Retrochrome

I am NOT a car guy. That is I don’t know a manifold from a tail pipe. But I do appreciate a cool automobile design when I see one. In 1967 this collection of trucks, vans and cars were found outside the Le Mans Cathedral in Le Mans, France. On the far left is a Peugeot J7, but next to it is a Citroën H-series. How do I know this? Well, a Google search for “old french vans” turned up a picture rather quickly. These vans were made by Citroën after the war (WW2 )and into the 80’s. What I like about the design is first the corrugated panels on the front and side of the vehicle. The other thing I like about it is it looks like what it’s built for. It looks like it’s got a job to do and is serious about that work. It doesn’t look mean, but it doesn’t look to fun loving either. This van is definately cast as “dad” in a French cars movie. That Truck on the far right is a Citroën as well and I swear I’ve never seen a more French looking truck in my life. Loot at it and tell me it doesn’t look like Captain Renault (Claude Raines) from Casablanca. You don’t think so? Okay maybe it doesn’t look exactly like him, but kinda. Sorta. Listen all I’m saying is if I cast a cars version of Casablanca, this would be the vehicle playing “Louie”. I don’t know what car is playing “Rick”. I haven’t really thought this through.

If you want to read about the world’s largest collection of the Citroën H-series vans you can read about it over at jalopnik.com in an article written by Jason Torchinsky.