Vaillante
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Les Usines Vaillante is a fictional France-based and family-run automobile manufacturer created by Henri Vaillant and specialized in trucks and high performance sports cars and which is featured in the French comic book series Michel Vaillant.
Vaillante was in the beginning a French transporting company. They also created their own trucks and cars, and decided to enter the Formula 1, with Michel Vaillant, the son of Henri, as their pilot. The chief designer of Vaillante is Jean-Pierre, the elder brother of Michel.
The Vaillante logo is very similar to that of actual French auto maker Matra.
Vaillante has a large following in France and Belgium, and there are many toy models of Vaillante cars available, based on the series. There have been also a few attempts to create real Vaillante cars, both road cars and racing cars. Recently, in 2002, a Vaillante prototype participated in Le Mans to obtain footage for the Luc Besson film Michel Vaillant.
In 2006, a prototype blue SEAT Ibiza Vaillante designed by Luc Donckerwolke is presented in Geneva.
[edit] Main models
- Vaillante Commando
- Vaillante Marathon
- Vaillante Rush
- Vaillante Ouragan
- Vaillante Le Mans
