 Kassel is celebrating the 1100 years since its foundation, and among other events, an exposition of 40 most interesting cars from the French National Car Museum Cite de l`Automobile in Mulhouse will be exposed there from May 1st to July 31th 2013. So, don’t worry French readers, all the cars will return to the obscurity after two months. As everything from the Schlumpf collection, there are incredible things hiding in the catacombs of the museum. More than 150 cars are well kept in big garages, some of them (the most interesting, we think) have been never restored or presented to the public. They exist in various grades of decay with rotten bodies and interiors, flat or missing tyres, wood worms and cobwebs. Other cars are old exhibits that were shown in the museum many years ago, as the 1939 Mercedes W154 that was once driven by Caracciola and von Brauchitsch (see photo 6). The organizers of this amazing exposition want to ask a question to all the visitors: Are they ordinary old cars or objects of art? Should it be allowed to restore such cars to their former glory, should we preserve them in the present condition or is it better to accompany their decay?. For the real aficionados, perhaps the cars which were restored in the 60s to that era standards maybe now should be restored to today's high level. But please, let untouched the unrestored cars! |
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(In the photos; a unrestored 1936 Maserati 4CM in the main. Photo 2, Lacroix de la Ville Le Nef around 1900. Photo 3 Panhard-Levassor X24 1914. Photo 4 1937 Maybach SW 35 Spohn. Photo 5, 1899 Peugeot T16 near a late 30s Tatra T77)