French Cars Living and Dying in Poland

Last year we saw various cars made by the countries of the Axis Powers living and dying in Poland. There West German cars, East German Cars, Japanese cars, and Italian cars. Last month we moved onto Allied Powers cars, starting off with the final entry into the conflict, ‘Murican Cars. The reason for all the war references is that it made the cars easy to group and it went along with my personal studies of that time period. It is too easy to make a joke about the French military, so I won’t. Their involvement is World War II is complex and often misunderstood, much like design and engineering behind some all of their cars. The military involvement was on both sides of the struggle, limited in effort, spread all over the world, all with mixed results, and in the end not contributing much more than punch line, again much like their cars. Today we will look at the oldtimer French cars that are living in various states of usefulness in modern day Poland. All pictures are courtesy of the best Polish automotive website ever, Zlomnik.pl, and all its readers who send in all these pictures from all over the country. Grab some coffee and a croissant, check out the awesome and awful cars, then light up a non-filtered cigarette like the French whore that you are!

Should they have sold a 4-door LeCar in Le U.S.?

To the restoration shop!! And then sell it to some gullible American connoisseur!!!

Which one has been there longer?

There is no mistaking this butt for anything else on the road.

The Simca Matra Rancho, one of my childhood dream cars, only because I had an awesome Corgi 1:43 version of it, with opening doors and split tailgate. It’s got an interesting history (wiki link).

The van!

Headin’ to the scrap yard at any moment. Looks like a weird USDM-ish Civic in front.

I, too, pile random branches on my Peugeots.

Looks like this pic was taken in the U.K., sorry. Still, interesting. All those vans/trucks, being MBs, Ivecos, Fiats, Fords, or Renaults, kind of look alike.

The car on the right may be a Dacia, made in Romania under license from Renault for many years.

Stance’d!

Renault, 11. A very attractive hatchback, and this one looks to be mint. Black plates mean the same owner since the 1980’s. When I was little kid I was impressed by how nice the interior was in these.

 I find these cars more beautiful with each passing day.

 Interesting looking spoiler thing on top of the hatch – must be fast!

 Dat C pillar!

 50 shades of blue-ish.

 I remember seeing these cruise around as a kid… it was the biggest, longest thing ever. Looks like a Czech plate to my squinting eyes.

 Peugeot ‘Allroad’ – want!!!

 Plymouth Horizon was a modified version of this the Simca Talbot. Check out my write up on a Dodge Omni GLH Turbo.

 10/10, would drive around the world, very slowly.

 Someone just made a huge mistake.

 Glorious! Parked across from a meat store which I am sure has some amazing kabanosy.

whut?

Perfect small business fleet.

Somewhere, perhaps not in Poland, a connoisseur lives.

Best looking minivan, ever!

Mintness!

I’m tingling in special places right now…

Another “allroad”*

*No idea what these are called, if anything. I’m just using a generic Audi name.

Those integrated auxiliary lights are fantastic.

Looks like it’s melting. Hmm… maybe it did actually melt.

Ya know, Dacia 1100 looked just like the Renault 8, and I am not sure which one this is.

The hell kind of an ‘Allroad” is this?

Connoisseur. They look beautiful behind that covered pile of crap.

:((

Parts cars in front yards always add to property value – it speaks of the owner’s ingenuity, care, and proper maintenance for the potential house buyer.

He’s got a parts boat!!!

Three lug-nuts. Were those factory cabrios?

USDM headlights?

It’s been there so long, it’s got a permanent shadow.

In Warsaw, cars are often, almost always, parked with two wheels on the sidewalk.

Not a Dacia.