Taxi!

I have a major soft spot for all working vehicles, the unsung heroes that keep society ticking over while the flashier creations get all the attention. Of course taxis do have the allure of their various paint colour schemes, which are usually meant to make them stand out from the crowd on a busy street, and in that way they aren't always the height of good taste. They just stand out so customers can spot them easily. However, I will start with one little taxi which is as cute as a button in its own right.

Citroen 2CV taxi, model by Norev. Pure charm.

What a delightful weirdo! A Russian Vniite cab. Not sure how
many made it onto the streets, but it would be fun to cruise
around Moscow or St Petersburg in one.

Hindustan Ambassador, descendant of the Morris Oxford, the
Indian taxi the lads at Top Gear say is the greatest taxi in the
world. This neatly detailed model is by IXO.

Here's what I mean about paint schemes making the taxis
easy to spot in a crowded street. These are all Paris cabs.

Panhard Dyna X. Love the luggage.

Panhard Dyna Z. All it lacks is luggage!

Panhard Dynamique. I also have a "civilian" non-taxi model
of this car, and the taxi is by far the better looking thing.

Peugeot 203.

Peuget 403.

Citroen DS 19, the smoothest ride of all of them, I am sure.

Peugeot 404, one of my first little dioramas from way back.

Another old diorama of the Austin FX4 in London.

Ditto, an early dio of the New York Checker cab, driver hungry.

Casablanca cab, driver also hungry.

A Tuk Tuk, driver perhaps seeking religious solace.

Popping down to the Boulangerie

With my model cars, most of the time I amuse myself by turning them into dioramas in Photoshop, but today I have something far more charming and infinitely simpler to show you. To create a diorama here, all I need to do is simply plonk a car of my choosing onto the cobblestone road and presto! Instant French street scene.

What could be more French than a Citroen 2CV stopping off for an armful
of baguettes? But this model wasn't sold with the 2CV (an Altaya model), it came
with something else, which is just as appropriate if not quite so well-known.

It came with this Peugeot 203 Paris taxi (model car by Solido). But this car
is not the original car that came with this diorama, either, it's a ring-in.

I think this is how it should have looked, with a Renault R4 doing the
shopping (this R4 is by Edicola). When I looked online for similar dioramas,
I found a dozen examples of this same dio, but each time with a different car
in place, sometimes with no car at all. But several e-Bay sellers describe it as
a 'Renault' or 'Renault R4' diorama, so that's what I suspect it was originally.

Of course any car could be plonked here and look OK, but I tried several and the smaller cars definitely look better. A big Citroen DS looked too big. But it being the Tour de France right now, I thought I'd finish off with something very appropriate, and totally unlikely.

It might have happened, maybe somewhere, once? A Peugeot 203
Tour de France support car (model by Norev) need baguettes, lots of them,
to keep the fans away as they crowd around on those awful hill climbs.

3 x 2CVs

If each country had to choose a car as its national ambassador, in the case of the French people themselves they would probably choose the Citroën DS, the 'Goddess', to project their sense of style and prestige. However, if you asked non-French people like me to make the choice of behalf of France, we'd probably pick this car, to represent France's quirky charm: the Citroën 2CV, the 'Deux Chevaux', the two-horsepower workhorse designed for the rural peasantry which proved to be exactly what a lot of city-dwellers wanted, too.

Here's one doing the shopping at the local village grocer's shop. This model with the red
and black colour scheme was called the Charleston, and I had to get one of those in
1:43 scale, as it's the only 2CV I have driven. In London, quite a while ago. I was thinking of
buying it to use as my 'travel around Europe in a car on my own' car. But it just didn't feel
comfortably up to all that long mileage, and so I bought a second-hand Citroen GS Club
instead. It handled its assignment well, but even it was a bit of a snail on theGerman
autobhans, with all those Porsches and BMWs whizzing by.I can't imagine how slow a
2CV would have been on an autobhan (but I would have stuck to the back roads if I had
a 2CV). This model is by Altaya, and they've captured the 2CV's charm quite well.

Having just one 2CV in my diecast cabinet wouldn't do, and the delightful 2CV van from
the Michelin series of cars put out by IXO was irresistible.I've plonked it on my faux
cobblestone road outside a suitably grimy garage.

