1939 Delahaye 135M Cabriolet by Chapron

1939 Delahaye 135M Cabriolet by Chapron

Back in the 30s during the golden days of the “Concours d’Elegance” and “La Grande Carrosserie Française”, Delahaye trusted the best places with splendid bodyworks built by the best specialists of the period such as Chapron, De Villars, Figoni or Saoutchik. These were fantastic days when a customer only bought a chassis from a manufacturer and could choose himself its “carrossier”.

Henri Chapron’s bodyworks were of rare classicism and elegance, he also always took an important care that a car had to be functional, benefitting of a decent driving room, ergonomy, visibility and excellent quality of building. Chapron built thousands of bodyworks and reached in the end of the 30s, quality levels which no other builder could clame. Chapron offered a large range of bodies for the 135, including a very successful and classic Cabriolet Mylord. Apart from the normal production, he crated a taylor-made variant called “Grand Luxe” to satisfy the most demanding customers. This consisted in a new shape of the doors, bonnet, bumpers, wings and redesigned interior with new wood, seats etc… This very expensive option ( a 40% extra ), also proposed to the customer to finish the car upon his own choice into the very least detail. There were only about 40 Cabriolet “Grand Luxe” built by Chapron from 1937 to 1939 and according to the Delahaye club less than 20 authentic ones are know to have survived.

Descriptions & pictures by conceptcarz & rmsothebys & artandrevs & motor24