In a time where style, class and character were in abundance, Bill Woodul captured these images of the Pro team cars, wagons and vans in the mid to late seventies. Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Mercedes, Fiat and BMW and the iconic Merckx Volvo. Pure class without a mega-bus in sight.

Hand-painted sponsorship decals by craftsmen with an eye for style set these apart from today’s contemporary computer-generated stickered cars, and even if some of them don’t look like the most practical solution for transporting bikes, these Euro autos are definitely timeless and something special.

So who was Bill Woodul? An American mechanic who helped pioneer the professionalism of race wrenching, he is probably best recognised for his bald pate, bushy moustache and bushier chest, as displayed in the iconic Campagnolo Buick photograph below.

Would you get in that car with that man? Shit yeah, if it meant getting to ride those sweet steel machines dripping in Italian componentry!

Peugeot 504. I owned the very same wagon in the late 90s, it was still going strong after 400k+ kilometres but was finally killed by my lack of attention to oil levels. (Brett)

Citroen CX 2000. My parents owned one in the late 70s, it was a 2200 Pallas from memory, all the bells and whistles and impressed the girls when I got to borrow it. (Brett)

The classic and iconic Molteni Volvo 244, instantly recognisable as “Eddy’s car”. There’s a mint example of one, maybe this one, in the Tour of Flanders  museum in Oudenaard, Belgium. 

Anything Eddy can do, Freddy can do too. Volvo of Freddy Maertens’ Flandria team.