The third installment of the Cité de l’Automobile – a time warp into race cars

In the previous Mulhouse article, I reached the end of the main hall and discovered that the mirror on one end has a double function. In addition to visually enhancing the main hall, it also hides one of the world’s most impressive sportscar collection. These cars constitute a significant evolution to the original Schlumpf collection, and given some quite recent additions, and it also illustrates how actively the collection is managed.

The way to reach this segment leads through a smaller stage dedicated to Rallye sport, featuring some long-gone legends, like the Ford RS2000, France’s pride and joy Peugeot 205, and a more reserved Renault 5.

Next to them,, there is Safari Rallye version of the Porsche 911, and dedicated segment to highlight the local star, the Bugatti Veyron.

Now I was clear to enter the corridor that appears so long that even after being cut in three segments, even the ones with clear visual separation seemed endless. The first section features a number pre-WWII race cars with the obligatory French blue racing colour (or at least neutral grey, free of other nations colours) highlighted in a neutral bright white background.

One of my first encounter with the Cité was at the 2017 Interclassics Brussels, where I particularly liked the French delegation to the Big Five assemble, with the Serpollet, a Bugatti 57 and the Panhard Dynavia. It was nice to revisit them on the site, and the Serpollet type H was easy to find here.

The car was developed by Léon Serpollet who was a firm believer in the power of steam. His boiler cars were powerful, fast (the Serpollet Easter Egg also broke the speed record of the electric Jamais Content), at the same time quiet and proved to be also reliable. With the help of American financing, the Type H entered the big motor races from Paris to other world cities with notable success. The races also helped to improve the aerodynamics. The four-cylinder engine delivered over 40 HP. The fastest of them came close to 140 km/h. The car features two aerodynamic body parts (front and rear) with a very simple profile, sitting on a chassis with a long wheelbase. The condenser and cooler are at the front and the boiler at the rear.

The model in the museum is the only surviving example that was restored for the first time in the 1950s by a collector, before being sold to the Schlumpf Brothers, who completed the restoration. There is a formidable video by the Museum on how it can be ignited (term deliberately chosen), and how it rolls at high speeds.

While the majority follows a rather uniform styling (similar layout and the French racing colour blue), There are a few odd ones in the row.

The 1928 Bugatti Type 52 is an odd one out in many aspects. First of all, it is not a race car, and secondly, it is not a car, but a children’s toy. The prototype was a one-off to Ettore Bugatti’s young son Roland, as a half-scale Grand Prix racer, the Bugatti 32. This luxury plaything, nicknamed the “Baby” had a small 12-volt electric motor, that drove the car at 20 km/h. The reproduction was so detailed, that Ettore Bugatti even had the original tires made to scale. Customers who came to pick up their automobile from the Molsheim plant, saw the model in the main courtyard and asked for one for themselves. This child’s motor car was therefore given a place of its own in the Bugatti catalogue, under the name Type 52, in the end, a few dozen copies were produced for the children of wealthy clients.

Walking through this room feels like entering a time warp, whereby at the end of the section we are catapulted into the postwar grand Prix racing.

With clear colours indicating the nationality of cars. The blue cars raced for France, and following Bugatti’s demise, this section now features quite a few Simcas, Talbots, Delages or Delahayes. The Cité boasts an impressive collection of 14 Gordinis alone (of the 50 racing cars, Amédée Gordini built), all of which won racing honours, driven by some of the well-known drivers in post-war motor racing (such as Juan Manel Fangio).

The British Racing Green is not so apparent in this segment, (not to fret, they come!), and the same is true for the Silver Arrows, representing Germany, like the SLR showcased.

The dominant colour of the segment is still red for Italy. The makes of Cisitalia, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and of course Ferrari really flood this segment of the exhibition. The Maserati 250 F is one of the most significant Grand Prix cars from the post-war period, because of its association with Juan Manuel Fangio. The 1957 250 F single-seater in the Cité de l’Automobile is identical to the model that Fangio drove to his final world title, before his retirement from motor racing.  This car was designed by legendary constructors Colombo and Alfieri and was equipped by a six-cylinder inline 290 hp engine.

The corridor leads into the modern ages of racing, where aerodynamics is becoming ever more important. The British racing green is becoming prominent with Lotus and the work of Chapman, but soon these colours start to lose meaning with the arrival of sponsors.

There as an impressive line-up of about two dozen Formula-1 cars, mostly with French engines (including some great team, earning championship titles, like Williams, Mclaren (okay, perhaps not with Peugeot 😛 ), Benetton, or the factory Renault teams from various decades). There is a Peugeot engine parked right next to the golden coloured Jordan, to illustrate French engineering skills.

This part of the Museum impressed me the most. In terms of visual layout, an elegant and functional styling, and the achievements and/or rarity of the cars, the Cité outperforms most museums. By this time visitors will probably feel completely exhausted, personally, I dragged myself to the bus stop to efficiently use the sitting time for a 30-minute guided tour. As it turned out, I made the right choice, as apparently, I completely missed the segment that featured some of the most expensive cars of the Museum.