The Darl'Mat Peugeots were conceived in the middle of the 1930s at a meeting of three talented men: designer and inventor Georges Paulin, coach builder Marcel Pourtout and dealership owner Emile Darl'Mat. Clear symbols of elegance and performance and a reference point in the tradition of French coach-building, they would shine just as well in the many concours d'élégance as at the tracks of Montlhèry and Le Mans racetrack. Marcel Pourtout, born in 1894, started his career in the automobile industry very early on, notably with the famous Darracq and De Dion constructors. At the end of the First World War, after having worked for the Aubertin coach builders, he opened his first coach building workshop in Bougival near Paris, an enterprise that brought him quick success. Shortly afterwards, Pourtout met Emile Darl'Mat - a prominent Peugeot dealership owner. The latter had started to concentrate on Peugeots as early as 1923, after the sale of the La Buire automobile company. His aim was to provide his clients with numerous options that would improve the performance and aesthetics of standard factory models. The third man, Georges Paulin, a dental technician by trade, was also a talented draughtsman and the inventor of the retractable hardtop coupé-cabriolet concept. This invention would be patented in July 1932 as the Éclipse system, which would have to wait until 2001 before reappearing on a production vehicle, the 206 CC series. Paulin met Pourtout, who seemed enthusiastic about this novelty, to the point of asking him to design an Éclipse coach work for a Hotchkiss chassis in 1933, as part of a project commissioned by one of his clients. To be continued on the Road Inc App www.roadincorporated.com

Jewel in the British automotive industry crown, the new Bentley Continental R was bound neither by fashion nor by regulatory constraints. This masterpiece from the craftsmen at H.J.Mulliner didn't aim to set any records for its power, but to combine speed, the number of seats, driving comfort and a luxury interior in the most graceful way possible. It was the most expensive car in the world. "The quality will remain when the price is forgotten", as Henry Royce once said... In 1937, Bentley envisioned a new lightened chassis in the spirit of the Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental, which had appeared in 1931, a year after the company was taken over by Rolls-Royce. The resulting prototype, called the Corniche, was tested on French main roads, the favourite high-speed testing ground for British car manufacturers, giving rise to the name 'Continental' for the most powerful models. This prototype also owes its existence to Walter Sleator, of Bentley's French importer Franco-Britannic. One of his customers, Mr. Embiricos, purchased a Bentley 4 ¼ Liter chassis from him and had it bodied by designer Georges Paulin. His requirements were precise: it had to be a highly streamlined four-seater coupé and as light in weight as possible. Coachbuilders Pourtout were given the job of building this groundbreaking masterpiece. The so-called 'Embiricos' Bentley was later purchased by Sleator, who was so impressed by the car's performance that he urged the factory to develop a new model along the same lines. To be continued on the Road Inc App www.roadincorporated.com