'We had no idea what we were about to find! '

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When old car specialist Pierre Novikoff took a telephone call one day, little did he know what a discovery he was about to make. He took Matthieu Lamoure, Managing Director at Artcurial Motorcars, with him to a small village in western France . "It was a fairly indescribable feeling. On entering the gates of this property, we had no idea what we would find.” Their eyes fell upon different makeshift structures behind the gardens at the rear of the property. Corrugated iron roof panels were slowly collapsing on to dozens of exotic cars which had been stored here for fifty years.

'Probably much like Lord Carrington and Howard Carter, on being the first person for centuries to enter Tutankhamun's tomb, it really was a case of waking up sleeping beauty.'

Entrepreneur Roger Baillon ran a prosperous transport and truck-manufacturing business in the 1950s and amassed a large collection of cars which he dreamed of restoring for display in a museum. Part of the collection was sold in the 1970s and everyone thought all the cars had gone, but these 60 cars were hidden away on another part of the estate and have lain dormant ever since.

The list of cars includes mouth-watering rarities. A Talbot-Lago T 26 Cabrilolet once owned by ex- King Farouk of Egypt who led an extravagant lifestyle and owned a large collection of prestigious cars. Eight other Talbot-Lagos languish in these sheds, three with Saoutchik coachwork. The 1930 Hispano Suiza H6B Cabriolet with coachwork by Million-Guilet looks sound and will no doubt be good as new in years to come. There’s a Ballot Eight cylinder limousine tucked in there somewhere, an all-original Bugatti 57 Ventoux,  a C 1925 Barré torpedo, a 1920s Citroën Trèflewith a little surface rust and a couple of Mathis cars.

A Delage D6 and a D8 are buried amongst these gems, three Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 models are lurking in the undergrowth, an early Renault AX torpedo and a cyclecar that sits on just 3 wheels – a 1920s Sanford looking complete and eager to run with a little oil and petrol. I hope we see it at Montlhéry next year. Indeed, it is fascinating to imagine all these cars finding new enthusiastic owners who will once again breathe life into them and raise a glass to Roger Baillon for doing his best to preserve them for us.

Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy Artcurial.com

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