Photo Rétromobile
Rétromobile 2024 firmly consolidated the Paris classic car show as the must-see event. More than anything, the ‘Salon’ is now the place where classic (racing) cars become an art show.
When a Ferrari 250 GTO is no longer the star of the show, that can only be because… there are two 250 GTOs present. Girardo & Co. had brough along a fabulous 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO – ex Targa Florio – whereas Simon Kidston had a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO as the centrepiece of the stand. As a reminder, Ferrari produced just 36 250 GTOs, and each is capable of making 40 million Euro, any day of the week.
But this is just to set the tone, because there was so much more to be seen. Like last year’s Le Mans winning Ferrari 499P, covered in racing grime, at the Richard Mille stand. Gregor Fisken impressing with David Piper’s Lola T70, the car that was used during the filming of Le Mans, the McQueen movie. Joe Macari had the original road-going Porsche 917 – Texas registered, for count Rossi of the Martini company – along.
But one of the most striking of all – in our opinion – was P1038, a Ford GT40 over at Lukas Hüni’s stand. The car, a MkI chassis, was delivered to the Essex Wire team in 1966 as one of the team’s four cars. It drove in 1966 at the Spa 1000 Km and at Le Mans with Skipp Scott and Peter Revson (DNF, engine failure). Between 1967 it raced only sporadically. After 1973, it was retired in a British collection, and remains untouched ever since. This makes P1038 one of the few original GT40s left.
As Max Girardo explained, for the major brokers, Rétromobile has become a show where curation of the cars is becoming more important than scoring a direct sales result. For the second year running, Girardo’s stand was ‘Ferrari only’, with one 333 SP arriving only after the show had opened. It just gives you a bit of an idea of the effort these guys go through.
It’s precisely this that makes Rétromobile a show you no longer can afford to miss when you are a serious player in the classic car business. And for the regular enthusiast, there are ever more precious cars to be seen. No one knows when you will see them a next time around. With visits from Jacky Ickx, Charles Leclerc, Sébastien Loeb, Stéphane Peterhansel and Romain Dumas, there was plenty of ‘star power’ in the mix as well.
New this year was the added focus on supercars, which attracted a new crowd of young onlookers. If this helps them discover the world of classic cars, this can only be seen as a good thing. With over 130,000 visitors this year, Rétromobile set a new crowd record. The manufacturers – Mercedes, Porsche, Alpine, VW and Skoda – put on strong displays, whereas MG helped support the 100-years MG expo. Which only begs the question: how come Stellantis (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo…) skipped this not-to-be-missed event?
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