A reader just sent me this picture, asking if I could identify it. He was told it may be a 1940’s Peugeot concept. Well, I don’t recognize it. There were a lot of one-off cars built in Europe, reflecting the coach-building tradition. Designers and coach builders would team up, and create a car to show at the salons and shows, hoping to attract a few takers.
It could be a Peugeot, but they weren’t exactly common subjects for one-offs. And most of their post-war cars were unibodies, which made coach-built bodies more difficult. In France, more commonly, small premium makes like Delahaye and Delage were used as the basis of one-offs. It’s also a bit hard to get a sense of the size of this car. Can anyone out there give us a positive identification? If not, it’s a nice car to look at anyway.
No but those chrome accents on the fenders say Delage to me, some sort of scale would be handy it could be a rebodied Panhard roadster.
The chrome accents say Saoutchik to me. As you say, Paul, it’s hard to get an idea of the size of this car. The lack of separate front and rear fenders sets it apart from the typical Saoutchik Delage or Delahaye bodies though, or maybe I’m thinking of the lovely Talbot coupes they did.
Seems to be a prototype designed by Jean Albert Gregoire.
Something about the radius of the curves says attempted-copy-of-Saoutchik to me. Or attempted-copy-of-Fignoni-et-Falaschi. They just don’t have the elegance that the originals could come up with easily. Either way, I’m guessing some small time builder, or hopeful builder, trying to piggyback on what was the hot fashion at the time.
Has to be a movie prop
Why am I thinking “Dutch Darrin”?
It’s a Peugeot 402 by Paul Arzens (famous for his l’Oeuf car) from 1946.