french grand touring cars

By Ed McDonough

Want a video clip of this drive? Send an email to pete@velocetoday.com.

A Chapron Delahaye

It seemed extraordinary to me doing the research for this series, reading a large number of period articles and reviews in notable journals, that many of these totally failed to mention who provided the body for some of the cars reviewed. Was it just a matter of routine that performance cars would have special bodies or could it have been that the reviewer didn’t know? After all, specialised car production was just that, and the history is complex.

Henri Chapron gets a few mentions in 1938, and when the Paris Salon V-12 car was sent to England in 1939, Figoni and Falaschi started to get some attention. But bodies for Delahayes had also been built, often to specific customer orders, by some intriguing people…a 1949 135M with a body built by Pennoch of the Netherlands to a design by Selborne of Mayfair, London. While Figoni and Falaschi may have executed some of the most ‘daring’ designs, bodies were also built by Saoutchik, Franay, Carrozzeria Motta, Carlton Carriage Company, Henri Labourdette, Letourneur et Marchand, and others.

Delahaye used Chapron for its more conservative designs but they were always effective.