The French National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse, France houses two of the more unusual cars that can be called works of art - indeed their maker was an artist in the classic style who earned a living designing locomotives. Paul Arzens had an imagination without boundaries and this is reflected in both his designs for these two cars and his work as an industrial designer. That he continued to drive these cars almost until his death in 1990, at age 87 also tells us he was eccentric in a Parisian way. There appears to be little of a biography on this remarkable designer.
It may be hard to tell, but both Arzens cars were designed for a purpose - uses at either end of the automobile spectrum. They are a lot more clever than they appear at first glance. The larger vehicle, the Arzens Cabriolet ‘La Baleine’ was built in 1938 on a platform provided by a late 1920s Buick, using a 3.5 litre (214 cubic inch) straight six engine. Baleine is French for whale. At almost 7 metres in length, the Baleine has an appropriate nick-name.
At the other end of the scale is the 1942 Arzens L’Oeuf Electrique, transcribed as the Arzens Electric Egg. The first version of this car was electric powered by a bank of five 12 volt batteries driving an electric motor on the single rear wheel. The car was built by Arzens during the German occupation of Paris. It is acknowledged as the world’s first bubble car, the best known of these being the Isetta which came after WW2. Arzens car was made out of hand-formed aluminium and Plexiglass windscreen and doors. The electric motor was later changed to a 125cc petrol engine. All up the car tipped the scales at just 60 kg and Arzens was able to easily lift the car’s rear end to manouevre it around. It became a common sight around Paris.
So, how could one designer come up with such radically opposed automobile concepts? The answer to that probably lies in the passions that made Paul Arzens tick: Art and mobility. He was an accomplished artist in the classic sense. He traveled and painted on canvas. For that he needed mobility and space for his tools of trade. What was needed was a large car. La Baleine was his artistic answer. The massive boot became his storeroom for paints, canvasses and materials and the cabin his atelier as he used the huge car to travel to where he found suitable subjects for his work.
Just like La Baleine, Euof Electrique also had a purpose - artistic and practical. Once again Arzens combined his needs with his artistic flair. As a resident of Paris, La Baleine was at the pointy end of impractical as a city car. It was longer than many trucks with a bonnet that seems to stretch to the horizon. Arzens needed a city commuter. Out of this need and his vivid imagination the world’s first bubble car hit the streets of Paris in 1942. It is a remarkable car with smooth, clean lines and a top speed of around 70 km/h. Arzens built at least three `bubble’ cars in the 1940s. Arzens remained zealous of his creations and he alone drove the Egg or the Whale.
While Arzens produced these two remarkable cars, he is best known as a locomotive designer - work that came well after his car designs. He was a student of the Paris Fine Arts School, which gave him a grounding in design. In 1947 he was appointed designer for the French State owned railway company, SNCF. This led to his design of SNCF BB9004 which set a world record speed of 331 km/h in 1954, despite this speed badly deforming the tracks between Lamothe and Morcenx.
He went on to design most of the locomotives for SNCF in the 1950s and 60s including one classic design for a locomotive front end that saw the windscreen tilted back at the bottom, the same as the WW2 Blitz trucks. The reasoning was similar. The Blitz windscreens were designed to stop upward reflection of the sun which allowed the trucks to be spotted by enemy aircraft. The Arzens train design was simply to stop reflection. These trains were used by France, Finland, Holland and Belgium railways. He also designed a scenic railway carriage specifically for use by tourists and was also credited with re-designing five Metro stations in the Paris underground system.
These cars represent an unusual perspective on the automobile at the Mulhouse museum, which also houses the amazing Schlumpf Collection.
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