The 'De La Chapelle' adventure began over thirty years ago. In 1975, Xavier de La Chapelle decided to revive the family marque, Automobiles De La Chapelle-Stimula, which had been established at the beginning of the century in Saint-Chamond, near Lyon, France.

1908 STIMULA-DE LA CHAPELLE
4 cylinder sports model

...TO DE LA CHAPELLE

Xavier de La Chapelle's passion for exceptional cars guided him into the slipstream of one of the most beautiful sportscars of the '30s - the Roadster Bugatti Type 55, which was created in 1932 by Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore.

In 1978, following three years of development, the very first De La Chapelle Type 55 saw the light of day, and was unveiled at the Salon de Genève under the name 'Stimula 55', a homage to the family marque.

Encouraged by the enthusiasm of visitors to the Salon, Xavier de la Chapelle, surrounded by an experienced and enthusiastic team, decided to start his own company to manufacture small numbers of the car.

After a first successful year, the young company decided to build replica models for their clients' children, just as Bugatti himself and Citroën had done in the past. The Juniors de la Chapelle range was launched, made up of three reproductions at 6/10 scale. Three cars were offered, based on the the mythical marques Bugatti (55 Junior ), the BMW (328 Junior) and the Ferrari (330 P2 Junior).

In 1990, a new model was presented at the Salon de Geneve. This was a 2+2 version of the Type 55.
Baptized 'Tourer', it was aimed at enthusiasts of the marque who wished to share their passion with their families. It was followed by two other models, the Atalante 57s, unveiled at the 1992 Salon de Genève, and the Grand Prix, launched at the Mondial de l'Automobile in the same year.

About a hundred De La Chapelle "Bugatti" types can be seen worldwide today (all models combined), in France and abroad (Europe, USA, Japan, Middle-East...)

De La Chapelle presented a concept car at the 1992 Salon de Genève which had been created for a foreign client. This was the MPV-Limosine named the Parcours, a huge, futuristic machine of which three examples have been produced.

And then, a superb prototype roadster was launched during the 1996 Mondial de l'Automobile. This was the De La Chapelle Roadster. In April 1988, the definitive version with even more power and perfomance was unveiled at the Paris Salon du cabriolet.