retractable hardtop

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

Of our Three Musketeers, only two survived the war. But despite all odds, both Pourtout and Darl’mat continued to create interesting designs well into the 1950s.

Georges Paulin and the Resistance

While it was sad that the Rolls-Royce Paulin Corniche was destroyed at Dieppe, even more tragic is the fact that Georges Paulin did not survive the war. After Hitler’s troops marched into Paris, Paulin joined the French resistance group Albi, which supplied information to British Intelligence. He produced drawings of German installations and armament and transmitted information using a clandestine radio transmitter. Sadly the activities of the Albi cell were betrayed by people working within the Vichy government for the Deuxième Bureau (the French Military Intelligence Service) to the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Service). Georges Paulin, Jacques Kellner, a famous Parisian carrossier and president of the French Coachbuilders Association and Roger Raven, a friend of Paulin who worked at Carrosserie Pourtout and was also part of the Albi resistance group, were arrested and sentenced to death by a German Military Tribunal. Paulin was nearly 40 years old; when on 21 March 1942 he was executed by a firing squad at the fortress of Mount Valérien. In 1944 the government of Charles de Gaulle posthumously awarded Georges Paulin the Medaulle Militaire et Citation à l’Ordre de l’Armée.

Pourtout in the post-war era

During the occupation Carrosserie Pourtout was confiscated by the Germans, who used its workshops and painting facilities to repair army vehicles. When the American troops and the 2nd Armored Division of the Free French army under Général Leclerc advanced to liberate Paris, the retreating German army badly damaged and plundered the buildings. Nearly all the equipment had disappeared.

[Read more…] about The Three Musketeers Part 3

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

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During the 1930s, our Three Musketeers, together and individually, were involved in a number of projects with French, Italian and British carmakers.

Lancia

In 1934-35, Carrosserie Pourtout transferred it activities from Bourgival to the Paris suburb of Rueil-Malmaison. In fact Marcel Pourtout acquired the factory of Hurtu Automobiles in the Rue Paul Doumer. The extra space, facilities, and its trained workers were what he needed to produce small series of special coachwork. There was another reason, however; the proximity to a new factory opened by Lancia.

To avoid paying the sky-high import duties in France, the Italian car manufacturer Lancia, had opened a factory in Bonneuil-sur-Marne (in the Ile de France region). There, Lancia was building the Belna berlina (sold as Lancia Augusta in Italy and elsewhere) and Pourtout had got a contract to build their roadsters, fixed-head coupes and a number of ‘Eclipses’. The order for the first year was no less than 365 of these special-bodied Lancias. [Read more…] about The Three Musketeers Part 2: 1930-1939

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

This is the story of three men who, in the prewar years and especially during the 1930 ties, combined their ambition, enthusiasm and skills to create a number of unforgettable and trendsetting automobiles. The names of these ‘three musketeers’: Emile Darl’mat (1892 – 1970), a successful Paris car dealer, Marcel Pourtout (1894 -1979), a master craftsman and coachbuilder and Georges Paulin (1902 – 1942), a dentist and a very talented ‘amateur’ body designer.

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In 2002 I was lucky enough to interview Claude Pourtout in his office at the Fédération Française de la Carrosserie. Claude was at the time a Vice-President and the historian of this organization. He was also the son of Marcel Pourtout, whose coachbuilding company had built a number of these magic Darl’mat sports cars. He told me quite a lot about the endeavors of his father, his friends Emile Darl’mat, Georges Paulin and the history of the company Carrosserie Pourtout. He also lent me a number of unique drawings and photos, which I was allowed to copy. The originals I returned to him with a draft of my article. We met again at the next Rétromobile show and made an appointment to continue our conversation soon. Unfortunately his health deteriorated and that never happened. When in 2004 he died, I filed my notes because they were incomplete and I more or less forgot about them.

But now I have retrieved them and – with some additional information – here is what he told me.

Emile Darl’mat

The name Darl’mat literally means ‘a very good person’ in Breton, the language of the French province of Brittany. Although born in the north of France, Emile Darl’mat was indeed a very good person. After he had completed his training as a mechanic and worked in a Renault garage, a wealthy businessman offered him a job as chauffeur/mécanicien. He had to accompany the man to San Francisco and remained there for a year. When in 1921 he returned to France, Darl’mat wanted to become a car dealer. During his stay in the US he had managed to save some money and with a loan from his former employer he could sign a lease contract for a garage at 35 Rue Malar in Paris (a stone’s throw from the Esplanade des Invalides). Darl’mat was a man of action with a clear vision about what he wanted to achieve and from 1923 onward his dealership represented Panhard, Peugeot and La Buire automobiles. [Read more…] about The Three Musketeers, Part 1