(Updated 3/10/2026) Shooting cars found on the streets is hardly a new thing, even if we here have elevated the disease to new heights. But imagine being a young American car nut spending a year abroad to study in Paris, in 1953. Thanks to the crippling luxury tax and enacted after the war, the flourishing pre-war French luxury car industry was now essentially dead. And as a consequence, owners of these classic and exotic pre-war cars are still driving them as regular cars. Not only French brands, but also cars from other countries too.
In this remarkable book, Robert Straub documents 120 of these he found parked at the curb or shot on-the-go. Voisin, numerous Delahayes, Salmson, Tatra, Talbot-Lago, Delage, Hispano-Suiza, Ferrari, Bentley, Imperia, Panhard, Bugatti, including an Atalante coupe, and so many others. And in use as regular drivers, like the older gentleman driving his slightly battered Bugatti to the hardware store and loading buckets of paint into it. This is a remarkable time capsule.
I’m not going to show you all 120 of them, but here’s a fine sampling. The book (published in 1998) is available, although not widely. And I’m dedicating this to Tatra87, who has enlightened us about so many of these classic French (and other) cars.
Robert Straub didn’t confine his curbside classic hunts to Paris; he also shot in other cities as well as back home in the US. There’s a couple of cars from the latter in the book, the most remarkable one being the following:
No less than a Bugatti Royale, the ultimate curbside find in the world!
Hear hear for Tatra87. He has brought so much to this site.
Great pages, hopefully I’ll come across this book in Melbs. Docker Daimler for me. Did not realise Queen Elizabeth had a two-door for herself.
Agreed
Yep, he even brought us his own namesake!
Fascinating post – such variety. I wonder if any of these have survived to the present day?
Amusingly enough, the one car I was going to comment about was that two-door, something rude about QE 2’s bad taste, what with Phil the Greek and then one of those crass Docker Daimlers, but I’ll be nice.
I think this was a “Green Goddess” which preceded the Docker cars.
Don’t forget, the Royals always rode in Daimlers in days gone by – perhaps it was the Docker cars that forced them to move into Royces.
She must have sat in the front, surely? I can’t imagine a monarch, especially a female monarch, clambering out from the back seat of a car, no matter how fancy it is.
I’m thinking she drove it herself. She was a truck mechanic during the war so she probably got a taste for driving then.
https://mashable.com/2015/04/22/queen-elizabeth-army/
perhaps the first time I’ve commented on this website. what a fantastic post and book, thank you for posting. another cheer for Tatra87 also.
A T-87 for T-87 – How perfect. Yes, T-87 is the one who has me nodding “yes, I recall reading about this” instead of “wow, what is it?”
I think my favorite might be that battered 1931 Delage D8, we don’t think of one of those as an old war horse, yet there it is. That Auburn looks perfect in its location. But the body on that Graham – I don’t think it works with the car’s aggressive nose.
I’m speechless! This book needs to be reprinted again after some digital enhancement!
A Delage D6-70 ‘hardtop’ coupe by LeTourneur & Marchand.
OMG, I wish I could borrow Stewie’s time machine and save some of these from the looming 1960 scrap yard.
My parents travelled in Europe a few times in the fifties, before I was born. My mother often told me of her ride in a Bugatti coupé in Paris (not sure where my Dad was). Unfortunately, no photos. She was also the passenger in Fiat Topolino, in a collision in Italy. I might have a picture of the Fiat somewhere.
By the way, I did a little Google-research, and after getting distracted trying to figure out if the author was the former Oregon Governor Robert Straub, who lived a long time in Springfield right next to CC HQ in Eugene (nope), I found that he went on to become a stylist and engineer at GM.
When I first saw the author’s name, that crossed my mind, as I know his son and his wife (they own a property management company). But I couldn’t quite imagine him being a hard-core car nut.
It is wonderful to see so many of these, to me rare and exotic, cars out on the street. So much better than at some lawn show, or in a museum. So much easier to imagine how they must have looked and sounded in actual use.
Curious how much attention the author gives to the apparent social class of the occupants. But then, I guess that was part of the purpose of many of these cars?
And I guess Panhards were always weird. Good for them!
Absolutely, as to the owners’ social class. And they were very unhappy about the new taxes as a result of a strong socialistic swing in their post war government, just like was happening in Great Britain at the time. Suddenly formerly high flyers had their wings clipped, but they weren’t going to not give up their status-mobiles, even if they were worn and a bit battered.
This phenomena was seen all over Europe; a not uncommon post-war effect. The same thing happened after WW1 too. There’s a very common (and logical) tendency for the lower classes who were most impacted by the war directly to blame the elites for it happening.
