Paul Bracq (born December 13, 1933,

Bordeaux, France Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...

) is an automotive designer noted for his work at

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

, BMW, Citroën, and

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

Career

Bracq's career began in the design studio of Philippe Charbonneaux, serving as his assistant in 1953 and 1954. During this period, the studio produced the designs for the French Presidential limousine built by Citroën, a one-off Pegaso coupe, and other automobiles. Bracq served his mandatory military service from late 1954 through 1957. Subsequently, he worked for

Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactur ...

, heading its design studio in

Sindelfingen Sindelfingen (Swabian: ''Sendlfenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg in south Germany. It lies near Stuttgart at the headwaters of the Schwippe (a tributary of the river Würm), and is home to a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant. History * 1155 � ...

, a post he held for ten years. Bracq styled the Mercedes

600 __NOTOC__ 600 ( DC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 600 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the ...

, 230SL/250SL/280SL roadster, the 220S coupé, the 250 and 220D, the W108 and W114 coupe series, and its stablemate the W115 – all of the '60s and '70s. Upon his return to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in 1967, Bracq worked for

Brissonneau and Lotz Brissonneau et Lotz was a French locomotive engineering company, engaged in the manufacture of railway locomotives and wagons. The company was also a supplier of rolling stock to the Paris Metro, constructing in 1951 the first metro trains in the ...

, where he worked on the design of the

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

high-speed passenger train led by Jacques Cooper. During this time, Bracq was also responsible for prototypes of a sports car based on the BMW 1600Ti and a coupé based on the

Simca 1100 The Simca 1100 is a car built from 1967 to 1982 by Simca. It was replaced by the Simca-Talbot Horizon. History The 1100 was the result of "Project 928", started in 1962, finalized by engineers Philippe Grundeler and Charles Scales. The design ...

. In 1970, Bracq was appointed design director of BMW, where he succeeded Wilhelm Hofmeister ao. E9 series. Bracq was responsible for the initial designs of the BMW E12 5 Series BMW E21 3 series, E24 6 series and the E23 7 Series. His 1973 "Turbo" concept car won "Concept Car of the Year" by the ''

Revue Automobile Suisse A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own durin ...

'' that year; the car repeated the feat in 1992 in the Bagatelle

Concours d'Elegance ''Concours d'Elegance'' ( French: ''concours d'élégance'') is a term of French origin that means a "competition of elegance" and refers to an event where prestigious vehicles are displayed and judged. It dates back to 17th-century France, whe ...

. Braque began with

in 1974, going on to design personal transportation for the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

and the interiors of the

Peugeot 604 The Peugeot 604 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1975 to 1985. 153,252 cars were sold during its 10-year production life. It was made in France and also assembled by Kia in South Korea. The Pininfarina-designed ...

Pagneux, Dominique (2000), La Peugeot 604 de mon père.. ETAI, Boulogne-Billancourt, France. and the 505. Bracq is also active as a judge in many automotive concours, including the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

References

External links

Timeline of Paul Bracq's career
an overview of automotive designers working for BMW 1933 births Living people People from Bordeaux French artists French automobile designers BMW designers {{Automobile-stub