He created or collaborated on numerous projects that became production cars for brands that included Simca, Renault, and Fiat.
His father was in the military and received several postings to locations in French Colonial Africa, so Opron grew up in places like Algeria, Mali and Abidjan.
[5] In 1952 Opron began his professional career as a machine designer for the Compagnie Nationale des Sucreries in Ham in the Somme.
[8] His department was eliminated in 1961, and Opron received a two-year severance payout, but with a non-compete clause that prevented him from moving to another automaker.
What a great lesson for a stylist.All Opron’s car designs have an organic wholeness as if they have been grown or shaped by the forces of wind, light, scale and structure.
Many agree that one of the signatures of an Opron design is the way it will catch the light, and that it has a dynamic graphical element – movement being intrinsic in its shape even at rest.Having joined Simca in 1958, his first significant project for them was designing the 1959 Simca Chambord Présidence V8 cabriolet used by French president Charles De Gaulle.
The magazine supplied a list of anticipated standard features that included radar obstacle detection and gyroscopic stabilisation.
Opron-Mercier noticed an advertisement in Le Monde saying that an "Important industrial group" was looking to hire an experienced designer.
The personnel manager asked Opron to return later that day to the Bureau d'Études on the Rue du Théâtre to meet with Flaminio Bertoni, Citroën's chief designer and originator of the 2CV and DS.
[24] In 1965 Citroën launched new lines of 3.5–8.0 t (4–9 short tons) trucks; the 350 and 600 series that earned the nickname Belphégor for their unique cab design.
His "Nouveau Visage" (new face) front appearing on the 1968 model year DS was a four-headlamp design with two lamps on each side under glass covers that blended with the body's lines.
[29] Others assert that, while it may have been influenced by the Italo-English concept car, Opron's design was an independent work, and point out that Citroën has never acknowledged any link.
[32][33] He also led the team that developed the Citroën M35, a two-door fastback based on the Ami 8 chassis that was powered by a single rotor Comotor engine.
Assigned the development name Projet S, the original goal was to produce a racing car suitable for Le Mans.
Through the influence of Opron and Pierre Bercot, Citroën's managing director, it evolved from a racing car into a premium model in the old Grand Routier tradition.
Opron developed a design for an ultra-compact city car called the Véhicule Bas de Gamme (VBG), or Entry Level Vehicle.
[40][41] Opron worked with AMC's Dick Teague to adapt the 9 and 11 models to the American market, where they were sold as the Alliance and Encore respectively.
He is credited with creating the earliest sketches for a design project called the ES 30, for Experimental Sportscar 3.0 litres.
Opron's early concept, which won out against a competing proposal from Giugiaro, was fully developed by Antonio Castellana.
This highly controversial design went into limited production as the Alfa Romeo SZ coupé and the later RZ convertible, where the "Z" refers to coachbuilder Zagato.
One of Opron's clients was Ligier, who had become a manufacturer of "voitures sans permis" or "voiturettes", a class of microcar in France that may be driven without an operator's license.