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Here's the next entry,

 

JZG

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No...............but the coachbuilder who bodied the car created several bodies for Hispano. The car, one of only two like it produced, is based on an American production passenger car and represents  a melange of production chassis & powertrain which was bodied by one of the more daring, prominent and prestigious coachbuilders in Europe - both cars were orignally sold to European customers on the continent - it all happened during the mid to late '30s

 

The shot above shows the single most distinctive feature of this car.

 

 JZG

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You're both correct, but Wilson identified the marque & model - a 1938 Graham supercharged Model 97 Cabriolet by Saoutchik, called the 'Spirit of Motion'.

 

Photographed at the 'start of the '16 Pebble Beach Tour d;Elegance with - SL / 24-90 V.E.

 

JZG

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Saoutchik's attention to detail is fantastic. Look at the way that the chrome trim round the headlights is let into the surrounding metal and not just mounted on top. Must have taken a huge amount of work to do. I cannot imagine the Graham was a great car for Europe, with its bumpy, crowned and narrow roads of the period. Perhaps more suited to cruising the turnpikes in the USA, although Buicks were popular with the aristocracy and royalty of the period. Much more reliable than the contemporaneous Rolls Royce Phantom III of the period with its notorious over-heating and hydraulic valve lifter problems. Will look something out later today. 

 

Wilson

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Here is your next one. Apologies for the image quality, it was taken with a very early Leica digital (Fuji-Leica). Marque, model and approximate year please. 

 

Wilson

 

 

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Stuart,

 

Right up to the 1950's, many European non-British upmarket cars were made RHD. Nearly all the early Ferraris and Lancias up to 1955 were RHD. I bought my new car in RHD, as it is very wide (over 2 metres across the rear view mirrors) and driving it round the narrow roads where I live in France, RHD is easier to get to the very edge of the road. I notice this when driving my Morgan Three Wheeler which is LHD. You sit so low in it, that you cannot see the RH front wing to position it. My brother has a RHD Morgan Three Wheeler in France and it is much easier to drive on very narrow roads. 

 

Wilson

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Renault 4CV variant … maybe produced under licence other than in France … ad possibly late 40s rather than early / mid 50s 

 

dunk 

 

edit … i'm incorrect … bonnet too long 

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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Correct country but a much more upmarket car than the Renault, albeit a low end model to try and boost sales (it didn't). This is the only one of these cars I have ever seen. Production of this vehicle was killed off by the Pons plan of 1945 for the post-war organisation of the French motor industry, which like much of French life and politics, was fuelled by a self-destructive sense of entitlement, envy and jealousy. 

 

Wilson

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Not a Panhard. More upmarket than Panhard was during the lifetime of this car. This company also made what would now be called Grand Turismo cars, in very limited numbers but they were really just re-hashes of pre-war models, like most of the French top end cars of the period. Very punitive taxes effectively killed the domestic market and with the UK and Italy in the initial few years after the war, producing more exciting and up to date vehicles from the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley and the like, the French cars seemed a bit out of date and over priced. By the time Mercedes was also in the game, the French companies' fate was effectively sealed, although some listed their products as available, right up to the late 1950's (I remember seeing them listed in my Observer's pocket book of the automobile). Companies like Facel Vega tried to resurrect the industry with Franco-American mongrels but the cars were badly built, heavy and desperately unreliable with horrible electrics. They made a Lancia Beta seem rust resistant. 

 

This particular car has a short series coachbuilt body by a coachbuilder much better known for his later bodies on a different marque. 

 

Wilson

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Not Guillore - better known than that. Yes to Delahaye but not a 135 - close though. I am not sure if this was a pre-war car that had the later engine put in it or a post war car. 

 

Wilson

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If someone else wants to positively identify the car please go ahead … if I follow through with the correct Delahaye model I do not have anything ready for the next round … flu has slowed me down.

 

dunk 

 

Dunk, 

 

Sorry to hear that - not the nasty antipodean version I hope. Get well soon. 

 

Wilson

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