The competition version of the 135M that I looked at last week, known as the 135MS, had a more powerful motor giving up to 160hp and a wheel base a shade under 10 inches / 25cm shorter.

The 1947 example featured today was sent to Henri Chapron for the Vedette, French for star, Cabriolet bodywork.

Henri Chapron set up his studio in Paris in 1919 and started designing bespoke bodywork the following year.

Chapron’s method of design was to dictate his ideas to an artist and then keep having the drawings refined until they matched his minds eye.

The interior of this car features a steering wheel made from polymethyl methacrylate, a synthetic organic polymer known then by the trade name Plexiglass and known today by the trade name Lucite.

This Vedette was sent to the 1947 Paris Motor show where it won the Concours d’Elegance thus vehicle is regarded as one f the finest examples of Chapron’s skills.

After the demise of the likes of Delahaye in the mid 1950’s Henri Chapron continued designing cabriolet body work for Citroen DS and SM models, he and his 250 craftsmen are believed to have built around 8,000 bespoke bodies by the time his studio shut down in 1985 seven years after it’s founder died aged 92.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton who took these photo’s of the Chapron Vedette at the Palm Springs Desert Classic last year.

Thanks for joining me on this ” Polymethyl Methacrylate Wheel” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”. I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a trip to the Classic Motor Show in Birmingham. Don’t forget to come back now !