Henri Chapron
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Henri Chapron (b. in 1886 in Nouan-le-Fuzelier - d. in 1978 in Levallois) was a prominent French automobile coachbuilder. His atelier, created in 1919, was located in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.
Chapron began his career developing custom body designs for French luxury vehicles, like Talbot, Delage, and Delahaye, in the 1940s.
As France ceased building vehicles of this type in he 1950s, Chapron switched his attention to the recently launched, revolutionary Citroën DS. At first he purchased these vehicles and customised them as one-off conversions. Many of these became the unique convertible varant of the DS. In 1961, the Citroën dealership network began distributing a standard 'usine' two door factory convertible, built by Chapron. In the years 1961 to 1971, 1,365 of these vehicles were made - they are highly collectible today.
Chapron continued his one-off conversions as well. When the Citroën SM was introduced in 1970, Chapron created two new variants - the Mylord convertible (7 made) and the Opéra four door sedan (8 made).
In 1968, Chapron made a special extended DS Presidential model for the government of Charles de Gaulle. Then in 1972, Chapron delivered two SM Presidential models to the government of Georges Pompidou. These gigantic 4 door convertibles were first used for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to France and continued in use through the inauguration of Jacques Chirac in 1995.
Henri Chapron died in 1978, and the company itself survived for some time under the direction of his widow, producing some luxury versions of the Citroën CX. It ceased operations in 1985.
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