Beauty of Line.(escape roads)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

By the mid-1930s auto designers had discovered the wonder of streamlining. Chrysler's 1934 Airflow first demonstrated the benefits of aerodynamics, but a succession of elegant cars from America and Europe showed the world the stylistic power of streamlining. Among the most captivating was the Peugeot 302/402 Darl'Mat.

Leo Kreienbuhl of Neuenegg, Switzerland, knows all about that. His 1938 402 DSE is one of only five Darl'Mat coupes in existence. Despite its rarity, Kreienbuhl exercises the car vigorously. It recently took part in the Klausen Pass Rally (Switzerland's Mille Miglia) and this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans Classic, an appropriate venue for this utter beauty.

The car takes its name from Emile Darl'Mat, a Parisian Peugeot dealer who made his reputation providing an upper-class clientele with special Peugeot-derived models in the 1920s and the '30s. When the company debuted its 402 sedan in 1935, the car's aerodynamic shape, 2.0-liter ohv four-cylinder engine and Cotal four-speed electromechanical gearbox caused quite the stir. Peugeot brought out the 302 in 1936, a slighter version of the 402 with a 1.8-liter four. Darl'Mat took note.

Drawn to racing, Le Mans in particular, Darl'Mat commissioned his friend Georges Paulin to draw a new aero body for the 302, one that could take to the track as well as the street. A full-time dental technician and part-time designer, the brilliant Paulin had designed the first retractable steel roof for the Peugeot 601. The roadster he penned for Darl'Mat represented a stunning blend of streamlining, haute couture and art deco ideals. Another friend, well-known Parisian coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout, fashioned the car's complex aluminum body.

The first of 36 road-going 302 Darl'Mats emerged in spring 1936. The car saw its competition debut at Montlhery later that year, and a trio of 302 Darl'Mats finished seventh, eighth and 10th overall at Le Mans in 1937. That October Peugeot introduced the 402 Legere, a lightened 402 with a widened box-frame chassis. The competitive potential of a widened, lightened car with the 1991-cc ...