Greetings from Australia. I have what I believe to be a 1926 Chenard Senechal which I obtained when I was 17 years old (I am now 67), restored it mechanically, drove it for about 18 months then sold it to a Peter Rollason in Melbourne. Mr. Rollason ever touched the car but stored it in his hay shed on his farm, the shed burned down at some stage and the car was virtually destroyed. He in turn sold it to Bruce and I was able to buy it back from Bruce about 25 years ago.

Shortly after I sold it to Peter Rollason, I received a letter from Michel Declerck in France who was, according to his letterhead, the President of the Amicale Robert Senechal. He had obtained my details from the Vintage Drivers Club of which I had been a member. Unfortunately he spoke no English and I spoke no French, however translation revealed that he had researched worldwide via motoring clubs, etc. for details of all Chenard Senechals, he stated that worldwide he had found 30 cars plus mine being the only one he could locate in Australia. I responded to his letter, but of course by then I had sold the car so could supply no details of engine or chassis numbers, etc., I heard no more from him.

Naturally, once I heard of the comparative rarity of the cars I regretted selling it and determined that if the opportunity ever arose I would buy it back. About 25 years ago Bruce advertised what was left of the car for sale and upon examination I was able to satisfy myself that it was indeed “my” car and purchased it back.

The attached photos show the finished restoration, slightly different body than the original which was a rather plain two door roadster (an Australian built body) with dickie seat. I modeled the restoration on a 1926 Salmson featured in one of my books.

I have been talking to Bruce over the last few months as I thought he would like to see the finished result, I phoned him the other day to tell him I had just found the engine number on the block, (number 27), which we had all been searching for for 50 years and asked him if he had had any contact with Michel Declerck, he had not but suggested you may know of him or anyone else who is putting a world wide register of Chenard Senechal cars together.

 

To my knowledge, from a combination of Bruce and my own research, these cars were the result of a merger between Mr. Chenard, (half of the Chenard Walcker firm), and Robert Senechal, the partnership appears to have had a very limited life and so very few cars were built. I know of several Senechal cars (Robert Senechal’s own light sports cars) and a few Chenard Walcker cars in Australia, but no other Chenard Senechals. Can you help please?

 Courtesie

I thought you might like to see some photos of an exceedingly rare French car, a Chenard-Senechal. I have the history of Chenard-Walcker and although Robert Senechal is mentioned there is no reference to this model or any photographs. I owned this car briefly back in the late 1960s but was persuaded to sell it to an earlier owner who had owned it as a teenager. Because of my overseas travelling and hectic life composing and recording film scores we lost touch with each other but he phoned me a week ago and as a result we exchanged email addresses and he sent me some photographs. I think the Chenard factory wanted to try and take some of the voiturette market away from Amilcar and Salmson et al. I also think that the relationship between the famous and charismatic Robert Senechal and the factory was similar to that of the Renault factory with Amedee Gordini in the 1950s. The Renault Gordini was an effective small car but I don’t think the Chenard-Senechal would have been. I actually got the car running as a rolling chassis (it had been used on a small farm to deliver feed to animals and other light work) but it was dull to drive. Dull or not, it is very rare and I’m glad that Graeme Love has spent his time and money restoring the car.