From Passion to Perfection – the Story of French Streamlined Styling 1930-1939, by Richard S. Adatto, 2003, ISBN 2-912838-22-3, 9 _ x 12 in., 288 pages, with 449 color photos by Jean Paul Caron, 91 vintage black and white photos, 41 original documents, published SPE Barthélémy. $89 plus shipping and handling, www.adattoauto.com, or Adatto Auto, 1314 Denny Way, Suite 103, Seattle, Washington 98109 USA.

Pity Princess Stella. Daddy, the Maharajah of Khapurthala, gave her only one Figoni et Falaschi-bodied Talbot-Lago. This meant the poor girl had to have it repainted each time to match her outfit when she went out to a Concours d’Élégance.

Thus writes our member, Richard Adatto. He is an amateur in the best sense of the word: a person who engages in a study for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons. With an eye practiced from his many years as a judge at Pebble Beach, Adatto shares with us in "From Passion to Perfection – the Story of French Streamlined Styling 1930-1939," his love and knowledge of these cars and their carrossiers. In this endeavor, he has been more than ably assisted by the photographer Jean Paul Caron, his fellow judge at Pebble Beach.

Over 60 years have passed since the last of these cars left the atélier, impossibly voluptuous Delahayes, Delages, and Talbots with their sweeping chrome-speared fenders, some enclosing all four tires. Think of Mae West on wheels. But time has proven them to be the apex of French coachbuilding. Adatto tells their stories and those of their creators, Joseph Figoni of Figoni & Falaschi, and Pourtout, enhanced by his personal friendship with the sons of the founders, Claude Figoni and Claude Pourtout. Examples of coachwork by Letourneur et Marchand, de Villars, and Saoutchik appear, as well as designs by Andreau and Darl’mat. We learn, for the first time it seems, the tragic story of Georges Paulin, designer of the Embiricos Bentley, whose activities in the early Resistance led to the firing squad.

Thirty-eight cars receive individual attention; where he can, Adatto provides the provenance of many from birth until today. Except for Pourtout, we’re not told what they cost when new, probably due to a lack of records. But they were not for the 5CV crowd. Pourtout’s 1938 Delage D8-120 rolled away for 140,000 FF (chassis,105,000; body, 35,000). An outside source I consulted indicates that the average exchange rate in 1938 was $1: 34.72 FF, which puts the Pourtout at a bit over $4,000 (for comparison, $3,990 was the list price of the Cadillac Fleetwood Formal Sedan). But note that Adatto quotes $7,200 as the price of the de Villars ’38 Delage D8-120.

The vintage photos are interesting but, when compared with Caron’s sumptuous photos, point up the technological limitations of their day, the lack of color and clarity. Especially fine in their detail are Caron’s shots of instrument panels and interiors, informative and straight forward, without tiresome tricky angles or distortions. These allayed my initial reservation about the book. The biologist J.B.S. Haldane, when asked what his studies had taught him about the Creator, replied that "He had an inordinate fondness for beetles." With Adatto, it’s Talbot-Lagos, 22 of which appear. Study Caron’s photos, however, and you’ll notice subtle differences. For example, each of the instrument panels in the first three 1937 T150-C-SS cars shown has a different treatment in its number, color, and location of gauges.

Admirably, and literally up front, on the first page, Adatto asks the reader to inform him of errors and omissions in the book. Courage, mon brave, here are a few errors: GM never had a president named "Albert Sloane." Lugano is not in "Italy." The 1951 exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art was not called "Eight Great Automobiles," but simply "8 Automobiles." Omissions: for most vehicles, technical specifications such as horsepower, torque, displacement, wheelbase; page numbers on other than those containing text; and biographical information on Philippe Jean Ladure and Daniel Prest who contributed chapters on Gabriel Voisin and "Aerodynamic Milestones" respectively (thumbnail sketches and photos covering French vehicles from 1899 to 1970).

The "Passion" is no longer Adatto’s, but ours as well. If "Perfection" has proven elusive, the lapses don’t detract overall from this handsome book.

• Taylor Vinson