L'Auto-Journal is a bimonthly magazine created in 1950 byRobert Hersant and editor-in-chief Gilles Guérithault, devoted to automobiles.[1] Notable journalists who have worked forl'Auto-Journal includeRoland Gaucher andJean-Marie Balestre. The headquarters is in Paris.
The journal pioneered "automobile scoops". Famously, they published pictures of the radical newCitroën DS in April and June 1952, more than three years ahead of the car's October 1955 launch at theParis Motor Show.[2] Sketches of the future cars appeared, drawn by the car specialist and historianRené Bellu.[2][3] A further scoop picture, now showing the reconfigured rear roof-line as it would appear on the production cars, was published some two months ahead of its 1955 launch.Citroën reacted fiercely toL'Auto-Journal's scoops, accusing the magazine ofindustrial espionage. The police even raided the offices of the journal. Relations with Citroën remained difficult for some years, while the motoring press more generally reacted by routinely describing Citroën as "famously secretive".
L'Auto-Journal was also the first magazine to test cars in France under the everyday conditions likely to be encountered by drivers. The resulting test reports were detailed and well written.[according to whom?] At a time when the handling qualities of many cars in post-war France were poor, this approach to road tests was a welcome innovation. The most famous test driver of the golden years ofL'Auto-Journal wasAndré Costa.
At the end of 1969,L'Auto-Journal abandoned the newspaper-style broadsheet format that it had employed for nearly two decades, in favour of a magazine format. For many years after that the magazine still stood out from the crowd because the pages were longer, by approximately 15%, than those of the standard format used by other magazines.[4]
Now computer-generated images and photoshops have replaced Bellu's drawings, but the automobile scoops are still the specialty ofL'Auto-Journal, especially regarding future French cars.
