Tour de France 1965: MEGA-Connies on a truck

[whirlpolf]

Now look at this: A whole convoy of giant Hoovers!
Have you ever had a ride IN a Conny?

http://cyclingmodel.over-blog.com/a...ur-de-france-a-80-ans-10-hoover-49453533.html

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Hasn't

everyone???

 

[DesertTortoise]

Well, why not? We have the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, lol.

Where did you ever find those images? Wish I could read French.

 

[rugsucker]

giant vacs

In the early days of Electrolux in Europe there were both motorcycles with Elux sidecar and giant Mo XII style vac-car.The Bristol,VA factory had a go cart size LE style Elux that would be in local parades.
Hoover had a giant Constellation in US to take to trade shows and dealer meetings.It seems to have been reworked later into a giant Celebrity.
Great pics above.Thanks.
In addition to the above mentioned Wienermobile there was a giant Zippo in PA on top of a 48 Chrysler.And many giant products including typewriters at Worlds Fairs.(I once happened to talk to a mechanic that had to put a starter on the Weinermobile before a parade in SC.I think he said it used Ford running gear.)

 

[whirlpolf]

French translation

the ad campaign convoy of the Tour de France is getting 80 years old: chapter 10 - Hoover

To celebrate the anniversary of the campaign convoy beginning on the 6th May 2010 you will find daily pictures of its sponsors that have shaped the history of the most popular display of advertisement vehicules in France. So you can do the whole tour within 80 days!

Today: 10 - Hoover's ad convoy


The 1950s and 60s are the most favorable era regarding a better lifestyle for French and European households. Their electric household equipment keeps growing like never before. Within this context the leaders of the the industry compete in an advertising battle in the press, on the radio and on TV.

The campaigning convoy of the Tour de France is an unsurpassed method of doing their promotions among a large and familiar public. While Paris-Rhône sponsors the broom truck (note: broom vac truck?), Hoover gets to integrating a whole convoy of even several cars that cannot fail to be noticed.

(image 1)
There are two types of cars: The largest ones (2 cars made in 1961, body work by Pourtout de Rueil Malmaison) mounted on the chassis of a Renault Estafette, while the smaller ones are based on the Fiat Multipla.
(image 2)
Madam, would you like a gliding vac? Hoover has made one!
(image 3)
No slogan at all, there is nothing better than a car body to "push the message"
(image 4)
This color photo shows us the real colors of the cars lined up and ready for the Tour de France of 1965. In the middle there is "the sphere", a car based on an Estafette, it was the leading car to open the Hoover parade. It still exists today and it was even used in a (LINK) TOTAL commercial (end LINK) called the Boneschi Circus.

This car is kept at QFT in Bretagne. According to my information one of the vacuum cleaners had been bought back by the administration of a community in Jura who used it for a local demonstation. Unfortunately there was nobody there who could confirm this on the spot. Anyway, the car does no longer exist.

(some copyrights and sponsor names)

 

[hydralique]

These are too cool! Given that they were made in France in the early ‘60s it seems a shame that they could not have been based on a modified Citroen D series platform with hydropneumatic suspension so like the Constellation they would have lifted up when started. No doubt the Estafette and Multipla chassis were cheaper, though with both featuring sub-1 liter engines I doubt if they went anywhere as rapidly as a real Constellation can shoot across a smooth floor!

 

[gottahaveahoove]

EXACTLY!

Couldn't have said it better. Couldn't have said it at all. but.....................

 

[whirlpolf]

hydralique, vous me parlez de mon coeur

That is SO right, I didn't even think of that!
I had a Citroën CX 25 GTI for a couple of years, the best car of my entire life. I loved it to death (literally ;-//)
It was eating gas like a bathtub without a plug on a toilet drain tube, but back then, what the heck.
Those were good days when my beloved "Luc" was just sitting there like a sleeping cat, stretching and yawning to get up to life, slowly raising and then inviting me with its open roof window to a supernaturally smooth ride.
THAT would have been THE Hoover air cushion gliding race, SO true!

(Note that I was giving the car the shock & kill test then, trying to figure out at what speed I would feel a bump at all)

I set the "hydro pneumatic" system on level 3 and would try curbs, field paths, sheer corn fields and even smaller wooden logs across the way with increasing speeds: NO bumps, just all horizontally hovering gliding rides (while the wheels were wobbling up and down unnoticed by me) and all along an innocent hum up to 75 km/h (that is about 46 mp/h)
and with the lugs and wooden beams across a field path I would feel and hear something at 35 km/h only (about 21 mp/h).
Anything else was just this smooth straight line shooting forward "water bed" feeling, hardly any sounds, no wind rattles, the radio was on volume 2 of 10 (I probably might have been able to place a cup of coffee on the dashboard without a spill, if it hadn't been so "space age curved").

And the turbo, I loved it: One slam, one vacuumlike "whee" and that car would smash forward to almost 250 km/h in no time (about 150 mp/h), making overtaking a breeze. Just let go and it returned to the familiar purr with its "living room" attitude.

But I am getting carried away.... just praying to the gods of high speed transportation to give it a decent place. ;-)