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delahaye history

Delahaye by Chapron

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From the VeloceToday Archives, October, 2011

By Ed McDonough

It seemed extraordinary to me doing the research for this series, reading a large number of period articles and reviews in notable journals, that many of these totally failed to mention who provided the body for some of the cars reviewed. Was it just a matter of routine that performance cars would have special bodies or could it have been that the reviewer didn’t know? After all, specialised car production was just that, and the history is complex.

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McDonough Drives a Delahaye 135M Skiff

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delahaye skiff

By Ed McDonough

Photos by Mike Jiggle

It isn’t really fair to call this car a Guillore Delahaye. It might be more accurate to say that a Guillore ferry has been transformed into a racy Delahaye ‘skiff’, for indeed that is the interesting history of this 1938 135M.

As mentioned in our introductory piece, pre-war Delahayes had bodies designed and built by a very wide range of European coachbuilders, and that range covered the spectrum from fairly simple to wildly extravagant. The Guillore cars were generally at the former end of that spectrum characteristic of the Delahaye output in the immediate pre-war and post-war periods.

Delahaye-Roadster-

At 1300 kilograms, the Guillore skiff flies...if you can say that about a boat-shaped device. My only criticism is that as I was lucky enough to be driving, I couldn’t see it go by!

Who was Guillore?

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Book Review: Delahaye Styling and Design

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Check Amazon.com for this book.

DELAHAYE STYLING AND DESIGN

By Richard S. Adatto and Diana E. Meredith
Dalton Watson Fine Books

With historic photography from multiple archival sources

Color portraits by Michael Furman

Review by Larry Crane

Émile Delahaye was a graduate mechanical engineer from Arts et Métier College of Angers, class of 1869. He soon owned his own foundry in his hometown of Tours at the age of 36 and was developing a line of internal combustion engines in 1879. He raced one of his own automobiles in the 1896 Paris-Marseilles-Paris contest, took in two partners, Georges Morane and Léon Desmarais, to capitalize the growing business in 1897, and retired from Société E. Delehaye et Cie in 1901, just as the automotive century began. Management of the works fell into the hands of Charles Weiffenbach (for ever known as Monsieur Charles) who must be given credit for the great Delahayes of the new century.
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Driving the Type 135 M Delahaye

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By Ed McDonough

Want a video clip of this drive? Send an email to pete@velocetoday.com.

A Chapron Delahaye

It seemed extraordinary to me doing the research for this series, reading a large number of period articles and reviews in notable journals, that many of these totally failed to mention who provided the body for some of the cars reviewed. Was it just a matter of routine that performance cars would have special bodies or could it have been that the reviewer didn’t know? After all, specialised car production was just that, and the history is complex.

Henri Chapron gets a few mentions in 1938, and when the Paris Salon V-12 car was sent to England in 1939, Figoni and Falaschi started to get some attention. But bodies for Delahayes had also been built, often to specific customer orders, by some intriguing people…a 1949 135M with a body built by Pennoch of the Netherlands to a design by Selborne of Mayfair, London. While Figoni and Falaschi may have executed some of the most ‘daring’ designs, bodies were also built by Saoutchik, Franay, Carrozzeria Motta, Carlton Carriage Company, Henri Labourdette, Letourneur et Marchand, and others.

Delahaye Chapron

Delahaye used Chapron for its more conservative designs but they were always effective.

[Read more…] about Driving the Type 135 M Delahaye

Delahaye: The Grand Touring Tradition

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By Ed McDonough

Introduction
Like many Veloce Today enthusiasts, the UK-based American automotive writer Ed McDonough (and author of “The Ferrari 156 Sharknose”) has had a long-standing and more-than-passing interest in French automobiles as well Italian machinery which he has written about in numerous articles and books. He has owned an Alpine A110 and the occasional Renault, Peugeot and Citroen, and raced in several 24-hour events with a Citroen 2CV. He has been competing this year in a 1951 DB-Monomille…more of that later!

He has now discovered a rather unique collection of cars, many of which are housed in England, with others stored in France and New Zealand. The owner has kindly agreed to a series of articles and Ed will be testing most of this extensive and relatively unknown collection of cars. It includes over a dozen Delahayes, all of which have been painstakingly restored and are in superb condition. These are not so-called ‘barn-finds’ but cars on which the very meticulous owner has lavished much attention. We start this series with a 1948 135M with a charming coupe body by Parisian designer/coach-builder Henri Chapron, and some background information on the Delahaye firm.

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