And what a pretty thing it is. As a GP car, competing in places like Pau, it was powered by a 1,220cc and then a normally-aspirated 1,430cc four-cylinder engine – the latter unit enabling Jean-Pierre Wimille to hold second place until lap 57 in the 1947 Monaco Grand Prix. So it was quick as well as pretty. In its subsequent life as a sports car it was clocked at 118mph on the Mulsanne Straight.
In 1953, after an impressive second place over Maseratis, Porsches, Aston Martins, OSCAs and Jaguars in a sportscar race in Roubaix, the Gordini was bought by two Irish spectators who were impressed by its performance. Thus it was the Gordini Type 15S that went to Dean's Grange in Dublin. Now painted dark green with an orange stripe, one of its first races was in the 1953 Goodwood Nine Hours.