Even in the US, the post war years saw the highest tax rates ever and the least amount of wealth inequality. Wars seem to have a tendency for societies to rethink things a bit, and try something different.
Talk about your unintended consequences! And this was in the countries that won the wars. I had come to understand the democratizing consequences of the World Wars for women and persons of color in this country, but had not really considered their effects on automobiles.
Truly, once the shooting starts, all your plans go out the window.
Some absolutely remarkable shots here – even a Royale !
Did anyone else notice that in the shot of the Paris-Rally, the drivers-door of the neighbouring 4CV is folded right back.
Nice to see those cars on the street rather than just sit in the museum.
Very impressive pics. Thanks for sharing them, cheers for T87, too
Seeing a Bugatti Royale on the street anywhere on the planet would be a find they werent ever common cars, some very cool cars in that collection thanx.
The Royale is the Berline de Voyage model, which Briggs Cunningham bought, and took to the USA in early 1951.
Geez, a Scarab! With only 9 built, a real rarity.
Wow! Curbside Classic in print form, from a time before the internet. Awesome.
He even mentions the “landau irons [that are] simple decorations” on that Bentley Coupe De Ville, c.1948… Was the author perhaps talking about an earlier “Great Brougham Epoch” than our own?
Thanks for sharing Paul, and definitely a shout out to T-87!
So true! they really captured some gems here. Reminds me of some of Joseph Dennis’ pictures of cars from the 1960s and 70s mixing with modern day traffic. I always feel a leap of excitement when I see cars from my youth on the road, and that’s one of the things that drew me to this site six years ago.
Quite marvellous stuff. The 1930 Lagonda 3 litre sedan for me.
And cheers to our Mr T.
I’m touched, Paul. Couldn’t have wished for a better post.
Seeing Delages and Bugattis in their element is one thing, but Tatras! Unbelievable. I really was born 50 years too late.
The Scarab might be the one that Eisenhower gave De Gaulle back in 1944. At least, I recall reading that somewhere.
Thank you so much Paul – and everyone. I really have to get a hold of this book somehow.
I’ve said it before but I love your posts, T87. I love how you can discuss something for which I have virtually no background knowledge or historical context and manage to not lose me and, in fact, keep me enthralled.
And I spy another couple of brands in Paul’s post you haven’t covered yet. Just when I thought you were running out of long-dead European brands to discuss…
The book is on Amazon at a WIDE range of prices….
Wow, some of these brands I haven’t even heard of. Like Rosengart… that Supertraction is quite a looker!
Great to see a Stout Scarab in action. Wow! And I’d forgotten the Peugeot 402L existed.
That Delahaye 175 is a looker.
So many amazing cars.
This is a great post. I searched for several of these cars, I found the Ferrari convertible.. amazing how these were just used cars.. virtually priceless now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_212_Inter#/media/File:1952_Ferrari_212_Export_Vignale_Cabriolet_(19011674504).jpg
Very cool post! I love the vintage exotics. The Scarab is not that wild to me, I saw one just last September at our local Concours show in pedestrian Des Moines, Iowa…
I’m going to have to find my copy that I bought at the Larz Anderson gift shop not long after this first ran.
My dream vacation destination is not to a geographic place, but to an era in time. Oh to be able to spend one weekend in the world of these art nouveau coach built beauties as they dropped children at the park and waited in the parking lot for their owners to return with the groceries. They weren’t locked up in trailers and museums then. They were living point A to B cars.
WOOF, WOOF and WOOF! Thank you for finding this essay.
I would guess that for most of us, our enthusiasm for vintage cars was sparked by a chance encounter on the street of something unusual. The pleasure of seeing a classic is diluted when it’s surrounded by thirty others of similar style and age. Seeing them roped off makes them seem unattainable and reserved for others. That’s why I enjoy this website. It gives me a warm feeling to see a dirty old Pontiac fulfilling someone’s dream while simultaneously serving as transport for a couple of new gallons of paint for the kitchen.
At about this time my father was spending a lot of time in Europe due to his work in Oncology research .
He found and purchased a very clean 1937 Bentley St. James Coupe . he had it into the mid 1970’s when my idiot middle brother left it in an unheated garage in Rochester, New York, the cylinder head punched out a hole when the tap water coolant froze .
Pops had told me he’d seen quite a few pre war Rolls Royces and Bentleys cut down into pickup trucks on farms in rural England .
Out of all these I think I’d like the ‘shark nose’ Graham coupe the best .
-Nate
It’s good to know what the colors were, helps to imagine what they must have looked like. The light grey with orange wire wheels Delahaye 135 for me, what a sight that must have been.
Re the Queen’s Bentley – the photo’s dated 1951 and her father, King George VI, died in February 1952.