The 9 weirdest cars at Retromobile 2023

9. Citroën ID19 Familiale Comfort

Launched at the Paris Motor Show in 1955, the Citroën DS19 was an incredibly popular car. But alongside the regular DS model, Citroën also offered a cheaper ID version, the ID19. The model range was further embellished by alternative body styles and interior setups. One such variant was the Citroën ID19 Familiale. Also known as the ‘Safari’ or ‘Break’, this curious-looking thing had three rows of seats and a steel roof to support the addition of a roof rack. It’s a cool thing.

8. Dolphin Porsche

This is an odd looking this, isn’t it? It’s a Porsche racing car built in 1962 for a driver named Ken Miles, who had become frustrated with the dominance of the 550 Spyder. The plan was to develop a car that would overthrow the Porsches that had been built to last in endurance racing. It was put together by Dolphin, a boat manufacturer by trade, and was designed to be ultra-lightweight in a bid to outperform the 550s Miles had spent so much time racing in the 1950s. There’s not a great deal known about the car itself, other than its 1.7-litre Porsche RS16 engine, and its Porsche RS gearbox. It’s certainly unusual, and that eye-catching front end sets it apart from the understated beauty of its contemporaries.

7. Bucciali TAV8-32 V12 ‘Golden Arrow’

One of six that were ever built, this extremely rare beast is among the last three remaining in existence. The Bucciali ‘Golden Arrow’ was first conceived in 1930, when the plan was put in place to build a cabriolet with a Voisin engine. The motor of choice was a 4.9-litre V12 dropped into this incredible machine which sits atop a chassis with a 3.75-metre wheelbase. The car was finally completed in 1932, but it didn’t take long for a change in ownership to require wholesale changes. The entire body was replaced with the shell of a Bugatti Type 46 in 1935, only for it to be restored to originality in 1946. So it’s had a fraught history, but to be able to experience its elegance in person is quite something.

6. Whatever this is…

This really is a bit of a mystery to us. The only thing we can say for sure is that it was built by Renault, and we say that because of the Renault badge it has on the front. It looks a bit like a coffin on wheels, but it does also have a steering wheel, so we imagine it was intended to be driven. As to what engine it has under that brilliantly angular bodywork, your guess is as good as ours, but the cooling vents suggest there is one in there.  It’s wonderfully simplistic inside too. A single switch, which we assume is to turn it on, sits under what can only be a speedometer. There’s another Renault badge here, too. We’re all ears if you can enlighten us on this incredibly interesting thing.

5. Siata 1250GT Zagato

At least we know the name of this one… And it’s absolutely gorgeous, as you would expect by a car that was coachbuilt by Zagato. A diminutive 1950s sportscar purpose-built to run the Mille Miglia in 1956, the Siata 1250GT Zagato was lightweight, nimble and intended to be easy to drive – a useful feature when you’re taking on one of the world’s most arduous motoring challenges. And when we say lightweight, we mean it’s ludicrously light, tipping the scales at 800kg. Some of the details here are a little hazy. For example, the owners aren’t sure whether there were six or seven of these, and quite what the 1250 relates to seems a mystery. It could be the engine, but we’ve seen suggestions that this car could be displacing 1.4-litres, with a power output of 80PS (59kW). Regardless of that, we just like looking it at, because it’s beautiful.

4. Mercedes 500 SGS Gullwing

Why don’t more cars have gullwing doors? Mercedes proved to the world in the 1950s that the gullwing feature was by far and away the best way to implement the entry and exit requirement of a car, so why on earth did it stop using them? Thankfully, an incredibly clever team of people in Germany saw fit to rectify this obvious error. Styling Garage was a coachbuilder that specialised in Mercedes modifications from 1979 to 1986. Some were better than others, it’s fair to say, but the addition of gullwing doors to this gloriously brown Mercedes 500 was a masterstroke. The mustard interior is bold, to say the least, but the gullwing doors make this one of the coolest cars we’ve seen at Retromobile.

3. Delaunay-Belleville HC4 1913 Coupe de Ville

Back in 1913, Delaunay-Belleville were the French equivalent of Rolls-Royce, producing quality motorcars for the upper echelons of society. Cars of this age are usually famous for their outrageously large engines, but not so here. The HC4 is powered by a modest 4.4-litre in-line four-cylinder engine packed inside the small tubular bonnet. The amount of gold trim is spectacular, and the 110-year-old interior is still for the most part intact as it would have been when it was first built. We love looking history straight in the face, and this is as good an example of any of what life was like well over a century ago.

2. D.B. Panhard HBR 4

Another quite wonderful ‘50s sportscar, this one was built to race in the World Sportscar Championship, including at the Le Mans 24 Hours where it competed in 1959, 1960 and ’61, winning its class at its second attempt. Racing in the blue of France, the D.B. machine utilised a two-cylinder 702cc Panhard engine producing 165PS (121kW) and managed an average speed of more than 88mph in that 1960 race. Just two of these cars remain, which makes this an incredibly rare thing, but it fits in so perfectly at Retromobile that you might well walk past it without realising what you were looking at. Although it’s difficult not to notice something so pretty.

1. Citroën C10 Prototype

Finally, we have something that definitely won’t slip your attention. The Citroën C10 concept car, which is best described as our new favourite bubble, is an excellent example of what happens when you let a team of designers go away and make whatever they fancy that day. It’s a one-off prototype that has never left the ownership of Citroën since it was conceived in 1955. The brief was to modernise the 2CV, but while this particular car sadly never made it to production, there are elements of the water drop design that have certainly inspired the design of future Citroëns, not to mention the DS. That striped interior is pretty special, too.

Photography by Joe Harding.