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"I&amp;#039;ve always found Paris to be the most stylish of international auto shows. And recently the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California (about 60 miles west of downtown Los Angeles) offered a time machine to transport me to a Paris Auto Show of the 1930s. The museum&amp;#039;s Art Deco ambiance is exactly right for exhibition of these exquisitely styled cars of the period, among them, Bugattis, Delahayes, and my own personal favorites, Voisins.   More than 46,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space is decked out with banners evocative of the 1930s. Photo murals of early Paris shows corroborate how well the setting echoes the era. The museum, on multiple levels (with available elevator), includes a roof garden, theater, gift shop and archives.   One corner is dedicated to the bizarre furniture designs of Carlo Bugatti, father of auto specialist Ettore and his sculptor brother Rembrandt. Carlo&amp;#039;s furniture and fixtures are heavily influenced by Moorish design, fabulously intricate in their execution, using exotic materials as well as common ones in unexpected ways.   Ettore was the engineer of the family, but no less artistic. Look at an engine of a Bugatti, and you&amp;#039;ll see how aesthetics were blended with\u2014in fact, sometimes overshadowed\u2014typical engineering practice. Compare, for instance, the two front axles pictured in the accompanying gallery. An early Type 23 Brescia shows a routine clamping of leaf spring to axle by means of a pair of U bolts. Contrast this with the later design on a Type 35: The leaf spring actually passes through an opening formed into the axle, shims holding it in place. The fabrication of these axles, typical of almost all Bugattis, is anything but straightforward. In fact, it&amp;#039;s a multi-step process that goes far beyond mere manufacturing; it becomes art.           The cars of Gabriel Voisin display a similar dedication to Arts D\u00E9coratifs (whence the term &amp;quot;art deco&amp;quot;). What&amp;#039;s more, unlike other automakers of the era who looked to independent coachwork designers, Voisin kept this authority firmly in-house. Admittedly bizarre\u2014as was the man himself\u2014Voisin cars always delight me with their subtleties of design. Examine the flamboyant 1934 C27 Aerosport: the clever way a rotating lever engages a piano-hinge locking of the hood. Observe the small rectangular skylight in a roof, the latter arcing aft\u2014powered by engine vacuum!\u2014for open-air motoring, that skylight then providing a rear view.   A special aspect of the Mullin is evident in its open design. A few showpieces have mounted displays: For example, the fabulous Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic is one of only three extant, bought anonymously earlier this year for an undisclosed $30-40 million, and on loan to the Mullin. Another special display is Peter Mullin&amp;#039;s own 1939 Delahaye Type 165 Figoni et Falaschi Cabriolet; its New York World&amp;#039;s Fair debut, subsequent highs and low during and after World War II and ultimate restoration making a wonderful Salon article in R&amp;amp;amp;T, March 1993. Almost all of the other cars, though, are arranged artfully with complete, close-up and trusting access to viewing. By the way, photography is permitted, sans tripods.           Other one-of-a-kind autos currently at the Mullin include the Bugatti Type 22 Brescia resurrected in 2009 from Lago Maggiore. For more than 75 years, the car resided at a depth of 173 ft. in this northern Italian lake. Now, as retrieved, it occupies a special niche in the museum.   Another corner is dedicated to an on-going project of the Mullin, Art Center College of Design and the latter&amp;#039;s Chairman of Transportation Design (and R&amp;amp;amp;T friend) Stewart Reed. Following proposals of Jean Bugatti, Ettore&amp;#039;s son who perished as a young man in an auto accident, a Type 64 chassis is getting its first coachwork. One of its features, shown in a photo with the Mullin&amp;#039;s Chief Curator Andrew Reilly, is a gullwing door design\u2014proposed by Jean Bugatti some 13 years prior to the Mercedes-Benz 300SL&amp;#039;s application of the same concept.           It&amp;#039;s planned that the Type 64\u2014with extendable coachwork designed for revealing its mechanicals as well\u2014will be completed in time for Pebble Beach 2011. In the meantime, you can view it as a work in progress\u2014along with the rest of your time travel. Details: Check for days the museum is open, 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.; mullinautomotivemuseum.com; 805 385-5400; 1421 Emerson Avenue, Oxnard, California 93033; tickets: adults $10, seniors (62 +) $7, children (5-12) $5, those younger, free. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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