Delahaye Type 145: the retired racer turned chic coupé

By Mick Walsh

| 2 May 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Delahaye Type 145: the retired racer turned chic coupé

In 1938, the first of the V12-powered supercoupés was visualised by the pioneer marque Delahaye.

There had been exclusive V12 designs from Hispano, Cadillac, Lagonda and Rolls-Royce, but refined power had been the main objective.

Delahaye, however, hit upon the idea of recycling a racing design into a sensational two-seater gran turismo.

This Delahaye Type 145 started life as a V12 Grand Prix car, but was reborn as a chic, Chapron-bodied coupé

Based on the Type 145, with its Grand Prix-winning 4½-litre powerhouse mounted in a chassis that doubled as both offset single-seater and sports-racer, this rare Gallic dazzler predated Ferrari by eight years.

Frustratingly, this exciting project’s progress was halted as the Third Reich advanced across Europe, and Delahaye workers set about hiding the firm’s racing machinery before the feared invasion.

There were even rumours that Hitler had ordered “suchen und zerstören” (search and destroy) for the 1938 Pau GP winner that had humiliated the Nazi-backed Silver Arrows.

The Delahaye Type 145’s exquisite cockpit sports a finely crafted wooden dashboard

Post-war, a trio of Type 145s was disinterred, and with a detuned specification one was sent to Franay while a pair was dispatched to Henri Chapron, who set the template for high-performance GTs with a striking new coupé.

As Europe recovered, Italy and Germany developed supercars for road and track, while Delahaye refocused on glamorous touring cars.

The two coachbuilt Chapron coupés looked very pre-war in conception, with an emphasis on separate wings rather than the increasing vogue for all-enveloping, streamlined forms.

Henri Chapron bodied this Delahaye Type 145, chassis 48772, and its sibling, 48773, as a near-identical pair

With the front wings sweeping up higher than the long, louvred bonnet, Chapron produced a masterful swansong for the passing style.

To enhance the flowing form, Chapron embellished the wings with raised details and rakish body flashes.

The nose featured a trimmer version of Delahaye’s classic ‘fencing mask’-style grille, while the compact, sloping tail tautly encased the spare wheel and fuel tank.

The Delahaye’s magnificent 4½-litre V12 engine now makes 185bhp

Luggage was limited to a shelf behind the seats.

Climb inside, and the beautiful woodwork highlights Chapron’s established craft, with the dashboard neatly wrapping around the scuttle into the door frame.

Set into this fine carpentry are exquisite OS gauges, with the speedometer marked to 170kph and the rev counter limited to 4000rpm.

Plush, deep-pleated leather seats and fitted carpets add refinement, while the broad, sprung three-spoke steering wheel evokes the chassis’ racing pedigree.

This Delahaye retains its mesh side grilles, unlike its twin, chassis 48773

The tight pedals are set down in a box below the cockpit floor, while a long gearlever hooks from the manual four-speed well under the dash.

Like contemporary Bugatti and Talbot GT rivals, the cockpit has a snug, exclusive aura, but, once the V12 fires, its glorious, sharp snarl sets it apart.

The super-responsive, well-tuned 4½-litre titan delivers creamy, eager power with urgent torque.

The steering is light and direct while the hydraulic drum brakes inspire, but the long-throw H-gate and lengthy gearlever feel dated.

‘The chassis feels taut and the power delivery is majestic, the V12’s smooth charge confirming the promise of its exotic specification’

The refinement is initially spoilt by the heavy clutch action, but once up to speed everything becomes more unified as the engine’s aural magnificence and performance punch reveal the 145’s racing origins.

On faster routes the chassis feels taut, with little roll or steering kickback, but due to the forward weight balance there’s a touch of understeer into turns.

Once past the apex the power delivery is majestic, the V12’s smooth charge confirming the promise of its exotic specification.

The contrasting navy blue and burgundy was used to highlight the Delahaye’s outer wings

As the engine’s heat permeates the gorgeous cockpit and the twin exhausts rasp crisply, I can’t help fantasising about René Dreyfus sitting here replaying the Prix du Million with GTs instead of GP challengers, against Jean-Pierre Wimille in a Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante.

Who would win this imaginary supertest between France’s greatest pre-war drivers in the era’s ultimate road cars?

It’s a tough call.

Later, parked up and cooling off, it’s hard to believe this glorious two-tone coupé was born from one of the ugliest racing cars, but through the mesh side grilles the visible V12 hints at its thoroughbred breeding.

