Chappe et Gessalin is the short-form of the name of French coachbuilder "Carrosserie Chappe Frères et Gessalin". The company built automobile bodies and did contract assembly for other automobile manufacturers. It was also the parent of Automobiles CG, a French automobile maker founded in 1966 which built and sold complete cars under its own name.
Early history
The 1930s and 1940s
The story of Chappe et Gessalin began in 1932, in the commune of Saint-Maur-des-Fosses near Paris. In that year the Carrosserie Chappe was founded by Jean Chappe. Working with him were his three sons, Abel, Albert and Louis and an apprentice, Amédée Gessalin. The shop did bodywork in both wood and steel.
The Second World War interrupted the company's activities for a time but they resumed at the end of hostilities. In 1946 Jean sold the carrosserie to his three sons. By that time Amédée was also a part of the family, having married the Chappe's eldest daughter Marie-Louise. The brothers added his name to the masthead and the company became "Carrosserie Chappe Frères et Gessalin". On the death of Amédée his son Jean took his father's place in the company.
The new company's work included commercial vehicles, a specialty being the construction of firetruck bodies on truck frames produced by Delahaye. They also carved out a niche doing more specialized work, such as bodywork in duralumin for Talbot and repairs on the Delahaye 135, 136 and Talbot T26 racing cars owned by Charles Pozzi, who would become a major dealer in Ferrari and Maserati cars.
The 1950s and 1960s
Before his death Amédée Gessalin taught his son how to draw and plan vehicles. Jean, an admirer of great Parisian designers Chapron and Figoni, worked on honing his own skills by attending evening classes taught by these men.
Chappe et Gessalin provided the aluminum bodywork for the Bosvin-Michel Speciale (BMS) throughout its many revisions. This car was designed and built by Camille Bosvin and driven by Guy Michel. It had a tubular-steel frame and was noteworthy in being one of the first cars to mount its engine (from a Renault 4CV) amidships. The BMS was a regular at Montlhéry, and won the Bol d'Or in 1952 and 1953.
Another project that Chappe et Gessalin were involved with was the SCVS-DB specials. These cars, given chassis numbers 1065 and 1066 by Renault, were initially a project of Renault dealers Jean Rédélé and Louis Pons. The cars were built by the small French firm of Deutsch-Bonnet with aluminum bodywork by Chappe et Gessalin. Power came from a Renault 4CV engine. One of the cars appeared at Le Mans in 1953.
In the early 1950s Chappe et Gessalin began experimenting with Fibre-reinforced plastic, (specifically Fiberglass). Using resins and techniques imported from the United States they started producing lightweight automobile bodies for sportscars and racing cars from a succession of independent fabricators and small manufacturers.
Deutsch-Bonnet themselves became a client of Chappe et Gessalin, who started by providing plastic noses for DB's monomil single-seaters and bodywork for other racers and would go on to build 200 copies of DB's "Le Mans" road car.
Even when the founders of Deutsch-Bonnet, René Bonnet and Charles Deutsch, ended their partnership in 1961 and established separate car companies (Automobiles René Bonnet and CD), they both continued to use lightweight fibreglass bodywork supplied by Chappe et Gessalin. René Bonnet went to them to develop bodywork for his new Djet. For Charles Deutsch Chappe et Gessalin produced the body of the Panhard-powered racing CDs and built 160 of the Panhard CD road cars.
The company also worked with less well-known companies such as Camille Martin's UMAP (1957-1959) and Raymond Gaillard's Arista.
Apart from the SCVS-DB cars, throughout the 1950s Jean Rédélé was involved in several automotive projects, including several Rédélé Spéciales, the Marquis, PlastiCar, and others. Rédélé crossed paths with Chappe et Gessalin often and would in time become their most famous client of all.
As a young man Jean Gessalin drew a small coupé based on Renault 4CV mechanicals as a design exercise for himself, which design he left behind while away performing his compulsory military service. On his return he discovered that his drawing has been turned into a car by his family.
A Renault concessionaire named Charles Escoffier saw the car and contacted his son-in-law, Jean Rédélé. 25 copies of the car were ordered from Chappe et Gessalin to be sold by Rédélé as the "Alpine". Renault backed the new company, and numbered the car "106". With the release of the A106 in 1955 the Alpine company was officially born.