Magnus Walker leads a charmed life. Not only has he worked hard to build a life-style many want to emulate, he gets to wear his hair in a way that has no place in most offices. Best of all—he gets to take a classic 2.7 RS through Paris in an attempt to recreate some of the magic of the seminal C’etait un Rendezvous, and do it with today’s 360 degree video technology.
I’m going to assume that most readers here have some idea of what that film was about, but for those who’ve made their habitation underneath a boulder, Rendezvous depicts a crazed man hammering through the streets of Paris with a blaring Ferrari providing the soundtrack. Director and driver Claude Lelouche turns out to have been driving his 6.9-liter Mercedes 450SEL in the film and added the scintillating Scuderia soundtrack in post, but it doesn’t diminish any of the charm or the impact the film had on a generation of hot rodders. Had it not been for this seminal film, movies like Getaway in Stockholm might not have existed.
Walker doesn’t shirk his responsibility to keep that spirit alive. During a more conservative drive through the French capital, he pilots an iconic ’72 RS past the Louvre, around the Arc de Triomphe, and down the Champs-Élysées to elicit some of the magic of that film, and to better understand the logistical challenge of avoiding the authorities and the dense traffic in central Paris. Hats off, Magnus.