A Renault for the Sultan

By mid November 1935, the Parisian coachbuilder Letourneur & Marchand received an order from the Renault agency in Casablanca, Morocco, to build a tourer body for a prestigious customer: the Sultan of Morocco.

The Sultan, Mohammed V of Morocco, enjoyed nice automobiles and he always chosen with special care his parade cars. His first one was a splendid Farman A6B with a torpedo body by Million-Guiet that was in used until the early ‘40s.

In 1935, the young Sultan is looking for a new and modern car. Morocco being a French protectorate, a French car is a must so a Renault Nerva Grand Sport, chassis # 735026, is acquired and send to Letourneur & Marchand, one of the most famous Parisian coachbuilder.

From the order book, we know that the body type is a double cabriolet with grey paint and grey leather. The Renault is delivered to the Sultan on March 15th, 1936.

Bing, Bang... Bignan

Founded by Jacques Bignan in 1918, the Bignan Sport was built in Courbevoie, a suburb in the West of Paris. The first model was a 17 CV equipped with a 4 cylinder engine (85 x 130) which was produced until 1922. A quite good car which allows Albert Guyot to win the Grand Prix de Corse. Then, from 1923, a smaller model, the type 17000, a 2 liter straight four engine was built until 1929. Some of these cars raced in competition with few successes: the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1923, the 24 hours of SPA in 1924.

In 1926, the company is bankrupted and bought by Emile Précloux. The new Bignan cars are then mounted with CIME, SCAP or Salmson engine. The production completely stopped in 1931.

Le Gotha de l'Automobile Française

This book, written by two enthusiasts, two experts, is a tribute to the French luxury cars through the most beautiful models produced by the automobile manufacturers of France, from the very beginning of the 20th century to the late `50s.

The authors gave free rein to their passion for us to share their admiration and enthusiasm for this great adventure too little known of the luxurious French automobile. They chose several hundred of sumptuous photos, of great variety, most of them never published, among the thousands that passed through their hands. They have selected reproductions of the most luxurious catalogues made by French master printers.
These illustrations could totally stand by themselves. However, for those who want to know more about what France has given to luxury cars, these pictures are discussed using precise and varied text, excerpts of period motoring press or catalogs manufacturers, texts from contemporary writers.

Today, while cars are designed and built-in by computers, it is good to evoke time when it was the men who drew and built them with their hands. This is a mural of more than a century of sumptuous cars, real objects of art and mechanical perfection, bodies of sublime beauty that unfolds before our eyes throughout these pages, showing that if the automobile industry was born in France, this country has also invented the concept of the luxury car.

Le Gotha de l'Automobile Française

Claude Rouxel, Laurent Friry

Publisher : ETAI, 2010

ISBN : 2726888879

Peugeot 201 in concours

This nice sedan is a Peugeot type 201 in a concours d’elegance, somewhere in France, in 1929.
The body is a standard work sedan, the wire wheels are an option proposed by Peugeot and the radiator mascot has been chosen by the proud owner.

The concours d’elegance were not only dedicated to the “automobiles de grand luxe” such as Hispano, Bugatti , Delage and other Delahaye. Popular cars such as this tiny Peugeot were allowed to participate in their own class. Peugeot but also Renault, Citroën, SIMCA and other popular cars were familiar to those meetings of elegance.

Streamline by Gaston Grummer

At the 1934 Paris motor show, Gaston Grummer exhibits his latest creation, a Renault Nervasport with a special body called “aeroprofil”.

With the support of Guillaume Busson, a car designer specialist in streamlined bodies, Grummer first “aeroprofil” is a coupe on a Citroën Rosalie chassis and soon followed by a 6c1500 Alfa Romeo.

During 1934, several “aeroprofil” are built among them two Renault Nervasport, one Hotchkiss, one Delage D8 that is sent to the New-York city motor show.
Unfortunately, very few people will be interested by this style of car that is probably considered as too futuristic. The poor economical situation of France in 1936 is fatal to the Carrosserie Grummer which goes bankrupt the same year.

T23 by Figoni & Falaschi

This photo of Talbot-Lago is quite well known, published in different books but always wrongly identified as being a T150 chassis, some authors even indicate the chassis number as being 90101.

In fact this car is a T23 model and its chassis number is 89076.

The coachbuilder is, of course, Figoni & Falaschi, famous for their tear drop coupe design: le coupé goutte d’eau.

This T23 got its registration number, 2270-RL1, département de la Seine in June 1937. The fate of 89076 is not known, it disappears in the South of France in the early 50’s.

Bugatti type 73

At Paris motorshow in october 1947, a completely new Bugatti car, the type 73 is exhibited. This is one of the last cars designed by le Patron, and exhibited few months after the death of Ettore Bugatti, on 21 august 1947.

The project for the Type 73 probably started prior to WWII. Different versions of the type 73 are planned: the 73, a sport car, powered by a straight 4 motor of 1.5 liter (70x95); the 73A passenger car equipped with a single cam engine (76x82) ; the 73C, a racing version with the same engine as the type 73 but a with a lighter chassis.

Built at the workshop located rue du Débarcadère, Paris, the prototype chassis is sent to the Carrosserie Pourtout, in Rueil, to be coach built as two-door saloon. The design of the body is very typical Bugatti late design; it can be seen as an evolution of the type 57S Atlantic and of the type 64, both due to the genius of Jean Bugatti, Ettore’s son.

The Paris motor show car has never been sold; it ended-up in Molsheim and was part of the factory cars acquired by Fritz Schlumpf in April 1963.
Repainted in cream color, this car can be seen today at the Cité de l’Automobile in Mulhouse.