Remember when your local downtown department store used to have elaborate window displays from Thanksgiving until the new year? Renault's taken a page from that book, building a "Cabinet of Curiosities" along the Champs-Elysées that includes a presidential Twingo and a car covered in pasta. It's not quite Santa and reindeer, but a tribute to tradition isn't exactly what Renault had planned.
The tiny Twingo, a car that's most often seen crammed into impossible Parisian parking spots, got a facelift for 2012. Apparently, Renault felt the cars needed a little more panache, so they handed a few Twingos over to a chef, a fashion designer, a British pop star and a German interior designer.
The results are predictable, yet entertaining: Michelin-starred Italian chef Davide Scabin gave the car the "Fusilli Jerry" treatment by covering the interior in pasta, French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac gilded the dashboard and replaced the seats with French royal furniture, singer and entrepreneur Nicola Roberts turned the back seat into a recording studio and front seat into a dressing room, and German designer Nils Holger Moormann built a library complete with wood floors, a fireplace and a cozy sofa.
Each car is meant to show off the Twingo's versatility while giving the low-cost car some much-needed personality. The previous generation of Twingo was criticized for being too anonymous when compared to the original, frog-eyed car the debuted in 1993. According to Renault, the recent redesign is intended to give the car a "cheerful" front end.
"Our generation demands a new low-cost luxury. We have to reconcile creativity and democracy," said de Castelbajac, who designed his tarted-up Twingo with an eye for powerful politicians. "It should be a cast-iron rule for all candidates in the Presidential elections that they have to travel in a Presidential Twingo."
If your plans include Paris this winter, you have until January 21st to see the repurposed Renaults.
Photos: Renault
