Shanghai Motor Show, Curbside Classic Edition

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

In Shanghai, you can see the latest cars, and the cars of the future with no future. You also can see a tiny bit of the past.

Citroen brought two classics.

The Traction Avant was popular with French gangsters, and also with the German Gestapo for the short years it could safely ride around Paris in a car. The car went into the annals as the Gangster Citroen.

This is a Citroen halftrack. In 1931, seven of them followed the Silk Road from Beirut to Beijing, a trip that took them a year and a half. Seven other halftracks left Tianjin on the Yellow Sea to meet them.

The expedition is lovingly documented at the show.

The competition at Renault brought one of their classics. I forgot to write down what it was and can’t look smart. Any ideas?

And a classic from America. The 1967 Camaro, Official Pace Car of the Indy 500.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Th009 Th009 on Apr 22, 2011

    That's a Renault Viva Grand Sport. Introduced in 1934, 4L straight six engine, with a rumble seat behind the convertible top.

  • Richardsheil Richardsheil on Apr 25, 2011

    Interesting that you feature a Traction Avant. I am going on a road trip in mine this week. I will leave home in Dublin, Ireland and join fellow enthusiasts for a tour of Holland. I expect to travel about 1200 miles between Thursday and the following Tuesday. Wish me luck.

  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
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