DELAHAYE TYPE 135. One of the bigger surprises in the Inter-national sports car world during the &qu

It is said that Ettore Bugatti made slighting remarks to Delahaye's chief, Charles Weiffenbach, concerning the excessive weight and slowness of his cars, and certainly they could not have been called "Europe's fastest lorries"! Whatever the spur, in 1933 Delahaye took their first firm steps away from lethargy. Their liveliest model had a 3.2 litre six-cylinder overhead valve engine which also served in their commercial range, so designer Jean Francois fitted this into a short 9ft wheelbase chassis with trans-verse leaf independent front suspension and optional Wilson preselector gearbox, and called it the Super-Luxe. Its high build was no handicap in the 1934 Monte Carlo Rally, wherein works driver Perrot won his class and placed third overall. Some months later a similar chassis with single-seater streamlined body and three-carburettor 112bhp engine broke four world long-distance class C records and 11 international records at Montlhery, including the 48 hours at 109.54mph and the 10,000km at 104.72mph. This engine was next put into a light two-seater roadster, which won the touring class of the La Turbie hillclimb, took a coveted Coupe des Alpes in the 1934 Alpine Trial, and in October came home first in the Algerian Touring GP race in North Africa. Records, hill-climbs, rallies, races quel surpris! The Forerunner of the .3211itre Delahaye Type 135 was the 3.2 litre "Coupe des Alpes" sports two-seater, with one of which Mme Lucy Schell (mother of post-war racing driver Harry Schell) won the 1935 Paris—St Raphael Ladies' Rally. Her husband Laurie won a race at Lorraine that same season with a similar car year 1935 served further notice of Delahaye's change of heart. The 3.2 litre 9ft wheelbase car, now justly called the Coupe des Alpes, won three races at Lorraine, Reims and Orleans, won the Paris–St Raphael Ladies' Rally, came fifth at Le Mans, and third on distance in the 24 hours Targa Abruzzo race in Italy, in the heart of Alfa Romeo territory. Then came the big French decision to switch over to sports car racing in 1936. Delahaye, doubtless fortified by their acquisition of the Delage marque in 1935, decided to participate. A new sporting model with 9ft 8in wheelbase and engine enlarged to 3,557cc appeared at the 1935 Paris Salon as the Type 135, and that winter Delahaye built a batch of 14 lower, lighter, more powerful "Competition" editions, most of them for private customers. These cars wore shapely light-alloy open two-seater bodies with elegant Gallic curves in radiator, tail and wings, while under-neath their French blue carrosserie the rugged six-cylinder pushrod ohv engines had triple Solex carburettors, magneto ignition and special oil coolers, and gave about 140bhp at 4,200rpm. On their debut in the Miramas 3 Hours race early in 1936, the Delahayes met the fast new 4 litre Talbots, scoring overwhelmingly on reliability by taking the first six places. At Algiers they scored 1-2-3-4, and then they came up against race-bred opposition—a blown Alfa Romeo in the Belgian 24 Hours, relegating them to second and third, and the Bugatti "tank" in the French GP, where they impressed even so by occupying second to fifth places. The French, ever mindful of racing success, studied the production Type 135s at the 1936 Salon with great interest.

There were 3.2 and 3.5 litre chassis available in two wheelbases, with two transmis-sion options—a manual four-speed or Cotal electro-magnetic planetary gear-box, in which four activated solenoids acted as clutches for the four speeds. On such chassis, the cream of French coachbuilders drew on their talents to produce fine, fast grand routiers, some gloriously elegant, others spoiled by Continental excesses with curves and counter-curves running riot. The sport-ing Delahaye 135 gave 130bhp at 3,850rpm, making it a smooth, =fussy performer with a 100mph maximum, precise steering and impeccable road manners. During the next two seasons, Delahaye competition successes stockpiled. They won the Monte Carlo Rally, the Rainier Cup sports car race at Monaco, and the Donington 12 Hours race in England during 1937, and the Antwerp GP, Brooklands 3 Hours, and the Le Mans 24 Hours itself in 1938. By 1939 the basi-cally seven-year old design was getting past winning, although R. R. C. Walker's 1936 "Competition" model driven by A. C. Dobson won the "World's fastest road car" contest at Brooklands after the newer blown straight-eight Mille Miglia Alfa Romeo broke down. Delahaye had made their point, in any case, and the Type 135 touring and sports models ranked among the fore-most French prestige cars. Production was resumed after the War, but the design had dated, while new-style full-width carrosserie did not agree with the lissom build of the Delahaye. Nor were the times in favour of expensive luxury cars; the Delahaye-Delage combine did not live beyond 1953, but their Type 135 six remains an outstanding example of the post-Vintage thoroughbred class.

Specification Engine : 6 cylinders in line; 84 x 107mm, 3,557cc; pushrod-operated ohv, 2 per cylinder; triple Solex carburettors; coil ignition (Scintilla magneto on Competition models); 4-bearing crankshaft; 130bhp at 3,850rpm (Competition, 150bhp at 4,200rpm). Transmission: Single dry-plate clutch;

4-speed manual or Wilson 4-speed pre-selector gearbox up to 1936, Cotal electro-magnetic 4-speed gearbox optional from 1937, all in unit with engine; open propellor shaft; spiral-bevel final drive. Chassis: Box-section side members; transverse-leaf independent front suspension, semi-elliptic rear springing; friction dampers (up to 1936), Luvax hydraulic and Andre-Hartford friction dampers (from 1937); Bendix servo-mechanical brakes. Dimensions : Wheelbase, 9ft 8in; front track, 4ft 7in; rear track, 4ft 10in; approx. dry weight, 2,7401b (135 road car); 2,5201b.