Georges Paulin

Born 1902 in a working class section of Paris, Paulin was a pioneer of aerodynamic design and innovative coachbuilding, with the most notable one being the world's first retractable hardtop system, which he dubbed 'Eclipse'.

In 1925 or 1927, while looking out the window of his dental practice during a major downpour, Paulin saw a Delage driver wrestle in vain to get his soft-top up, before the rain destroyed its expensive interior.

Until 1938, the two men created designs for various brands,[3] including Bentley, a Delage D8, a French-built Lancia, a Panhard coupe, a Unic cabriolet, the "water drop" Talbot-Lago, and the Darl'mat provided Peugeot roadsters used in 1937 and 1938 at Le Mans.

[5][6] Until World War II, Paulin and Carrosserie Pourtout produced Eclipse versions of the Peugeot 301, 401, 601, 302 and 402, the Lancia Belna, and models from Hotchkiss and Panhard.

[3] Until World War II, Peugeot built some 470 of the 402BL Éclipse Décapotable, of which ~30 survive, according to research by Raymond Milo, a Los Angeles dealer in collectible European cars.

[4] In the words of Milo: Art auction house Sotheby's called the Eclipse top, for its simplicity and swiftness of operation, superior compared to the later, mechanised hardtop of the late 1950s Ford Fairlane 500 / Galaxy Skyliner retractable.

[1] Fifteen years after Paulin's death, the 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 / Galaxy Skyliner became the first retractable from a large car manufacturer to be built in somewhat larger numbers, and was also the first to feature a hardtop split into more than one segment.

From an automobile, purchased in 1993, and initially restored as a 100-point chassis, Gary Moore from California created a roadster, based upon Paulin's design B25GP, hoping to display it next to its predecessor at Pebble Beach in 2019, Bentley's centennial.