Delage: A Car for the Ages

Louis Delage left Peugeot and went into the horseless carriage business in 1905; the first automobile appeared under the Delage name in 1906, and the last would not roll out of the Delage works until 1953. Between those dates, plenty happened, including two world wars, and the Delage saga roughly coincided with the peak years of the machine age as well as the golden age of classic cars.  Solidly built and engineered by open and innovative minds, the Delage was a car for the ages.  It's even in the name; "de l'age" is French for "of the age"…

My copy of Griff Borgeson's Sports and Classic Cars points out that Delage was one of the few car makers during the classic era (roughly 1925-50) to gain fame for small,  lightweight   racing cars as well as luxurious road yachts.  And unlike Bugatti, which succeeded at selling racers and failed with big tourers, the engineering of Delage racers diverged from the touring models, reflecting different concerns. One unifying concern throughout, however, was a concern for stopping power. Delage offered the first production cars with four wheel brakes and was among the first to offer servo-assisted brakes.  Even after the bankruptcy-motivated takeover of Delage manufacture by Delahaye in 1935, Louis Delage insisted that his cars feature hydraulic brakes, while Delahaye mostly stayed with mechanical brakes until the postwar era.

The 1.5 liter Delage Grand Prix racer pictured above is a good example of engineering to win road races. Low and light, it features a supercharged inline eight cylinder engine; this Model 15 S 8 was characterized by elegance of form and obsessive attention to detail, from the nickel chromium crankshaft to the provision of roller and ball bearings for the crankshaft and twin overhead cams…over 200 bearings according to the Revs Institute, which owns this car.  One detail which was new for the 1927 car pictured is that the exhaust was rerouted to the left side, owing to excessive heat under the driver's feet.  Rather than move the righthand steering leftward, violating GP convention, or continue with suffering drivers cooling their feet post-race in buckets of water, Delage re-engineered the whole engine, swapping sides for the intake and exhaust valves.  This paid off, as Delage racers won every single race on the GP schedule in 1927, capturing the manufacturer's championship, with Robert Benoist winning the driver's title.  Even the outside of the engine reflects the Swiss-watch perfectionism of its innards.  Of the six GP cars built for that epic 1927 GP season; half reside in the USA.

Having established its name as a maker of unbeatable race cars, Delage focused on luxury tourers during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The D8S model from 1932 pictured below uses pushrods to actuate the valves in the much larger (up to 4 liters) inline eight under that long hood; the bodywork was by Letourneur & Marchand, and the car was featured in the film Prends la Route ("Let's Take to the Highway")  from 1936.  

By this time the name Delage had become as strongly connected in the public mind to elegant upper crust carriages as to winning racers, a neat trick.  The 1934 D8S shown below was typical of Delage offerings from this time.  The sweeping lines are by Fernandez and Darrin (the same Darrin who designed custom Packards a few years later). These positive associations, and the stylistic attentions of designers like Dutch Darrin, might have insured Delage's survival in boom times.  But the Great Depression had steadily eroded sales, even in this rarefied class, and by 1934 Delage was nearing the end of the road as an independent manufacturer.

Delahaye*, maker of trucks and more mainstream cars until it took a more upmarket direction in the early 1930s, took over manufacture of Delage cars in 1935, but allowed Louis Delage a degree of independence. To their credit, Delahaye management declined to simply slap Delage labels on the junior line of Delahayes.  In fact, the new Delages appearing in 1936 weren't really junior versions of anything, featuring Delahaye chassis with independent front suspension.  Below the 3.5 liter Delahaye 135, there was a new Delage D6/70 with a 3 liter version of the 135 engine.  Above the 135, a new Delage D8-120 appeared.  This had a new inline eight based on adding 2 cylinders to the Delahaye 135 for a smooth luxury cruiser.  Neither engine appeared in any Delahaye.  The D8-120 below was bodied by Henri Chapron in 1937.

External exhausts added a dashing touch of style.  These were usually featured on the D8-120, rather than on the smaller D6/70.

Delage, like most French luxury makers, would stay with right-hand drive until the 1950s. Another common feature on French luxury cars was the pre-selector transmission, in this case a Cotal electromagnetic unit with four speeds forward (and also, oddly, in reverse) which was adopted from Delahaye.  The selectors for this gearbox are to the right of the steering wheel... 

The car shown below is a measure of the degree of independence Delahaye granted to Louis Delage, and also of their budget for new race cars.  It was designed and built in 1936, the first year of the new combine, as a streamlined GP car at a time when competitors, including the Auto Union and Mercedes, were experimenting with fully-enclosed as well as open-wheel racers.  The radical, light alloy bodywork by Labourdette featured a "Vutotal" wraparound windshield and side windows with no "A" or "B" pillars to interrupt the view.  The slim center windshield pillar offered little visual interruption…and no roof support.  

Even more startling than the streamlined teardrop bodywork was the completely new, light alloy 4.5 liter V12 engine under the hood. The otherworldly effect was reinforced by the dorsal fin centered on the car's tail, an item that had recently appeared on the rear-engined Tatra streamliners from Czechoslovakia…The innovative racer crashed at the Tourist Trophy GP in England. Delahaye used the engine design as the basis for its successful Type 145 GP racer, but that car had open wheels and bodywork.*

The Vutotal side windows, along with a more subdued dorsal fin, were also featured on a series of aerodynamic D8-120 coupes built by Letourneur & Marchand starting in 1937.  A dozen of these coupes were finished before the German invasion of France, and one was shown at the New York World's Fair in 1939 and 1940...

At least one D8-120 was bodied in 1939 by Figoni & Falaschi in a similar style to their cabriolets on Delahaye chassis. A similar Delahaye 165* roadster, with the V12 engine, was sent to the World's Fair.  

Also in 1936, Delahaye sponsored the construction of a streamlined, short wheelbase coupe on the 6 cylinder D6/70 chassis.  Louis Delage selected Figoni & Falaschi to design and build the body.  This car, especially when compared with the D8 boulevard cruiser shown above, shows how Delage addressed two different kinds of client.  This light, purposeful coupe took 4th place at the Le Mans 24 hours in 1937.  A Delage D6 took 2nd place at the 1939 race, the last before the war.

The coupe repeated at the first postwar Le Mans in 1949, taking 2nd place and winning its class. Emphasizing more compact, lighter, high performance cars might have been the right direction for Delage (it worked for Jaguar).  But that would have required making the cars in larger numbers and exporting them to North America, as French tax laws and an emphasis on economy cars made them unsaleable at home.  

A high percentage of the Delage race and road cars have survived, a tribute to their sturdiness as well as their star quality as art objects.

*Footnote: Delahaye 135 roadsters with exotic bodywork by Figoni & Falaschi are featured in our post entitled "Chasing the Streamline: Delahaye 135 MS" in the archives from 5/30/17, and also in "Roadside Attraction: Rolling Sculpture at the North Carolina Museum of Art", from 12/31/16. The Delahaye 145 GP car and its 165 road car relatives are shown in "Dreyfus and the Million-Franc Delahaye" from 11/22/15.


Photo credits:  

Top thru 4th: Paul Anderson
5th: wikimedia
6th:  imcdb.org
7th:  rmsothebys.com
8th thru 12th from top:  the author
13th & 14th:  patrimoineautomobile.com
15th:  vintagemotorssarasota.com
16th & 17th:  24 heures du Mans-Banque d'images
18th (bottom):  1938 D8-120 Super Sport bodied by De Villars, photographed by the 
author.