As well as building the factory catalogued DS cabriolets for Citroën, Henri Chapron maintained a steady trade in small batches of more specialised variations on the same theme for a decade. These rare and glamorous trinkets have for years been the ultimate prize in the world of DS fancying.
A Chapron, the last of the great French coachbuilders, had forged his reputation building bodies for Delage and Delahaye in a Paris workshop that, at its peak, had employed 350 artisans producing 500 cars annually. But when the French government's post-war fiscal assault on large-engined luxury vehicles killed off the indigenous grande routière trade almost overnight, it looked as if Chapron, starved of body-on-frame raw material for his creations in an industry moving to unitary construction, might follow them into oblivion.
It's strange to reflect, then, that it was the introduction of the ultra-modern DS in 1955 that in effect saved - and reinvented - this very traditional, near-40-year-old business for its already near-70-year-old founder. The déesse (goddess) didn't have a chassis in the conventional sense, but central to the concept of this front-driven, hydro-pneumatically suspended wonder-car was its base unit construction, by which none of outer panels played any part in the rigidity of the body.
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Esta historia es de la edición March 2023 de Classic & Sports Car.
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Mick WALSH
'Had someone said that this worn-looking titan would win the most famous old-car event, we would have laughed'
ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QF
Rewriting the rulebook on what an SUV can do, and how it can make you feel
FLOATING INTO THE FUTURE
Citroën's DS-replacing CX was at a cutting edge so sharp it still looks fresh today, and it had the drive to match - as five superb survivors reveal
"It's a car for posing in really"
Broadcaster Michael Buerk reflects on more than three decades with his beloved Jaguar E-type S1 3.8 fixed-head coupé
HONDAS DECK THE HALL
The Japanese firm's Los Angeles collection is now on public display for the first time in two decades
ABSOLUTELY buzzing
Honda's Si Civics brought agile, cheap fun to motorists long before the Type R name got anywhere near a hatchback
THE FEMININE TOUCH
In 1955, General Motors styling guru Harley Earl brought 11 talented women into the male-dominated world of automotive design. What was their lasting impact?
Out on a limb
Panther's innovative Solo 2 was something completely different, both for its maker and the sports car market
Restyles with substance
Panther Westwinds blended a passion for pre-war designs with modern-era mechanical usability and remarkably fine coachbuilding
Dead ringers
The Maserati Kyalami and De Tomaso Longchamp share much, having emerged from the same stable, but are poles apart at heart