French registration

No technical control

Interesting track record
Eligible for Mille Miglia and Tour Auto
High performance mechanics

In 1952, two long-time friends, Bernard Pichon and André Parat, joined forces to create a bodywork company in Sens, Yonne. The first was gifted at designing cars, and the second, a boilermaker, at bringing them to life. The post-war period was not necessarily oriented towards leisure, and the young bodyworkers therefore began by modifying large American saloon cars into utility vehicles, for which there was a strong demand. In 1951, they had the luxury of taking a stand at the Paris Motor Show, to exhibit a re-bodied Ford Vedette and a very elegant coupé based on a Renault 4 CV. Until the mid-1950s, they transformed nearly 300 Ford Vedettes into station wagons, coupes, modified saloons and convertibles. After an astonishing Renault Frégate cabriolet, the two friends set their sights on the powerful and well thought-out Panhard Dyna Junior roadsters that they modified into coupé by adding a hard top. Bluffed by the agility of the productions of the oldest French manufacturer, they decided to create a berlinette, the design of which was this time entirely signed by Bernard Pichon, who was also very interested in motor racing. In the spring of 1953, the first Dolomites (510 kg weight!) left the workshops of the rue Mocquesouris. The car was built in two versions, the first with a two-part windscreen, flat and V-shaped, and the second with a "panoramic" windscreen. The Dolomites, probably built in about fifteen examples, will delight amateur drivers in competition, with a few class victories, in the 750 or 850 cm3 category depending on the capacity of the Panhard engine adopted. Only one was built on a D.B. chassis, the others being built on Dyna X or Junior platforms, either new or second-hand. The Sens coachbuilders produced two sublime Salmson 2300 S berlinettes, an astonishing 4CV-based butterfly door berlinette (the famous Izoard), Panhard PL 17-based station wagons and Talbot T26 barquettes that raced in the Le Mans 24 Hours. They also worked for a long time with the American designer Raymond Loewy (of French origin), who appreciated their speed of execution and the simplicity of their methods, for some very crazy projects. And it was André Parat who, in 1968, transformed the very long Jaguar Type E in the film Le petit baigneur with Louis de Funès.
The Dolomites that illustrates these pages was invoiced by Pichon and Parat on 30 November 1955 and received at Mines services on 15 December, its title indicating "X 87 MODIFIE 2-seater" and "Conduite Intérieure". The car then headed for Montpellier, and was registered in the Hérault region on 16 December in the name of Antoine Tortarolo, a "transport contractor", but above all a gentleman driver who would later pilot a D.B HBR5 coach, an Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti and even a GTA. On January 16, 1956, Tortarolo started the Monte Carlo from Lisbon, Portugal in a Panhard Dyna X with the number 131. Because of his premature retirement, there are no photographs of the crew, nor do the records of the Automobile Club de Monaco indicate the chassis number of the car. Nevertheless, it is very likely that Dolomites # 857 918 took part in the famous rally. On 17 March 1956, Tortarolo and his co-driver, Petiot, finished 12th overall and won their class in the renowned Lyon Charbonnière rally. The Dolomites, marked with the race number 51, was honoured by the press: l'Action Automobile et Touristique published a photo of the car and praised the merits of the crew "who beat a large number of quality competitors." On 29 July, Tortarolo won his class again with the Dolomites in the highly competitive Mont Ventoux hill climb. A month and a half later, on 17 September, Tortarolo and Petiot were back in Nice with the Dolomites at the start of the Tour de France Automobile. The Dolomites number 129 shone in the first two special stages (16th overall on the Ventoux, and 22nd on the Comminges circuit) before retiring from the hill climb on the Peyresourde pass. The 1956 edition was the hardest and the one with the best record in the history of the event. In 1957, Tortarolo sold the Dolomites to buy the famous D.B HBR5. The car had two more owners in the Hérault region until 1961, when it changed hands again. It left for the Gard region and was lost until the mid-1970s, when it was bought, in poor condition, by an enlightened enthusiast who kept it until 2018, when the current owner woke it up from its long sleep. The car is on candles; it has suffered but it still has its sublime period buckets, and wears a French blue that suits it perfectly. The car is completely dismantled, and the nose and the back of the bodywork are rebuilt, in conformity with the original, as is the dashboard and the tank, which had disappeared. A mould was designed to reproduce the panoramic Plexiglas windscreen. All the mechanical parts (M10 engine, 850 cm3, Tigre specifications) and the running gear are redone. The paintwork is re-spliced to maintain the homogeneous patina of the whole. The Tour Auto plate is also recreated, with a skilful patina. In September 2020, the car took part in the historic Tour Auto, where it performed incredibly well, often running neck and neck with much more modern Mini Coopers or much more powerful Porsches. On one stage, it even finished in the middle of the grid, just behind a Ferrari 250 GT SWB... In the end, the team scored eleven performance index victories out of twelve stages! The car, also eligible for the Mille Miglia, is just waiting to be driven and to make the Panhard mechanics and the sublime bodywork, a forgotten masterpiece by Pichon and Parat, shine.

This car will be sold by auction by AGUTTES Auction House, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, on June the 20th, 2021.
The digital catalog is available by the following link
https://www.aguttes.com/en/catalog/113642?

Please contact us for any further details.
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