Visions of Voisins

It'll be the largest collection of Automobiles Voisin ever assembled since the factory closed in 1937. Peter Mullin, collector extraordinaire of beautiful French cars of the art deco movement, has spent the last decade scouring the planet in search of some of the 200 or so remaining Voisins to feature in an exhibit of the marque opening this fall in his Mullin Automotive Museum. The result is 15 cars, one motorcycle and an airplane. Yes, an airplane. The exhibit will feature a replica of a 1907 Voisin biplane. Gabriel Voisin started out making airplanes with his brother Charles before World War I. The Voisin III was very successful in the war effort, but the destruction of that conflict lead Gabriel Voisin to shift his emphasis to cars. Among the 11,000 Voisins built are some of the most beautiful shapes ever to take the road. Two have won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, including Mullin's own C-25 Aerodyne, which won last year. Our favorite is the C-6, a radical race car that won the touring-car class of the 1922 French Grand Prix. The car in the exhibit is a replica but should have all of the details. All the Voisins are full of details. Be sure and look closely at them all if you go. An excellent Web site at which to see all these cars before the exhibit opens is http://automobiles-voisin.fr/e_index.html. For more about the museum, which also houses beautiful Bugattis, Delahayes, Talbot-Lagos and Figoni et Falaschi automobiles, visit www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com. The site includes a list of dates on which the museum is open. The exhibit opens on Nov. 8. The museum is located at 1421 Emerson Ave. in Oxnard, Calif.