Gallery: a preview of Retromobile 2019's incredible Artcurial auction

We were fortunate enough to be given a preview of this at times incredible and in places slightly esoteric set of lots as the famous French salon kicked off in earnest on Wednesday (February 6th). Inside we found not just the incredible Alfa – which is expected to sell for up to €22,000,000 – but also a selection of fast Citroëns (AX Sport, Visa 1000 Pistes, BX 4TX) and an incredible selection of Formula 1 helmets, each set to sell for tens of thousands of Euros.

Around the sky-high sellers and slight oddities were some legends and potential legends too. Crammed into a corner, sandwiched heavily between two other cars you'll find an Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake (€800,000-1million), a few metres away sits a sparkling orange BMW M1 (€425-500,000), and a little further down is the slightly bizarre, but no doubt awesome, Mercedes SLR Stirling Moss Edition (€2-2.5million).

We could go on about the rows upon rows of iconic machinery, but if we had to pick a few favourites we probably could. The GRR team are mostly together in their love for the slightly bizarre, but achingly awesome Alfa Romeo SZ, it is hard not to find any BMW 2002 Turbo exciting and the trio of ultra-rare Serenissimas is unlikely to be seen together again. But sat just at the entrance, and enticing a lot of interesting glances is what could almost be described as a kit car replica. A Bugatti Type 57 which the bonkers Erik Koux turned into an Atlantic. It's yours for €1.2million, which is still a darn sight cheaper than a real one...

Photography by Tom Shaxson.