Beautiful 1930's Illustrations of Roadsters roadstering

In my mind, this is where my long sleek mid-30's roadster is taking me, not the muddy Fairgrounds of a crappy swap-meet in October. 

AMX By AMC Prototype 1966

1934 Ford Phaeton, Or 1935 Renault Nerva Phaeton

Seeing this vintage shot made me do a double take. Taken from a vintage French Auto magazine, at casual glance it seems to be a lightly-modified 1934 Ford Phaeton, but mais non! 

It's a 1935 Renault Nerva Phaeton, with suspiciously similar grille treatment. I have to admit, I think I'd take the Renault with it's big two-door treatment, and fender skirts. What do you think?

1935 Mercedes Grand Prix Car Dashboard

Here's a rare shot of a 1935 Mercedes Benz instrument panel set-up (a particular fetish of mine, as you know). Not the engine-turned surround, and no speedo, but they make sure there is an MBZ medallion there!

The 1935 Jean Bugatti Faux Cabriolet

I've touched on the tragedy of Jean Bugatti before, the scion of the Bugatti dynasty, who met a tragic fate testing out their latest Grand Prix racer on what they thought was a closed-off road.

His legacy as a designer is breathtaking. He also grew up on the factory floor, and often tuned and altered the race cars that his father's company produced. But he was always as concerned about the styling panache and the creature comforts of the Bugatti vehicle, knowing that his customer didn't just want to go fast, but to look good doing it.

Here are a couple of vintage, and rare, shots of the roll-down feature on a Jean Bugatti original, from a 1935 French auto magazine, and a nice color publicity shot from the time.  Enjoy the genius of elegant simplicity, by Jean.