Cars - France: Books - Roads, Garages, Accessories

Michelin à la conquête de l'automobile

Michelin's history is so vast and rich that many people today are unaware that it was a manufacturer of light automobiles with Citroën, Panhard and Maserati, but also of heavy goods vehicles with Berliet, of Breguet aircraft during the Great War and of trains with the famous Micheline.

This book looks back at the epic of the Clermont-Ferrand company, officially founded in 1889. It obviously tells the fabulous industrial rise of this small rubber manufacturer that chose to set up in Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, which became the world capital of tires.

It also tells how its creator revolutionized the tire by making it easily removable and repairable, at a time when a puncture was part of the journey.

He dwells on its fabulous expansion and its family and social management, its original legal structure of a limited partnership with shares through the managers who have succeeded one another at its head, from Edouard Michelin the creator to Jean Dominique Senard, even if Michelin always claims that the only real boss is the customer!
He also evokes the obsessive cult of secrecy which has long characterized the Auvergnat, the genius of Michelin advertising who made his logo, the famous Bibendum, one of the most famous characters in the world. It analyzes its respect for human values without forgetting everything that has made history and sometimes its legend.

This book dwells at length on the relationships that link this tire manufacturer with the automobile industry since the Clermont-Ferrand firm, through Citroën and its satellites, was a car manufacturer for forty years, which is unique.

It also expands on the birth of its tires, including the revolutionary X radial born after the Second World War, which allowed Michelin to set out to conquer the world and motorsport, which is widely discussed throughout the pages of this book.

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Garages, ambiances d'hier

When a historian goes in search of iconographic documents for his works, he sometimes comes across photographs of rare intensity. Black and white has this wonderful ability to make you dream and bring a new dimension, compared to color photographs, which tell the story of "real life", without embellishment or sentiment.

Dominique Pagneux offers us a fascinating dive in texts and photographs, in black and white, into the world of garages and the daily life of the automobile from the 1910s to the 1970s.
Throughout the pages, we explore, with a nostalgic air and a poetic gaze, the mechanical atmospheres and the mysteries of certain garages and service stations of yesteryear, sometimes letting ourselves be captivated by the architecture of the buildings. Through these garages and factories, we rediscover in particular particular aspects of the automobile history of the brands Panhard & Levassor, Citroën, Peugeot, Renault.

Brilliantly presented by Dominique Pagneux, "Garages, ambiances d'hier" provides powerful moments of rare intensity, which are manifested on particular elements of these famous garages: on a windshield, a raised hood, a reflection on the bodywork, oil stains on the ground...

The black and white photos tell of memorable moments of life and dreams, while revealing the mysteries of these old garages.

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BRI - Brigade Rapide d'Intervention - La vitesse au service de la loi

This book aims to present and retrace the history of the BRI (Brigage de Recherche et d'Intervention), which is ultimately little known to the general public, through the different vehicles used within the brigade.
The origin of the creation of the BRI dates back to the 1960s, during an official visit by the President of the Republic Charles de Gaulle to West Germany in 1962, who noted that the German motorway network was controlled by a police unit equipped with Porsche racing cars.
In October 1965, the gendarmerie published a call for tenders to manufacturers to equip its units with cars.

At the time, the brands Alpine (including the A110 and the A310) and Matra (with the Djet) were notable before other manufacturers came to offer rapid intervention vehicles (VRI) to the BRI, like Peugeot (405 MI16 and 306 S16), Citroën (ID, DS 21 and 23, SM and CX 2400 GTI and 2500 GTI), Subaru (Impreza WRX) and Renault (R21 turbo, Mégane and Mégane 3R).

A police officer and motorsport enthusiast, Christophe Cattet highlights the history and role of the Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention (BRI), the investigation and intervention unit of the French judicial police, responsible for highway safety and attached to the French national police.
Richly illustrated, "BRI - La vitesse au service de la loi" also presents the different vehicles used over the years by the brigade, some of which have even distinguished themselves in the world rally championships.

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Les automobiles publicitaires (volume 1)

Even before the beginning of the 20th century, companies had the idea of using means of transport as a support for advertising with posters painted on the sides of vehicles.
With the arrival of the mechanical automobile and integral bodies, the advertising message changed dimension by covering all surfaces; then "rebodied" vehicles supporting three-dimensional products appeared.

These heterogeneous prototypes gave an instant idea of the message to be conveyed! This is how hundreds, probably thousands of advertising vehicles were manufactured. With more or less success depending on the imagination of the creators and the means at their disposal, these sheet metal artists created a host of rolling fantasies.
This book brings together for the first time in more than 600 black and white photos - most of which have never been published - the most curious vehicles there are. On the road to the fairyland of advertising...

Fabien Sabatès, as a good industrial archaeologist, was the first in France to publish a book on advertising vehicles entitled "Pub qui roule" in 1995, when the Internet did not exist. But thanks to this fabulous window open to the four corners of the world, he was able to carry out in-depth research in the main countries and extract from the dust documents that would otherwise have remained unknown.

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Les automobiles publicitaires (volume 2)

This book on advertising automobiles (volume 2) brings together for the first time in more than 600 black and white photos - most of which have never been published - the most curious vehicles there exist.

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Quand l'auto fait sa pub

The approximately 600 images in this book will take you through a hundred years of the history of automobile brands and advertising. Among thousands of documents, the author has selected leaflets, catalogues, press announcements, posters, billboards and also photos of events such as elegance competitions and motor shows.

This book tells in images and anecdotes, not about technical progress - many books have already covered this - but rather about the gradual advancement of communication between manufacturers, accessory manufacturers and future buyers of a car. We must not forget that at the beginning of the last century it was necessary to choose the brand of your engine, then go to a coachbuilder who made "almost custom-made" parts. The vehicle was then equipped with accessories, wheels, tyres, seats, hence the profusion of advertisements for each element.

You absolutely have to read some of the ad texts to realize how much advertising language has evolved; in the past it was surprisingly "elitist", aimed only at a very wealthy section of the population, the arguments to seduce were elegance and speed; today we talk more often about fuel economy, price and interior comfort.
Times have changed: the automobile and advertising too!

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