Henri Chapron

Henri Chapron (30 December 1886 - 14 May 1978) was a prominent French automobile coachbuilder. His atelier, created in 1919, was located in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.

A Henri Chapron badge

Chapron was born in Nouan-le-Fuzelier (Sologne),[1] and began his career developing custom body designs for French luxury vehicles, like Talbot, Delage, and Delahaye, in the 1920s.

France ceased building vehicles of this type in the 1950s, due to tax legislation that made luxury vehicles prohibitively expensive in France (see Tax horsepower#France).

Chapron switched his attention to the recently launched Citroën DS. At first, Chapron purchased these vehicles and customised them as one-off creations. Many of these became unique convertible variants. He soon supplied Citroën directly, distributing a "Décapotable usine" (factory convertible) through their worldwide dealership network - 1,365 cars in all.[2]

In 1968, Chapron made a special extended DS Presidential model for the government of Charles de Gaulle. 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 Paris in 1978, and the company itself survived for some time under the direction of his widow.[1] Less than five months after Chapron's own death the company presented a Landaulet bodied conversion constructed for a rich Dutch customer, based on a lengthened Peugeot 604.[1] There were hopes this might lead to a low but steady production of similar conversions, as had happened during with Chapron's lengthened specials based on the Citroën DS.[1] That did not happen, but the company did produce some special luxury versions, with lavishly equipped interiors, of the Citroën CX.[1] Operations finally ceased in 1985.[1]


  • A sampling of the great custom bodies by Henri Chapron
  • 1931 Delage D8 by Henri Chapron
  • A Delage D8 rebodied by Chapron in 1948
  • 1948 Delahaye 135MS by Chapron
  • 1967 Citroën DS Convertible "usine"
  • 1972 SM Presidential

See also

Sources and notes
  1. "Automobilia". Toutes les voitures françaises 1979 (salon [Paris, Oct] 1978). Paris: Histoire & collections. 84s: 8. 2006.
  2. "Eye Candy: 1970 Citroen Chapron". Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
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