Whaddyacallit #75 - SOLVED - Paul Arzens' La Baleine

[Ray B.]

Ever seen this ?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.
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Also, please be sure to check out our other puzzles, and, please post a puzzle of your own if you'd like - the more, the merrier.
Thanks!

[jotage21]

Arzens

[Ray B.]

Yes. I would need more details, of course, and since you've become a pro I'm not sure that you still can post in the Rookie Section.

[Otto Puzzell]

Interesting conundrum.

One I bumped him to pro status, I changed the other rookie puzzles of mine that he had ID'd to solved puzzle status, without giving him a point. It seemed the fair thing to do.

[@re]

Ah. I agree, actually - I'll do the same. Sorry, jotage21 :) you'll earn those three points back, eventually, I'm sure!

[Ray B.]

Birdie num num.

[@re]

This is the 1938 Arzens L'Electrique, also known as "La Baleine".

[Ray B.]

This is "La Baleine" (the whale) by Paul Arzens indeed, but it has never been called "L'Electrique", being based on a 1928 Buick chassis and engine. I think you got mixed up with another of his creations: "L'Oeuf électrique".

This makes you a hundred solved puzzles !

[@re]

On the web page where I found this exact picture, it was referred to as L'Electrique - the Egg is, of course, a completely different machine. But whatever - I'll go buy myself some champagne and celebrate  :drink:

[Ray B.]

Never take the web for granted. I wasn't sure myself so I searched. L'Electrique was still another car (shown in this pic with one of his "Eggs"). In the link there is a letter to Hemmings by Serge Bellu, famous french car historian, explainig what this car was.
http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/03/01/hmn_feature21.html

[@re]

Wow. Crazy guy, anyway - it says in the letter that he had a thing for aerodynamic shapes. Thankfully, the people that have really influenced automotive design are often the ones that have been able to combine aerodynamic and attractive shapes.

[grobmotorix]

Besides the Oeuf and the Baleine he built this town-car, as it can be seen in the background in the post before. He seems to have been a man of visions...

[Ray B.]

Thanks a lot, Grob'. I knew the car but not this picture, which I am going to add right now - with your permission- to my "My car is soo light" topic (by the ways, you've earned another point in the process).

[whcgt]

2 point puzzle. 1 point for identifying the photographer & year. 1 point for identifying the mysterion in the photo.

[Oguerrerob]

Paul Arzens' La Baleine 1938

[Ray B.]

And it's a repost. Sorry, whcgt.

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=4120.0

[Ray B.]

The guy is Paul Arzens himself. I am quite sure that the photograph was taken in 1942.

[Ray B.]

A was quite sure but I am wrong because here is what the car looked like in 1942...

[Oguerrerob]

Seems to be La Place de La Concorde Paris

[Ray B.]

It is.

[whcgt]

Thanks for the information..a 1938 photo by Robert Doisneau. I'll move it to the solved.

[Ray B.]

Merged.
Thanks for the Doisneau info. But I don't believe that 1938 (date for the building of the car alright) is correct.
I think that Arzens may have reworked the body after the war, with a "whale" grille, a straight beltline and smaller wheel openings. The Doisneau picture seems to be a work in progress picture: see the temporary fillings to diminish the wheel openings.

Or could it be a second car? On the 1942 picture it's a RHD. On yours and this recent picture it's a LHD, and none of thieses pics is reversed

[Wendax]

As I recall, the 1942 car is an electric one built during WWII, while La Baleine was petrol-powered.

[Ray B.]

Right. Here is the caption of the picture I've posted in my reply #17 (in a website you surely found):

Guerre 1939-1945. Voitures électriques. A g. : voiture à carrosserie en aluminium de Paul Arzens (au volant). A dr. : coupé fabriqué par les ateliers Bréguet. Paris, juillet 1942.

And here is the Serge Bellu letter mentionned in my reply #9:
I was very interested in the "Lost and Found" in HCC #2. I am able to give you some information about the mystery car shot in Paris during WWII.

This silver-bodied roadster is a prototype designed and built by Mr. Paul Arzens in 1940. This car was built on an old chassis taken from an old Fiat car of the twenties. The body is an original design sketched by Paul Arzens, who enjoyed aerodynamic lines. Thanks to light alloy, the body weighs only 25 kg. The length of the prototype is 4.8 meters.

This car, named "L'Electrique," is powered by an electric engine placed under the seats. It uses heavy batteries weighing 1,100 kg. The engine delivers a poor 10hp with 420 A and 72 V. The autonomy is 200 kilometers at an average of 65km/hr.

The car has a license plate (6553 RN) given in June 1941. Paul Arzens, who lived in Paris in the Montparnasse district, often used this car in the city. After WWII, Arzens modified "L'Electrique" and added bumpers and headlamps.

Born in 1903, Paul Arzens was a student at Paris Fine Arts school. Just before WWII, he built his first car, named "La Baleine," on a Buick chassis. In 1943, Arzens built a third prototype named "L' oeuf" (the egg!). It is a very interesting city car, still with electric engine.

In 1947, Arzens was appointed designer for SNCF, the French state company of railways.

Serge Bellu
Paris, France

The two cars have so many similarities in their design that I keep wondering what is the exact story...

[Paul Jaray]

The car has a license plate (6553 RN) given in June 1941. Paul Arzens, who lived in Paris in the Montparnasse district, often used this car in the city. After WWII, Arzens modified "L'Electrique" and added bumpers and headlamps.

Here you are: