Forget Pebble Beach — Retromobile Is My New Favorite Classic Car Show

The endlessly lovable Renault Twingo celebrates its 30th birthday this year, so Renault filled part of its huge stand with half a dozen different versions of the hatchback. My favorite of the bunch – and my favorite car at the show – was this 1995 Twingo Coupe concept, which explored a potential two-seater Renault Sport model. One of three prototypes built, this is the only one with a 150-horsepower 2.0-liter engine, double the power of the stock motor. The deletion of the rear bench seat lends the car its “Coupe” moniker, and it’s also got a rad Elf racing livery and a great stance.

Rétromobile is also the start of classic car auction season in Europe, and RM Sotheby’s kicked off the festivities with a swanky sale next to the Louvre after the first day of the show. The star was the Bugatti Chiron Profilée, a one-off, road-legal prototype that’s essentially to the Chiron Pur Sport what the 911 GT3 Touring is to a regular GT3. It sold for a record-setting €9,792,500 million, not including VAT, which was pretty cool to watch in person. There are a lot of amazing Chiron specs out there, but this has gotta be the best one.

The Citroën DS is without question my favorite car of all time. It’s an icon of style, incredibly influential in terms of engineering and technology, and up until the Tesla Model 3’s debut held the record for the most pre-orders in a single day. Out of the many DS models at the show, the standout to me was this pristine wagon, an example of the cheaper ID19 submodel that did without the DS’s signature hydraulic suspension.

Auction house Artcurial had a massive stand at the show, with one of the highlights being a lineup of modified ‘80s Benzes from tuners like Koenig Specials and Carat Duchatelet. The craziest was this gullwing W126 coupe from Styling Garage (SGS), one of only 57 ever made and one of just a few sold new through SGS’s dealership in Beverly Hills, California. In period the conversion cost as much as a new 500 SEC, and the brown over tan color combo on this one looks amazing when paired with the original AMG bodykit.

As production number 9, this “Periscopio” Countach would be appealing no matter the condition, but you’re looking at a legit barn find – the car was still covered in dust and cobwebs on the stand. After undergoing a respray in the early ‘80s, it was bought by the most recent owner in 1983, who had recently graduated college and regularly drove the Countach to his office. To stay discrete in his small town, the Countach was stored on an island off the west coast of France in the late ‘90s, where it remained until now. The car was last driven and registered in 2013, when the owner moved and had to store the Countach in a different garage. Despite sitting for so long, it’s still in incredible condition and sold for a whopping $1.04 million.

One of the rarest (and coolest) cars at Rétromobile, this 2CV sold by Artcurial is one of 694 Sahara models built, fewer than 100 of which are thought to survive today. Developed for use by French mining companies in Africa, the Sahara was fitted with a second engine in the rear, giving the 2CV four-wheel drive. Each 425-cc engine has its own gas tank and four-speed manual transmission, operated by a single shifter and clutch pedal. Either engine can be run on its own or both can be used at the same time, increasing top speed from 35 mph to 65 mph. Near-perfect weight balance, four-corner independent suspension and a 1,600-pound curb weight meant the 2CV Sahara was pretty unstoppable off-road, and almost every body panel is unique to the Sahara.

Can you tell I love Citroëns? The brand’s booth was graced by the recently overhauled DS E-Tense Performance concept, an updated version of a 2016 concept fitted with the DS brand’s new design language and a functional 815-hp electric powertrain derived from Formula E. Alongside the E-Tense was the 1973 Citroën SM “Breadvan” Prototype that was used as a high-speed test vehicle to develop racing SM variants. The car allowed its driver to adjust settings like roll rates, suspension stiffness and even weight distribution all while driving.

An evolution of the already awesome Murciélago R-GT, one of the best looking and best sounding race cars of the modern era, the Murciélago R-SV was built by Reiter Engineering to compete in the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship. This particular car was run by Japanese team JLOC at the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team’s fourth attempt at the race in a Murciélago, but it sadly came in 53rd place after retiring during the 18th hour. Hey, at least it looked cool as hell doing it.

Not the kind of thing you’d typically expect to see at a classic car show, this Impreza is Prodrive’s famed rally car prototype for the 1997 season, which saw WRC ditch its Group A rules to give teams more flexibility. Prodrive essentially created the new Impreza from the ground up, developed with Colin McRae, who at the time drove for Subaru. Sister cars won 8 out of 14 WRC events in the 1997 season, in addition to the manufacturer championship, while McRae lost out the driver’s title by just one point. This prototype itself has racked up more than a dozen rally wins and even more podium finishes, and it has been fully restored by Prodrive.

