Delage, France’s Finest Car: A Brief History Part 1

Delage, 1905-1920
Delage history began in 1874, when Pierre Louis Adolphe Delage, was born in Cognac, the son of a “watchman.” At the age of sixteen, young Delage had been accepted into the Ecole de Arts & Metiers at Angers and graduated three years later with a degree in Engineering. By the time Delage, who had taken to using the name Louis, was 35, he had founded an automobile assembly company.
Although not mentioned in the book, some have thought that the Delage family was a bit more upper class than they liked to admit. According to Griff Borgeson (AQ 14-3), the family was able to afford to send young Louis to the Ecole, quite a feat for a mere watchman. Unfortunately, Delage’s grandson Patrick does not provide any further details.

After finding a backer and establishing Delage as a company, Louis Delage consistently found fresh engineering talent at the Ecole de Arts & Metiers, including Augustin Legros, Arthur Michelat, Albert Lory, and Charles Planchon. Starting in 1905 with a de Dion Bouton single cylinder engine, Delage production cars increased in size, engine capacity, and seating capacity, yet the quality desired by the founder continued to be a defining feature of even its light (voiturettes) cars. Delage supplanted the little one and two cylinder de Dion Bouton engines with four cylinder engines made by Ballot and by 1912 began the design and production of an in-house 2.5 liter six cylinder. The workforce went from three to 552 in 1913, and by 1913 Delage was building and selling over 1300 cars per year. The models range consisted of small voiturettes to a long chassis limousine.

Racing 1905-1916
From the very beginning, Delage had been interested in racing his products. A few cars had been entered in the Coupe de Voiturettes in 1906 and 1907, but in 1908, a special race car, the Type ZC, with an engine designed by Nemorin Causan won the Coupe des Voiturettes at Dieppe. Delage was elated but succumbed to pressure from his main supplier, de Dion, to claim that the winning car was actually powered by a de Dion engine. This bit of underhandedness understandably enraged the young and talented Causan, who left Delage in a huff.

But the victory and a growing profit margin encouraged the construction of another race car, the Type X. The designer who replaced Causan was Arthur Michelat, ex-Panhard Levassor, ex-Hermes who came to Delage in 1910. Michelat was brilliant; his work for Delage would include designs for twin ignition, four valves per cylinder, desmodromic valves and five speed transmission. Michelat’s Type X race car was a three liter four with two plugs per cylinder, four horizontal valves per cylinder, lubrication via pressurized oil pump, and a Claudel constant level carburetor. It won the Grand Prix de Voiturettes of Boulogne in 1911. Michelat was just getting started. Along with Peugeot and Ballot, Delage would build the most advanced racing cars in the world and they would all be designed by Arthur Michelat.

Indianapolis
With the support of journalist W.F. Bradley, two Delages were shipped to the U.S. On May 30th 1914. Rene Thomas won the Indianapolis 500 at an average speed of 129.06 kph. Thomas was driving Michelat’s Type Y, which had previously won at the Grand Prix de France at Le Mans in 1913. The second Delage placed third. The winning car was bought by an American after the race, just as it was being loaded onto a ship bound to France. Later, it was found and restored by Edgar L. Roy, a great enthusiast who helped found the Vintage Sports Car Club of America. Today it is on display at the Indianapolis 500 Museum.

The Indy-winning four cylinder, horizontal sixteen valve, five-speed Type Y was ahead of its time, but the Michelat-designed Type S which followed combined all the very latest technologies to create what is considered by many to be the direct ancestor of all today’s cars. It boasted four wheel brakes (plus a transmission brake), the five speed transmission with dual overdrives and metal disc clutch, a new DOHC head design and the first successful racing application of a desmodromic valve operation.

Reportedly only four were built. The S failed to win the all important 1914 Grand Prix at Lyon–it was a Mercedes Benz walkover, a chilling foretaste of what was to come. The next month Europe was at war. Three or four, or perhaps five of the Type S GP cars were sent to the U.S., where in the hands of Barney Oldfield and others, they competed successfully in events from New York to San Diego until late 1916.

In 1986, Griff Borgeson received word that one of the Type S cars had survived two wars and the Depression in Australia. Not only had it survived, but it was in remarkably good condition and had been recently restored. The secrets of the Delage desmodromic valve operation soon came to light some 72 years after the car was first raced, and according to Borgeson, confirmed that the “priority of Michelat and Delage in the successful application of the desmodromic principles to the modern breed of high performance engines is unchallenged.”

The guns of August 1914 changed everything. The Delage company would make munitions and some vehicles for the war effort. Louis Delage, rich as the war started, became, at the end of the conflict, very rich. He was ready for the roaring twenties, and the day of the voiturettes would be over, at least for Delage.

Next, Part II takes Delage from the end of WWII to the end of the line in 1954.