Delage

The company was founded in 1905 by Louis Delâge, who borrowed Fr 35,000, giving up a salary of F 600 a month to do so. Its first location was on the Rue Cormeilles in Levallois-Perret. The company at first had just two lathes and three employees, one of them Peugeot's former chief designer. was wrecked in the rain on the fifth; nevertheless, Ménard, the other works driver, came second in the event, behind a Sizaire-Naudin. (built by Nemorin Causan) in the hands of Delage dealer Albert Guyot. Guyot won at an average , not needing to stop for fuel. All three Delages finished this time, Thomas the quickest of the two-cylinder cars, while the team also took home the regularity prize. These good results contributed to total sales exceeding 300 cars for the year. The CO plans had been drawn up during the conflict; this was the first passenger car with front brakes. It was joined by the DO with a 3-liter four. The 1920s were really the first "Golden Age" of Delage. The most famous were the DE and DI: 4 cylinders of about 2 liters and 11 hp. Delage also attempted to compete with Hispano-Suiza, with the GL of 30 hp and 5954 cc, with some success. After that came a new generation of six-cylinder cars, like the MD (3174 cc) and DR (2516 cc), the best-selling vehicle in the history of the brand, designed by engineer Gaultier. Both the CO and DO were replaced in 1922. A 1925 car had a () six, again using the GL block, with four valves per cylinder and twin overhead cams. Driven by Divo, it broke the Mont Ventoux course record in its debut. The DIS became the Series 6 in 1927, switching to coil ignition and water pump. In 1926, Delage introduced the DM, with a () six, which made it emblematic of the era for the marque. The high-performance DMS had hotter cam, twin valve springs, and other improvements. A DR, with a choice of 2.2- and 2.5-liter sidevalve engines, also briefly appeared. ==Competition==

Delage entered the 1911 ''Coupe de l'Auto'' at Boulogne with a () four with two -diameter bellcrank-operated valves per cylinder controlled by camshafts in the crankcase. with Duray coming in fifth in the third Delage. The car, driven by Thomas, fell out of the French Grand Prix in 1923, but went on to perform well for the bulk of the 1923 and 1924 season. With supercharger added in 1925, bringing output to , it won at Montlhéry and Lasarte, proving as fast as the Alfa Romeo P2, but rarely racing it directly. This car was supplanted in 1926 by a Lory-designed supercharged 1.5-liter twincam straight eight of ; capable of , it was the company's last Grand Prix entrant. Always passionate about racing, Louis Delage designed an 8-cylinder 1500 cc, the type 15 S 8. This car won four European Grands Prix races in 1927, and won Delage the title "World Champion of Car Builders" that same year. A -powered D6 won the 1938 Tourist Trophy at Donington Park and came second at Le Mans. A single V12-powered car, intended for Le Mans, caught fire at the 1938 International Trophy at Brooklands. Postwar, the best results Delage had were seconds at the 1949 Le Mans and 1950 Paris Grand Prix. ==The D6 and the D8: The Classic Era==

1930 saw the launch of the 6-cylinder Delage D6 which would form the mainstay of the manufacturer's passenger car range until 1954. For 1930 Maurice Gaultier designed an 8-cylinder in-line 4,061 cc, evolving the type D8 into the type D8 S (S for Sport). The D8 was the pinnacle of the marque. It was offered in three wheelbases, "S" or "C" at , "N" at , and "L" at , all powered by a () straight eight, making it capable of . It was at this time that he also entered into negotiations with Peugeot about using their dealership and service network. Watney stayed in France, at his villa in Beaulieu, until the end of 1942 after the Germans had completed their occupation, but already in December 1940 the presidency of the SAFAD business had passed directly into the control of Delahaye. In any event, since the outbreak of the war Delage had been largely inactive, although they did undertake work on a project to replace the six-cylinder engine of the Hotchkiss H39 tank with the more powerful 8-cylinder unit from the Delage D8 120. ==Racing aero-engines==

Delage produced at least two types of racing aero-engine during the early 1930s. The Delage 12 CED was fitted to the Kellner-Béchereau 28VD racing aircraft, intended to compete in the 1933 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe air race. Unfortunately the aircraft crashed during qualification trials for the race on 12 May 1933. The second engine type, the Delage 12 GV, remains a mystery, with very little information available. ==After the Second World War==

A large prototype Delage D-180 limousine appeared at the 1946 Paris Motor Show, but there were evidently no further developments on this project, and by the next year the big prototype had quietly disappeared. At the 1947 Paris Motor Show only a single model was exhibited as the business focused on its six-cylinder 3-litre Delage D6 Louis Delâge himself, who had lived in poverty and quasi-monastic isolation since bankruptcy in 1935 had enforced the transfer of his company to Delahaye, Tapie becomes president of Delage Automobiles. The new Delage planned for this project is called the Delage D12. It is a hybrid street-legal sports car powered by a normally aspirated V12 engine of , coupled to an electric motor of , for a cumulative power of . It will be produced in France like all Delages. Delage Automobiles has joined forces with racing driver Jacques Villeneuve as the development driver for the future production model. The car was presented at private events in Los Angeles and Orange County in California in December 2019, then in Monaco in September 2020, Geneva in November 2020 and Dubai in December 2020. Voted "most beautiful car in the world" (best Design) by the jury of the Automobile Awards 2020/2021, only 30 units of the Delage D12 will be produced and sold at a price tag of 2 million Euros per car. ==Models==

• Delage CO (1918, 6 cyl, 4,524 cc) • (1920, 2,121 cc) • Delage CO2 (1921) • Delage 2 LCV (1923, 12 cyl, 2L) • Delage GL (5,954 cc) • Delage DE • Delage DH (12 cyl DH, 10,5L) • Delage DI S • Delage DI SS • Delage DMS (6 cyl, 3L) • Delage DML (6 cyl, 3L) • Delage 15 S 8 (8 cyl, 1,500 cc) • Delage GL (5,954 cc) • Delage DM (6 cyl, 3,174 cc) • Delage DR (6 cyl, 2,170 cc) or (6 cyl, 2,517 cc) • Delage D4 (4 cyl, 1,480 cc) • Delage D6-11 (6 cyl, 2,101 cc) • Delage D8-15 (2,768 cc) • Delage D6-65 • Delage D8-85 • Delage D8 • Delage D8 S (8 cyl, 4,061 cc) • Delage D8-105 • Delage DI 12 (4 cyl) • Delage D8 120 • Delage D6 70 (6 cyl) • Delage D12 – 2021 (12 cyl, 7,604 cc + 110 hp motor) ==Production volumes==

During their years of independence, Delage made almost 40,000 cars at their workshops in Levallois and Courbevoie. After Delage production was subsumed into the Delahaye operation, approximately another 2,000 Delage badged cars were manufactured between 1935 and 1940. With the post-war resumption of passenger car production, 330 Delage cars appear to have been produced by Delahaye between 1946 and 1953. ==Sources and further reading==