Festival Automobile International 2013 Paris

Cocktail, war veterans, supercars, designers, concept-cars, drivers and beautiful people were all in Paris Les Invalides the 29th January 2013 to elect Festival Automobile International Grand Prizes Winners.
I had the chance to be there before crowds came in. As usual I love those moments when I feel I have all cars for me, a bit like at the Ralph Lauren Exhibition in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 2012.

Many VIP were there as well as the french-speaking automotive designer community. This was a beautiful place to be – trust me – just under protection of the “Dôme des Invalides ” at the heart of ParisBut when Jacky Ickx came things completely changed: not only all photographs were now following him instead of shooting VIPs, but when he received his “Palme d’Or” all discussions suddenly stopped. He was much more calm than his interviewer – relaxed as a pilot who drives at 380 km/h on Les Hunaudières in Le Mans – and instead of answering questions, he just made a vibrant homage to disabled war veterans that were here. You have to know that this event takes place in “Les Invalides”, a magnificient Hospital for French army forces, in a week were armies are at war to free Mali. When he invited his friend, actor and Paris-Dakar co-pilot Claude Brasseur onstage it was the emotional peak of the night.

This being said, beautiful concept- cars  were there including peugeot’s Onyx who won the “best concept car of the year ” prize.

Unfortunately you will never see thi scar on our roads which is a pitty, but this is not the case of the Aston Martin Vanquish that money can buy.

Dassault-Systemes was the sponsor of a new prize, the “CREATIV’EXPERIENCE” prize that went to the Toyota Diji. Unfortunately the car was not visible but there are nice Toyota Diji picts on Flickr

There was then a best shoot prize for “Leçon n°40 by Cathy DUBUISSON” which is a pict of a Ford GT40 after the rain but looks like sweat on the back of a woman in swimsuit …

I also loved the Concept Renault Alpine A110-50 that won a “special prize” because it rewards a car-makers daring putting such a car in production despite the low revenue they anticipate. A special thanks to Carlos Tavares do dare this! Car manufacturing will be outsourced to Caterham but it was the price to pay to see Alpine back on tracks.

Let’s finish with the old lady: Porsche got the “design” prize for the 50 years of the 911,. 911′s are cars that I loved less than the 928 for a long time, but now the new 928 is the Panamera and its style is way too heavy for me. At the same time the 991 generation that was presented too offers a great maturity in style. it just took me 30 years to like it. As the Porsche spokesman put it, it’s really a car to do both everyday comuter drives on go on track without change. I would add “and come back safely at home”, which is not the case of my favorite classic cars …

 Last but not least, there were also the BMW i8 Concept, Bertone exhibited the Nuccio (this one reminds me of the Renault Vel-Satis under certain angles…) ItalDesign-Giugiaro Brivido, Carrozzeria Touring la Disco Volante

as well as the Vintech P550,an homage to the Porsche 550 by D3 design bureau .

Now there were also nice motorcycle concepts like the Zen 

My final preferred concept was a 6 cylinders motorcycle by BMW, which reminds me the nice sound of the Kawazaky 1300Z 6 cylinders. This was a concept only.