Strange cars in Strange Places

There I was, whipping through the hills north of St-Tropez in the Mercedes-Benz AMG SL 63.

At or below the speed limit, of course.

I passed a garage named “Relais Automobile de l'Esterel”, parked in front of which was a most unusual combination of vehicles.

Needless to say, I stopped.

Among them was this Unic, a French car from what must have been the late-19-oh-ohs. This one had a two-cylinder engine; it appeared to be a functioning vehicle, in for maintenance.

The Unic company eventually evolved into a truck manufacturer, and was absorbed into the Fiat/IVECO truck empire in 1996.

Right beside the Unic was a quite nice Austin Healey 3000 (the first sports car I ever drove was a Healey - when I was only 14, but that's another story...). And, an older Porsche 911 Turbo which had seen better days, but looked salvageable.

There was this Renault Caravelle convertible (left), known as 'Floride' in Europe, based on the rear-engined Renault 8 from the early- to mid-1960s.

And (below) this very pretty and very bright yellow Lancia Fulvia S coupe, vintage late-1960s.

 

 

 

But the 'piece of resistance' was this Lamborghini tractor, a "Runner 350" (below, perhaps obviously!!) I don't know its vintage, but a quick scan of the Intertube suggests somewhere in the 2000s. It might even be current - what do I know about farm tractors??

Yes, that's where Ferruccio Lamborghini got his start -  making farm tractors. The story goes he was so unsatisfied with his Ferrari that he said, “I could build a better car than this!”

(Well, he probably said it in Italian...).

The car business soon overtook the farm tractor business, which got sold off and is now part of a large conglomerate of farm machinery manufacturers headquartered in Italy.

 

But the instrument panel of the tractor still bears the 'raging bull' logo, and "Lamborghini" in the same characteristic typeface used on the cars.

I've got a logo'ed hat or a pen or something for the first person who e-mails me the name of the other high-end sports car manufacturer who made farm tractors. Well, I better say 'AN-other' in case there's more than two of them in total...

There was only one mechanic on duty at the 'Relais' on this day, he didn't speak any English, and I didn't speak enough French to really converse with him. So I don't know much more about this operation than this.

Presumably the proprietors gather up unusual vehicles, fix them, and sell them on.

Enthusiasm for cars - for motor vehicles of all sorts - comes in many forms...

 

Comments

[Dan Deutekom]

David Brown produced tractors before he made Astin Martins.

[porta]

david brown...of aston martin fame....

[Larry]

Also Porsche.