The 1934 Voisin C27 Grand Sport Cabriolet. Michael Furman Photography

La Vision de Voisin

Mullin Automotive Museum

Through April 12

Oxnard, Calif.


There are probably no more luxurious examples of art deco's ground-breaking marriage of utility and design than the French automobiles of the 1920s and '30s. And Gabriel Voisin was a visionary in that field, building handmade cars that were highly prized by the likes of Rudolph Valentino and Man Ray. "La Vision de Voisin" claims to be the largest display of the ultraluxe automobiles ever assembled. Sixteen of the 17 cars are owned by Mr. Mullin, while the other is on loan from the collection of fellow California vintage-car buff Arturo Keller.




"The whole idea of the art deco period was that there was no reason a utilitarian object couldn't be beautiful," Mr. Mullin said. "And that's very much what these cars stand for."


Other notable models include one of only two known surviving Type 28s. It was originally delivered to an officer in the French Embassy in Berlin in 1938 and later displayed in the Cité de l'Automobile National Museum. There's also a one-of-a-kind 1938 Type C30 Cabriolet, and a 1939 Type C30 S Coupe, one of only five surviving from the original 30 that were built. This is the first time that C30 is being seen in public outside of France.


"I had conceived a chassis-less design, constructed solely from fabricated panels, to which the engine and suspension could be mounted directly," Voisin wrote in one of his diary entries featured here.

He also developed one of the first monocoques, the revolutionary car design in which the majority of a vehicle's weight is carried by the skin. His 1923 C3 model was one of the first to feature leaf-spring suspension.

Voisin was not shy about his accomplishments. In one of his salon catalogs, shown at the Mullin, a page carries just these words: "Our 18 world records in all categories have never been beaten."

Boastful? Yes. But justifiably so.

Mr. Yost is a writer in Chicago.