specimen was actually from Mulhouse).
Discovering the World’s greatest collection of automobiles at the Cité de l’Automobile in Mulhouse
I recall concept cars (like the Instinct Concept) and race cars (the Pikes Peak 405) from the Peugeot Museum in Sochaux, but a number of other museums contributed as well.
The exhibition aims to transmit the emotions created by journeys undertaken on automobiles and motorcycles. The installations are illustrated by comic art drawings (by French comic artist Thierry Dubois), and apart from an occasional urge to pick up pencils to colour the white comics, I submerged in a psychedelic road trip for the duration of the exhibition.
Kudos to the organizers to gather cars with an open mind, by incorporating all destinations, combining several geographical locations, summoning many legends and multiple works and stories. About fifty vehicles and thirty motorcycles have been selected for the exposition.
As we wander through colors, emotions and history, we are driven through 10 major themes: 1 – The renaissance of the road; 2 – The crazy days road; 3 – Adventure road; 4 – Holiday road; 5 – Road of the thirty glorious ; 6 – The route of the 70s-80s; 7 – World road; 8 – On The Road Again! ; 9 – The sporty route; 10 – The path of the future.
The organisers highlighted cars like Louis Renault’s very first 1898 Renault model to drive up rue Lepic, the C4 P17 1930 Citroën Kégresse (I never thought that the current model has such an SUV ancestor : ) ), or the 1990 “Le Cap-Alger” Range Rover.
Among the motorcycles, the organisers noted the “Lawrence of Arabia” Brough Superior SS 100 GS 1926, the “Road 66”, Indian Chief 1946, the “Holidays on a moped” Peugeot 103 1971. I also liked the replica of the electric Jamais Content, that broke the speed barrier of 100km/h.
There are many exciting cars for connoisseurs of long gone noble past like the Facel Vega, or my personal favourite, the globetrotter Porsche 928, whose owner made several intercontinental trips and tour around the world (and runs a dedicated website, again kudos to the organisers for tracing It down, a truly fitting exhibit). If you never thought a Citroen could steal the show from a Countach, I recommend having a look at the CX Turbo six-wheeler utility car.
By the end of the exhibition, I could revisit Renault’s world record-breaking gas turbine car from 1954, that I saw this summer in Autoworld at the 120 years of Renault exhibition.
The Renault Étoile Filante (Shooting Star) was Renault’s only attempt at designing a gas turbine-powered car, that in the end broke the land speed record for turbine-engine cars at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, reaching an average speed of 307.4 km/h.
The Shooting Star is engulfed in a row of high-end race cars, like the Bentley Blower or the 405 Pikes Peak (bringing back great memories from Sochaux), the latter was decorated with a lovely cartoon of an Audi Quattro sliding uphill.
From Art Nouveau to Futurism: a visit to the Aventure Peugeot Museum
The exhibition finishes with a few concept cars, true to the road to the future theme. The Instinct concept was parked in the Peugeot Museum this July, while the Renault Symbioz was Renault’s featured concept car of 2017.
This exhibition is a refreshing change from the professional stages of car manufacturers, and brings together a wide range of topics, locations as well as themes and museums. At the same time, it is also entertaining and educational, as the monochrome cartoon background gives a really exceptional and stylish framework to the vehicles. With this enriching experience, the Legendary Roads exhibition remained imprinted in my brain as a wonderful combination of museum artefacts from automotive history on a full LSD trip.
FOR AN OVERVIEW OF ALL THE CAR MUSEUMS I EVER VISITED, CHECK OUT THE INTERACTIVE MAP:
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