In 1932 somewhere deep in the French countryside a project was underway to build an automobile with a slightly unusual method of propulsion. It isn’t known if the designer of the Helicon was a pilot or an aircraft engineer, but it’s clear that the car takes a significant amount of influence from early aircraft design.
Fire Design is a French company that was founded by artist and product designer Rodolphe Gimenez, his goal is to create fire extinguishers that people actually want to put in their homes – only 5% of residential buildings have fire extinguishers installed, and study after study has shown that having an extinguisher on hand can…
The Concorde Story is a vintage documentary about the development of the world’s first supersonic airliner, it was filmed during the early, heady days of the now retired aircraft and it provides a fascinating look into how the Concorde came to be – starting with early designs from WWII. With a running time of just…
The Fast Times of Albert Champion: From Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon, An Untold Story of Speed, Success, and Betrayal covers the largely untold story of one of the most iconic and important characters in the early history of both cycling and motor racing. His name still graces two of the companies he founded –…
Renault was established in 1899 by the talented young French engineer Louis Renault, Louis partnered with his brothers Marcel and Fernand – Two men who had years of business experience working for their father’s successful textile company in France. The first model produced by Renault was the Voiturette, it was offered in 3 major iterations…
The Alpine-Renault A110 is remembered for two things, it’s beauty and its extraordinary rally abilities. The model had quite a long life for a sports car, it was introduced by the small French marque Alpine in 1961 and continued production until 1977 – it even saw parallel production lines running in both Mexico and Bulgaria…
This rather unusual looking Honda CBN400 is the work of Ed Turner Motorcycles, a French custom motorcycle garage run by a friendly chap by the name of Karl. The name “Ed Turner” is a play on the phrase “head turner” and not, as I’d first assumed, the name of the garage’s proprietor. CB400 is a…
Personally, I think the Alpine A110 is one of the most beautiful automotive designs of all time. It’s not a particularly famous car and it doesn’t garner the same praise as the E-Type Jaguar or Porsche 911 models that were released in the same era, but those who are familiar with the quirky rear-engined French…
The number 14 wrench you see here is made from sterling silver, it’s a design that was first created by Hugo’s grandmother in France, the team at Blitz liked it so much they decided to produce a limited production run of 100 units. Each wrench is moulded by hand in France from solid silver by…
Every now and then a car like this pristine 1935 Amilcar Type G36 Boattail Roadster comes up for auction with an estimated hammer price below the value of my house. This causes no small amount of consternation for me as I begin the process of convincing the 6 year old boy who still lives…
Facel Vega was a French automobile manufacturer that lived from 1954 till 1964, despite this relatively short lifespan it had significant influence on automotive design throughout the era and beyond, with many of the company’s styling queues appearing on cars from other marques in the years after it shutdown. The model you see here is…
This 1936 Delahaye 135 S is one of only sixteen ever made and one of only seven to survive to the modern day, the “S” suffix denoted the sporting credentials of the 135 and stood for either “Special” or “Surbaissé” depending on who you talk to, what mood they’re in and the current phase of…
