Fading Beauty – 1953 Chapron Delahaye 235 MS

If I was able to use only two words to describe my experience of driving the elegant Chapron Delahaye 235 MS on the open roads of England then they would be, “A handful!” On first sight, I found this French machine easy on the eye, with more than an echo back to the beautiful pre-war Art Deco era. However, under its swooping exterior the car displayed a wild side. At 50 miles per hour on an undulating Lincolnshire A-road, this car was not all serene and peaceful. Instead the swooping body pitched and rolled with some aggression, demanding respect—asking the driver to hang on for a wild ride!

THE MAN BEHIND THE MARQUE