Rows and Rows of Racing Cars

The Cite de l'Automobile has a section of nothing but race cars. They range from the early days to recent F1 cars. All of these cars have a history and have won races while driven by famous drivers. 

Mystery Motorcycle

The Cite de l'Automobile has a section of childrens pedal cars known as The Jammet Collection. Included in the exhibit was this motorcycle. It appears to be a gas engine motorcycle but it's child size. It's listed as a 1955 Harley Davidson but the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee(I contacted them) does not have any information that H-D manufactured any toy sized motorcycles. Anybody know what it might be?

Artist's Car

Paul Arzens (1903 - 1990) was a French artist with a passion for automobiles. He designed the two cars below. The "Whale" had a large trunk and he carried his art supplies in it when going to location. The "Egg" was his design for an electric compact car. He gained some notoriety for his designs of locomotives for the French rail company SNCF.

Two Mercs

First we present the classic gull wing.

And this one may not be so familiar. Hitler had a contest to design the "people car". We all know that Ferdinand Porsche won that contest and gave us the VW. This was the Mercedes offering.

Cite de l'Automobile

Cite de l'Automobile is the largest car museum in the world with over 400 vehicles on display. It is located in the town of Mulhouse near the Swiss border. It was started by Fritz Schlumpf who made, and lost, a fortune in the wool industry after WW 2. His passion was car collecting. He had a 40 man shop that reconditioned his cars. His hobby was too much of a drain on his business and he was in financial trouble. His private collection was unknown until striking workers broke into the building in 1977 and found the cars. He had to liquidate his collection to pay off his debts. France now owns the cars. This collection has the largest number of Bugattis in one location.

I tried to take pictures of some unique cars that included the description. 

This is a rear view of the Tatra. It had a rear mounted air cooled 3 liter V8. Because of it's aerodynamics, it got almost 19 mpg.

Bugatti - Type 57

Under the sheet metal view. 710 Type 57s were produced from 1934 to 1940. The sheet metal covering the frame was changed to produce several variants. This example was at the Cite des Automobile as part of the Schlumpf Collection in Mulhouse, France. A twin OHC straight 8 engine produced 135 HP giving it a top speed of 95 MPH.

Alfa Romeo

Car Pron Coming

Paris Street Iron

Below is probably what is one of the recent copies of the Studebaker Avanti. The manufacturing rights passed through several hands after Studebaker stopped production in 1963. The last ones were built in 2006 in Cancun using Ford components.

I take no responsibility for the tacky wheels, mismatched white walls and crappy racing stripes.