For Paris Classic Car Week, the City of Lights transforms itself into a living museum of the automobile, where vintage bodies, legendary engines and legendary stories come together. For several days, through exhibitions, auctions and led by the heart of the programme, the Rétromobile show at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, collectors, enthusiasts and the curious celebrate the most iconic and timeless products of the automobile.
This is precisely the spirit in which Artcurial Motorcars, the renowned auction house specialising in classic cars, youngtimers, motorbikes and exceptional motoring objects, has once again this year taken over one of the most emblematic venues in Parisian luxury: The Peninsula Paris.
Automobile Legends: the automobile as a work of art
This event, Automobile Legends, organised by Artcurial at the prestigious palace « The Peninsula Paris », is not just a simple auction. The event has been designed as an immersive exhibition, with some sixty exceptional vehicles on display in the hotel’s Garage Privé, transformed for the occasion into a car gallery.
Among the vehicles on display are a number of exceptional automobiles, including a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’, a Jaguar E-Type and a number of iconic sports models. The centrepiece is the legendary Ferrari F92A driven by Jean Alesi in the 1992 Formula 1 World Championship. During that season, he finished on the podium twice, results that led to the Frenchman receiving this single-seater as a gift from the Scuderia. And yet, in the midst of these icons of the past, one object stands out.
Cybertruck takes its place among the legends
In the Automobile Legends sale catalogue, one vehicle immediately catches the eye, as much as it raises questions: a Tesla Cybertruck CyberBeast Limited Edition « Foundation Series », vintage 2024.
This vehicle is the exact opposite of what we usually expect here. Where classic cars celebrate curves and historic combustion engines, Tesla’s pick-up boasts raw, almost industrial lines, but above all an ultra-vitamin 100% electric engine. Where the models on display often recount a glorious past, the Cybertruck speaks exclusively of the future, and yet it is precisely this contrast that makes sense.
In its CyberBeast version, the Cybertruck represents the pinnacle of Tesla’s offering: a three-motor electric architecture, unprecedented power for a vehicle of this size, and performance worthy of certain supercars (0-100 km/h in 2.7 seconds). What makes it unique? It’s one of just 400 Foundation Series cars, unobtainable in Europe and sold without reserve at Artcurial. It’s a truly futuristic collector’s item for visionaries.
A strong signal for electromobility
To see a Cybertruck being auctioned alongside historic Ferraris, Jaguars and Mercedes at an event dedicated to automotive legends says a lot about the changing face of electromobility.
For a long time, electric vehicles were seen as rational solutions, devoid of passion and rarely desirable in the eyes of collectors. The presence of the Cybertruck at Paris Classic Car Week has changed all that.
Electromobility, through this Tesla, becomes a marker of the era, a potential collector’s item. The Cybertruck is not yet a legend in the classical sense of the term, but it is already a cultural symbol, which is what historically forges automotive icons.
Artcurial is sending out a clear message: the history of the automobile and the passion it inspires did not stop with internal combustion engines. It continues to be written, from now on, in electricity.