And for my final diorama, and 2CV model, I have placed the 1939 Prototype out in the
French countryside, being put through its paces as a suitable workhorse for France's rural
community. Legend has it that the original design brief to Pierre-Jules Boulanger, the
designer of the 2CV, was for the proposed car to drive 100kg of farm goods to market at
60km/h, across muddy paved roads. Furthermore, it had to be able to cross a ploughed
field without breaking any of the eggs it was carrying on its front seat. And so here is
the wonderful prototype, with its cyclops-eye single headlight,doing just that – crossing
the field without making an omelette of the job. This little 1:43 model by Norev has
a wonky roof canvas that never stays flat, but I'll forgive it that blemish, as all
prototypes are a bit rough around the edges, aren't they?

Just a little bit of 2CV history, if you don't mind, just the bare basics. Produced from 1948 through to 1990, a short production run of a mere 42 years,  3.87 million 2CVs were made, plus another 1.2 million 2CV delivery vans. And that's not to mention the 3.68 million variants such as the Ami, Diane, Acadiene and Mehari. Grand total of 8.75 million cars. A successful design, then. Little air-cooled flat twin motors all the way, starting off a 375cc engine and ending up with a mighty 602cc powerplant in the end. Always a four-speed manual. And a wonderful, long-travel, soft suspension that literally could cope with anything.

All of this info I sort-of knew already, but the Wikipedia page on the 2CV does the little car proud, so if you want to read more about them, head there. However, to finish off this little homage to the 2CV I like to show you one in action. There are lots of 2CV videos on You Tube, of course. These cars are irresistibly photogenic and telegenic. There's one video about the famous legend that you can't roll a 2CV on a flat piece of road. Going forwards, that's true, but going backwards, it's not. You can watch that spoilsport one here.

However, I have no interest in trashing 2CVs. I just like to see them happy, doing what they so charmingly do, bouncing along on that suspension, crossing open fields.

A day at the beach

When the sun comes out the soft tops go down and the owners of convertibles and cabriolets head for the beach. Not to be outdone, the cars with sun-roofs peel back the covers and join in the sunny, wind-in-your-hair fun. This diecast paparazzo was in the right place at the right time this weekend, a car park at the south end of Maroubra Beach in Sydney, where a succession of lovely cars passed in front of his lens.

Peugeot 402 Darl'mat Roadster, from 1938, one of a series of specials created
in the 1930s by Emile Darl'mat. With a 2-litre four-cylinder engine, it sped
down the roads quite nicely, but with its Art Deco styling it looks like it's
flying along at speed, even when parked at the beach.

Peugeot 203 Cabriolet from the early 1950s, an affordable convertible for the
sun-loving masses. With a 1300cc engine it was no speedster, but with its
tall gearing it sailed along the highway once it was wound up to speed.
This is a 1:43 Solido model.

Affordable cabriolets were popular in France in the 1950s. This is the Simca
Weekend, a 1956 model, also with a 1300cc engine. Model is by Altaya.

Definitely not so affordable, the 1949 Cadillac Coupe de Ville was
nevertheless very desirable, and this model is the first in what became
a long line of Coupe de Villes. With a 331 cu inch V8, it got along very easily.
This pretty model is made by Yatming.

The 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air really hit the spot with US buyers. With its new
265 cu inch OHV V8 it offered plenty of potential for boys who liked to play
with engines. This snazzy model is by Franklin Mint.

It's not just soft tops at the beach today, however. Sun-roofs are everywhere.
This is a Jaguar Mark V from 1950, my old family car in fact (well, until
Dad ran out of money trying to keep the Jag going – he eventually faced
up to reality and bought a Holden, which was much more his price bracket.)
This high quality resin model is by the Dutch company, Neo.

Speaking of price brackets, you don't have to pay big bucks to get the wind in
your hair and the sun in your lap. A Citroen 2CV Charleston has rooftop
windows aplenty, and of all the cars featured so far, it's probably the only
one that could happily drive along the beach as well. Model is by Altaya.

If you prefer Italian-flavoured sunshine on a low budget, a Fiat 500 will do
the job beautifully, and there's always a parking spot with these babies.
This model is by Starline.

Once they get their act together, these long-distance German tourists in their
Vee-Dub will get the soft top down and camp out here for a few days of beer
and sunburn. This model is a super-cheap ($15.50 new) plastic model from
China, made by Cararama. My wife was complaining about the lack of VWs
in my cabinet, saying she wanted to see one there. The next morning I was
in a hobby shop buying the neat green hedge used in these shots, when I
saw the Beetle with cute caravan. And my wife loves it.

And so that's it for the beach report this weekend. The surf is flat, so the carpark behind the beach is where the all the action is.