The Peugeot Darl’mat Special Sport was a remarkable achievement in the world of 1930s coachbuilt automobiles. Émile Darl’mat, a Peugeot dealer with a deep passion for performance and innovation, harnessed some of the greatest talents of the era to create a truly great machine. Darl’mat hired Marcel Pourtout and Georges Paulin for coachbuilding and design, Jean Andreau for aerodynamics and Victor Derbuell for technical expertise, elevating the Darl’mat Special Sport to legendary status. This rare automobile embodies the finest attributes of French Art Deco styling while boasting a legitimate competition pedigree that places it in the pantheon of great 1930s racing machines.

Darl’mat was fascinated with speed and engineering, and after WWI established a successful garage in Paris, selling and servicing automobiles while experimenting with performance enhancements. By the early 1930s, Darl’mat had become an authorized Peugeot dealer, focusing exclusively on the marque.

His reputation for innovation and engineering attracted the attention of Peugeot executives, who were eager to reclaim the marque’s earlier motor sports glory. The company provided him with a limited run of the 302-series chassis and these served as the foundation for his vision of a high-performance, competition-ready automobile.

When the 302 Darl’mat Special Sport debuted at the 1936 Paris Motor Show, Paulin’s coachwork stunned audiences. The Art Deco styling was characterized by a sloping front grille, sculpted teardrop fenders, and streamlined chrome accents. For performance, Darl’mat had replaced the standard 1.75-liter engine with a more powerful 2.0-liter engine from Peugeot’s flagship 402 model.

In 1937, three Darl’mat Special Sport Roadsters were entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where they achieved an impressive 7th, 8th, and 10th place finishes. Building on this success, Peugeot supplied Darl’mat with the 402 Légère (lightweight) chassis for the 1938 model year. This updated platform was shorter and wider and at the 1938 24 Hours of Le Mans, a Darl’mat Special Sport Roadster finished an impressive 5th Overall, winning the 2.0-liter class.

According to documents on file reportedly compiled from research by marque expert Hubert Auran, assisted by Hubert Croisile and Claude LeGuezec, production of the Darl’mat Special Sport was exceedingly limited, with only 53 roadsters, 32 cabriolets, and 20 coupes built. These documents suggest that as few as just six coupes are believed to have been built on the 402-series lightweight chassis, making them the rarest of all, and that this example, chassis 705536, is one of these rare cars, originally finished in a two-tone exterior of French beige and black.

After surviving the war, this Darl’mat Special Sport changed hands several times in Paris before it was exported to the US in the late 1960s or early 1970s. It joined the esteemed French car collection of Dr. William O’Brien in Reno, Nevada, a close associate of legendary collector Bill Harrah. By the early 2000s the car was in a state of partial disassembly and was sold by French car aficionado Edward Fallon and Los Angeles-based broker Raymond Milo to Kenneth Pierson, the proprietor of Heritage Auto Body Restoration in Mesa, Arizona.

In 2002, the Peugeot was acquired by its previous owner, a respected collector with some of the finest automobiles in the world, who commissioned a restoration by Redline Restorations of Connecticut that included both cosmetic and mechanical work. The coupe made its post-restoration debut at the 2004 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, and in 2007 it was exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum’s celebrated Curves of Steel exhibition.

With its exquisite coachwork by Pourtout, this graceful machine is undoubtedly a masterpiece of 1930s automotive design – a testament to the ingenuity and artistry of its creators. This Darl’mat Coupe’s historic import as well as its aesthetic and engineering excellence ensures its place among the most celebrated coachbuilt automobiles of the interwar era.