Cars in Books, February 1978

Sir,

In the current issue of Motor Sport you mention the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934. This took place in Marseilles, not in Paris, and the French Foreign Minister, Monsieur Louis Bat-thou, was also killed. According to “Motoring and the Mighty” by Richard Garrett, the car was a D8 Delage Landaulette built between 1930 and 1932. There is a photograph of the car in the book, the registration number being, as you say, 6o68-CA6.

I have just been reading Edward Heath’s book “Travels”. At the age of 14 he visited Paris for the first time and writes:

“We wandered up the Champs Elysees, gazing with wondering eyes at the new French cars Citroen, Renault and Bugatti in their magnificent high glass-fronted showrooms, and after gazing, summoning up enough courage to walk in and ask for the catalogues. The Hotchkiss folder delighted me because when opened it revealed an impressionist image of the Place de la Concorde by night, and the further it was spread out the more Paris came into view.”

This visit took place in 1931, while in 1937 Heath visited Nuremburg and saw Hitler. He writes “We saw his large black Mercedes coming through the narrow entrance …”

I was most interested to read your review of Paul Kestler’s book “Bugatti Evolution of a Style”. However, I do not expect it told us anything new about La Royale.

Norwich CLIFFORD S. PENNY