Also at the Fiskens stand was this Gulf-liveried Porsche 917. In addition to racing in the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, this particular 917K is the actual car used in Steve McQueen’s 1971 film Le Mans, where it wins the titular race. After its use in the film, the car was rebuilt by the factory to Spyder specification with a 5.0-liter engine, later being owned by the Chandon champagne family and then a Floridian collector, who rebuilt the engine to 5.4 liters and owned and raced it for 22 years. The car has recently been fully restored by Lanzante and is now for sale.

French company R-Fit Vintage sells EV conversion kits for the Citroën 2CV and Renault 4L, with the Renault R5 being the next car to get the zap. Developed in partnership with Renault, the electric R5 makes about as much power as the car’s original gas engine, and the original manual transmission is retained. Range clocks in at about 55 miles, and the battery can be fully recharged in three and a half hours. Crucially, the R5’s wonderful styling is intact, and the trunk-mounted battery pack still leaves room for some cargo.

A large section of one of the halls was devoted to displaying affordable cars for sale, most of which were youngtimers with pricetags below €25,000. This Opel Manta was one of my favorites. Only 700 of the i200 model were built, getting a 125-hp four-cylinder engine and much of the wilder styling elements from the rally-ready 400. It’s got a rad bodykit, a big rear spoiler, color-matched alloy wheels, awesome stripes and an absurd repeating Opel logo pattern on the seats. This Manta has undergone a full restoration, and it’s got modifications like an Irmscher exhaust.

The stand for Luxembourg-based dealer Art & Revs was filled with iconic Le Mans cars, and the wildest was this Jaguar XJR-14. The incredible looking XJR-14 used a Cosworth 3.5-liter V8 engine sourced from Formula 1, though it was detuned to produce “just” 650 hp and rev to “only” 11,500 rpm. Only three cars were built in the ‘90s; this fourth XJR-14 was constructed from a leftover chassis tub and other spare parts before TWR went under in 2003.

Another standout Le Mans racer, this Group C Peugeot 905 won at Le Mans in 1992, and the following year a trio of 905s completed a hat trick at the race. Its carbon-fiber monocoque body was developed with Dassault Aviation, and the 905 was powered by a screaming naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V10 engine that was later adapted for use by McLaren in Formula 1. In the 1992 race’s qualifying session a 905 reached 218 mph – with the chicanes in place.

It takes a lot for an old Ferrari to really catch my eye, but this one certainly did. Originally a 1960 250 GT Pininfarina Coupe, the car was rebodied after a crash by race driver Piero Drogo’s coachbuilding company Drogo Carrozzeria Sports Cars. One of only 12 250 GTs that Drogo created, this silver coupe has super dramatic proportions inspired by the 250 GTO.

For Mitsubishi’s sixth running of the Paris-Dakar rally, the automaker overhauled its Pajero-based race truck with new aerodynamics and a 275-hp turbocharged engine that enabled it to hit speeds of 124 mph. This Pajero was driven by Pierre Lartigue in the 1988 and 1989 Dakar races, and he personally owned it until 2021. Aguttes’ booth also featured an Audi Quattro Dakar prototype and a Peugeot 205 T16 Evo 1, but the Mitsubishi SUV was the coolest.

Rétromobile also saw the debut of a new concept car from Citroën, albeit a very strange one. This literal chariot stars in the new live-action Astérix & Obélix movie, based on the comic series about a pair of Gaulish warriors that fight around the world during the time of Julius Caesar. The chariot was inspired by the design of the 2CV, with cheeky features like a roll-back sunroof, chevron wheels, headlights and a body reminiscent of the actual car. In one scene in the film, the characters arrive in China and see a billboard promoting the chariot being pulled by two horses, a reference to the real-life Citroën AX ad that was filmed on the Great Wall.

An unwritten rule at Monterey Car Week is that you must always stroll through the parking lot before you leave a show — you might see more interesting cars than what’s inside the show. It’s no different at Rétromobile, as one of the first cars I spotted in the parking garage was a Ferrari Testarossa sat next to a Renault Twingo. Also spotted in the garage were a Mercedes 190E Sportline, a Shelby GT350 next to another Twingo, a bright green Alpine A110, a Chrysler 300 wagon and a bunch of special edition Fiat 500 Abarths.