Deco
Rides

Terry Cook, President
PO box 102
14 Schooley's Mt. Rd.
Long Valley, NJ 07853
908 876-9727
fax 908 876-1692

JEAN PAULINE "TEARDROP"
Our latest project utilizes CAD (computer aided design). It is a combination of two of the world's most beautiful cars "morphed" together. The front 2/3 of the car, from the back of the door forward, emulates one of the rare and famous cars in history, the 1935 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic designed by Ettore's son, JEAN Bugatti. The back third of the car from the rear fender back is a copy of the Marcel Pourtout coachbuilt 1939 Talbot-Lago T150C SS Coupe, designed by dental technician (and part time car designer) Georges PAULINE. Hence the project name "JEAN PAULINE."

DECO RIDES collaborated on this design with a 19-year-old talent from England, now living in Orlando, FL, Steven Egan. We found him through www.smcars.net. Working with Steven has been an absolute joy and we feel the results speak for themselves. Hopefully this is the first is a series of Terry Cook and Steven Egan projects.

Car styling is my absolute passion. Jean Bugatti and Georges Pauline are two of my four favorite designers, with Russian Jacques Saoutchik and Italian Guiseppi Figoni being the other two. Sadly Jean died in an accident test driving a Bugatti and Georges Pauline was executed by the Nazis for being a member of the French underground. Before his death, he designed some of the world's most beautiful automobiles including the Embricos Bentley, the Peugeot Darl’mat and the stunning Delage DS 120. The JEAN PAULINE Teardrop Coupe is our tribute to these two great stylists.
The notable differences in our design are that the external body and fender flanges that protrude from the Atlantic have been eliminated. To improve the creature comforts, the passengers' compartment has been lengthened and widened five inches. The wheelbase has been stretched from 117 inch to 122 inches. The roof is the same height as the Atlantic and Talbot-Lago, but the floor has been lowered three inches. The idea of the longer, wider passengers' compartment and lower floor is to provide sufficient room for two 6-foot 6-inch passengers with wide shoulders to fit comfortably inside. 

6-foot 6-inch tall human form in passenger compartment

1935 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

 For those of you who ask “Why don’t you just make a copy of the Atlantic?" I would never consider doing such a thing as that would be SACRILEGE, particularly if done in fiberglass. For your information, the real Bugatti Atlantics that exist are owned by Ralph Lauren (valued at 30 million US dollars) and the late Dr. Peter Williamson's widow Susan (valued at 30 to 35 million US dollars, soon to be privately sold to a wealthy collector). A third original Atlantic that was involved in a train wreck is being restored. There have been perhaps a half dozen or more alloy bodied Atlantic replicas built in the past 60 years (one of which is owned by Jay Leno), built by coachbuilders such as Crayville in England and Erik Koux in France. One alloy Atlantic replica recently sold for one million Euros (1.5 million $ US). A used car dealer in Belgium named Dedobbeleer also built several in the 50s. An unrestored Porteau Talbot-Lago (one of only four in existence) sold at auction at Pebble Beach in August 2008 for more than four million. It was in original condition, and if it had been fully restored, the value would have been only half as much!

It took me two to three years of aggravation and patience and perhaps $10,000 just to get my hands on a set of Type 57S Bugatti fiberglass front fenders and a suitable replica Type 57S Bugatti grille shell. I’ve also invested time and money on the CAD design phase you see presented here. At this point I am not going forward with the JEAN PAULINE project without finding one or more customers willing to commit. We can build a turnkey for one, or require more than one customer who wants us to build them a “roller” chassis with a fiberglass JEAN PAULINE body and fenders hung on the chassis. It could be either a fiberglass or aluminum body. We could make it with whatever engine and power train you desire, from small block Chevy to Viper. Because it is a new project, the exact cost is unknown. A fiberglass bodied "turnkey" would cost in the neighborhood of $150,000, or we could build you an alloy bodied Jean Pauline Teardrop Coupe for perhaps $350,000. Always remember the old adage,”It always costs more and takes longer than you figured.”

I've got skilled, reliable, honest fabricators with reasonable hourly labor rates ready to tackle such a project. So if you're looking for a cheap "kit car" body, you've come to the wrong place. There are trillions of "kit cars" out there on the market for you to pick from. My company builds individual works of rolling art. If you want to see it become reality, contact me at (908) 876-9100 or decorides@aol.com.

--Terry Cook
 

The rear wheel and axle location in the image immediately above is not realistic as it positions
the tail of the car too low to the ground. Despite it being unrealistic, we presented it here
as it was developed during the CAD design process with Steven Egan and it looked so cool
we wanted you to see it. The car will be available with or without rear fender skirts.

ATTENTION THIEVES: This design has a patent applied for and anyone copying or reproducing our design will be severely prosecuted by Appleton Productions.