French cars from the 70's don't suck.

Renault 14, 1976.

I met Palaghita last Spring at Carlisle Import Show. Really nice dude. His "Dacia" is a US spec Renault 12 he found in AZ and rebuilt with a friend in Queens, adorning it with Romanian Dacia badges. A great conversation starter for sure but not a "real" Dacia.

IIRC The 80's - 90's Renault Trafic was also offered as FWD (Txxxx), RWD (Pxxxx) and 4WD (4x4) . http://www.petites-annonces-fr.net/1,Auto+Moto+Ba…

Yup. 3 vans usually for the media. "Camera One" for photographers, "Wire One" for AP/Reuters/Bloomberg and "Press One" for the print pool, NYT photographer and radio pool reporter. Source: me being one of the print pool reporters for the past 4 1/2 years.

Sochaux #corrections

Giving it another try. Sidi Rached Bridge, Constantine, Algeria

"New Bridge", 1751, Ronda, Spain

Given the security and all-American requirements, this remains a pipe dream, but the French's answer to that question has been awesome, lately

King of Morocco Hassan II used to have a pretty great car when he was a kid. 1/3rd scale Bugatti 35 I believe?

True that. His ranch in Hill Country TX alongside the Pedernales river also has a road running underneath a waterfall and he would drive right through it, fording the stream in his vintage Ford (ha!) , to scare his guests.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Peugeot 504, sold at a charity auction for a cool $2.5 million.

Obviously a Peugeot 505 Dangel. Diesel, manual, will go anywhere and raise a few eyebrows on the way. That's the point, right?

The logo that briefly appears on the lower right corner is "Action Automobile et Touristique" (AAT), a French car magazine. The ticker at the end is for the AAT minitel (French proto-internet terminal from the 80s) service. Can't be 100% sure that this is Pescarolo but his voice is quite unique and he indeed used to…

I believe the narrator is the legendary (and flegmatic) French racer Henri Pescarolo, who won Le Mans a respectable four times. In this segment, he complains about the Countach's stability at high speed, saying that "in a Testarossa at 200 mph, you can smoke a cigar, but in a Countach you might swallow it"!

I see that the 505 is already there. Good, but its "mother" the 504 is arguably one of the best French cars ever (and from Europe to Africa to South America, everybody agreed on its stellar qualities). DOT-mandated hideous modifications, questionable marketing and a lean dealership network reduced its sales to a…

Rejoice! There are still a couple out there (mine for example, in the DC burbs). Lots of stares and thumbs up from people remembering seeing those 25 years ago. I believe around 70,000 504s were sold in the 70s in the US. How many survivors?

I might not be the only one to disagree. Rented two in a row by chance and it's a great alternative to a Camry, interior's good, drive is decent, and MPGs are stellar. Styling might not age well but the CLS-like effort is commendable IMHO

Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al NahyaN #corrections

The 1st pic is an Alpine spec, one of the first European hot hatches. Twice as powerful as the base model and quite quick for 1976. Not as furious as the Turbo though.