Gautam Sen
A French car with an Indian provenance, but owned by an American, won the Best of Show, at the very first edition of the Chantilly Art & Elegance Richard Mille Concours d’Elegance competition, held on September 7 at Chantilly, France.
The Delahaye 135 with an exquisite Figoni et Falaschi handbuilt body (of which just 12 were made, and only six survive) had been commissioned by Indophile Frenchman Paul Jourde, in 1938. The car, after completion, was shipped to Bombay in 1939, where it was sold to the Maharaja of Nawanagar, who sold it to the Maharaja of Jaipur, and who seems to have passed it on thereafter. The car, in a very poor state was rediscovered by an English dealer, who had the Delahaye (or whatever remained of it), spirited out of India to France, around 1982.
Peter Mullin, an enthusiast of pre-war French cars, acquired the car in 1992, and since then the car—after a very thorough restoration—has been starring at various shows, the most recent being last February’s Paris Retromobile’s Maharaja Cars special expo, curated, incidentally, by yours truly. This light blue-dark blue Delahaye is indeed a very deserving winner, what with a shape and style that makes it one of the most exclusive and flamboyant of all automobiles ever made.
With over a hundred cars competing in ten different classes, ranging from cars built before December 31, 1904, to up-to-the-minute concept cars, including the stunning DS Divine concept from PSA Peugeot Citroen, which had its world premiere at Chantilly, the 40 judges had a difficult time choosing the winners of each class and the overall Best of Show.
But finally the judges (ranging from luminaries such as Prince Rahim Aga Khan, French philosopher and ex-minister Luc Ferry, Alfieri Maserati and Adolfo Orsi, to well -known experts like PSA Peugeot Citroen’s design chief Jean-Pierre Ploué, FIVA president Patrick Rollet, FFVE boss Laurent Hèriou, Christophe Pund, Rodolphe Rappetti, Bonhams Philip Kantor and Nic Waller from Pebble Beach, other than yours truly, the only one from the East of Suez) with much debating were able to narrow down the choice to that one Delahaye, the one with a strong Indian connection.
The other Indian connection was a very impressive Delaugère et Clayette 24/40 HP from 1904, owned (and driven to the podium) by Daniel Ghose. This extremely rare and, for its time, luxurious and expensive French car won a special prize in the oldest class, that of veterans made before December 31, 1904.
As the only other Indian, yours truly was judging an altogether different class, that of British cars with special Italian coach-built bodies, consisting nine stunning cars, from a rare Pininfarina-designed (but bodied by French company Facel) Bentley Cresta from 1948, one of about 17 built, to the newest, an AC 428 convertible, designed and bodied by Pietro Frua, in Italy, in 1969.
Conceived by Sylviane and Patrick Peter of Peter Auto to revive the true tradition of the concept of rewarding the design of beautiful cars, the first edition of the Chantilly Art & Elegance Richard Mille combined gems from the finest of classic and vintage car garages and collections across the globe with an array of exciting modern-day concept cars and one-offs.
With the intention of developing a top-level European Concours competition and bettering the world-famous Pebble Beach do, Patrick Peter has designed the Chantilly Art & Elegance Richard Mille event along the lines of a pre-war gathering of the most beautiful hand-built cars, with women dressed in matching haute couture wear from leading Parisian fashion houses, such as Paco Rabanne, Thierry Mugler and the recently in-vogue on aura tout vu, amongst others.
-Gautam Sen, a judge at the Chantilly Art & Elegance Richard Mille concours d’elegance competition, gives us a glimpse of the cars that rocked and rolled.
