Later he trained as a lathe-operator before buying a truck and working in transportation, then decided to pursue automobile design full time in 1950.
The company was also at times referred to by its location as Sens or Sénonais, in the same way that Citroën was known as Quai de Javel, and Panhard as Porte d’Ivry.
[2] Parat also turned down an offer from Loewy to move to the US, and an overture from Enzo Ferrari to become the Italian's East France division and workshop, preferring in all cases to maintain his independence.
[2] Shortly after the end of World War II (WWII) Pichon-Parat created a body for a Bugatti Type 49 Roadster (chassis 49481) built in the Gangloff style.
[10][11] In a special October 1950 show issue of the magazine L'Action Automobile et Touristique (AAT), a coupé conversion of a Ford Vedette sedan by Pichon-Parat was featured alongside work from other coachbuilders, including Franay, Guilloré, Saoutchik and Figoni Falaschi.
A revised version of the Vedette coupé with a panoramic backlite appeared on their stand at the 1951 Salon de l'Auto in Paris.
[13] The first iteration of the design, seen early in 1952, was a simple roofless conversion of the hardtop sedan with a horizontal bar grille and an air intake added to the hood.
[4] The carrosserie built a special lightweight Peugeot 203, with body panels of duralumin, that Parat personally drove in the 1953 Liège–Rome–Liège rallye.
[16] As a follow-on to their Dyna Junior coupés, in 1954 the company unveiled a new berlinette model, called the Dolomite, with a more streamlined body.
[2][15][3][14] Dolomites were raced at several major events, including the Bol d’Or in 1954, the Tour de Corse in 1955 and 1956, the Mille Miglia in 1956 and 1957, as well as at Mont Ventoux, Lyon-Charbonnières and others.
The Salmson came with a 2,328 cc (142.1 cu in) aluminium DOHC straight-four engine fed by a Solex 35/40 double barrel carburetor, and producing 110 hp (82.0 kW).
The front suspension was independent with upper and lower wishbones, longitudinal torsion bars, telescopic dampers, and hydraulic drum brakes.
[17] The first Pichon-Parat Salmson car, which is not always included in the histories, was similar in appearance to a larger version of the Panhard Dolomite coupés.
The wide original front air intake was later reshaped to deal with cooling problems encountered by owner René Cotton.
Cotton raced the car, registered as 1265 DL 75, at Monte Carlo, the Coupe des Alpes, the Liège-Rome-Liège, and the Lyon Charbonnières.
Other features of this car included an aluminium body painted Ile de France blue, a competition Borgward 4-speed gearbox, and Rudge wheels and brake drums.
Power came from a Renault 4 CV Type 662-2 engine block with a big-valve R1063 cylinder head, Solex carburettor, and sports exhaust.
Shortly after buying the car in 1995, new owner Peter Mullin had it restored it to its original 1947 racing configuration by Auto Classique Touraine of Tours, France.
In an effort to revive the fortunes of his struggling Talbot-Lago company, Antonio Lago commissioned the construction of a new barquette for Le Mans.
Raymond Loewy saw the 4CV-based cabriolet and Aronde-based coupé on the Pichon-Parat stand in 1956, and asked Pichon if he could produce a body for a car to his exact specifications.
[2] This meeting led to Pichon-Parat being hired to build a body designed by Loewy on the base of a V8-powered BMW 507, chassis number 70.024.
The coachworks had also removed the B pillars, which were structural and the absence of which resulted in increased chassis flex that caused the side doors to jam.
This car was distinguished by shrouded headlamps and a mesh grille that stretched the full width of the nose and curved up and over a stylized version of the original Panhard Dyna air intake.
The same year that Pichon-Parat completed Loewy's Cadillac project, they released a design on the opposite end of the automotive size scale; the Vespa 400 Esterel of 1959.
[35] The coachbuilder was commissioned by Robert Dhéry to create a customized car to be the title character in the 1961 movie "La Belle Américaine".
The conversion consisted of new front wings reshaped to accept the Cibié headlamp assemblies used on the Panhard 24, and only required one day's work by the coachbuilder.
Although not a major success in sales, Citroën's competition department later had Pichon-Parat build them shortened, two-door versions of the DS for racing.
The cars were displayed at Studebaker's South Bend, Indiana location, and then moved when the company relocated to Youngstown, Ohio.
[2] Changes to the bodywork, executed by Pichon-Parat, included shortening the nose by 25 cm (9.8 in) and the tail by 12 cm (4.7 in), adding quad headlamps and a new, larger, oval grille opening, replacing the original Jaguar taillamps with Frenched in units from the Chevrolet Corvair, and adding a transparent spoiler across the trailing edge of the roof.
"[2] Pichon-Parat continued to offer estate car conversions as late as 1980 on models such as the Renault 30 TS and the BMW 7 Series.