The elegant tapered lines mask the Delahaye Type 145’s Grand Prix chassis and racing origins

At the heart of the 145 was the bold V12 that designer Jean François famously sketched on a napkin for Delahaye director Charles Weiffenbach during a lunch at the Restaurant Duplantin.

Late in 1936, Weiffenbach had concluded that, for the new regulations, an unsupercharged 4½-litre design would have significant reliability and fuel-consumption advantages over the highly tuned, blown 3 litres favoured by the German teams.

Other benefits included increased tyre life, which, along with improved economy, meant less time in the pits.

When Delahaye entrant Lucy Schell heard about the V12 plans for the Le Million du Fonds de Course, she pledged continued support for the Ecurie Bleue factory team.

The Delahaye Type 145’s long gearlever is hooked up to a four-speed gearbox

Finances were still tight and, rather than an exotic overhead-camshaft design, François followed Delahaye’s successful high-camshaft, overhead-pushrod tradition as brilliantly proven with the six-cylinder 135 Sport.

The new V12, with a seven-roller-bearing crankshaft, featured three gear-driven camshafts: one between the heads, operating the 12 inlet valves, with the other two mounted lower on either side of the block operating six exhaust valves each via longer pushrods.

The big-valve hemispherical combustion chambers featured twin plugs fired by a pair of Bosch magnetos driven by timing gears at the front.

Between the 60° banks sat a trio of twin-choke downdraught Zenith-Strombergs.

Slender controls behind the Delahaye’s three-spoke steering wheel

For lightness, François specified extensive use of alloys, which tested Delahaye’s foundry.

As well as the aluminium heads, magnesium was boldly specified for the one-piece block and crankcase, timing chest and valve covers, which caused problems with expansion and porosity.

On Delahaye’s dynamometer, the impressive-looking V12 produced 225bhp at 5500rpm.

Coincidently, Mercedes had also considered the unsupercharged option, but Ferdinand Porsche estimated 300bhp was the limit so Stuttgart took the blown route.

OS gauges are set into the Delahaye Type 145’s wooden dashboard

Early on in design development, Delahaye opted for an offset driving position, which meant the Type 145 could also be developed as a two-seater sports car for Le Mans and the Mille Miglia.

Up front, the chassis featured a transverse leaf spring with upper control arms and lever-arm dampers, while the rear remained orthodox with a live axle and semi-elliptic springs.

The large-diameter finned drum brakes were hydraulic and, unlike the electrically operated, semi-automatic Cotal specification of its road cars, the 145 employed a stronger four-speed manual for racing.

This Delahaye Type 145 was restored after Peter Mullin purchased it in 2003

Some reports claim six 145s were built, including the two original Grand Prix cars.

Five survive, of which the late Californian collector Peter Mullin amazingly owned four at one point.

To dress the surplus Type 145s, Weiffenbach offered a pair of chassis to his favourite carrossier, Henri Chapron, and in 1938 work started on two fabulous coupés that, other than a few details, were a close match.

But after the body designs were agreed, progress halted when Chapron’s Levallois-Perret workshops in Paris were closed soon after the Germans invaded.

The Delahaye Type 145’s rear-hinged doors provide easy access to the elegant cabin

The V12 Delahaye pair was hidden away and Henri Chapron moved out to Nouan-le-Fuzelier, just south of Orléans, where he started a body-repair workshop.

With peacetime, the 60-year-old Chapron moved back to Paris to re-establish his successful business.

Story has it chassis 48772 was purchased by Chapron from Lucy Schell’s Ecurie Bleue racing team and stripped of its ugly competition bodywork to form the basis of a coupé road car for Robert Cuny, a transport manager from Vosges.

Delivery was promised in six months, but progress was disrupted by labour problems.

The Delahaye has Marchal headlamps

Cuny didn’t lose interest, and by December he started discussing paint and trim colours with Chapron before deciding on a patriotic blue with grey pleated leather.

Four months later, the V12’s sharp rasp filled the Levallois-Perret works as Cuny prepared for his first drive in the newly finished coupé, but, frustrated with the poor tune, he sent it to specialist Fernand Lacour to sort.

With the engine at last running smoothly, Cuny relished the superb performance and entered the Rallye de Lorraine, where the stylish Chapron coachwork was greatly admired.

The Delahaye’s two-tone paint accentuates the car’s beltline

The blue exotic was no doubt enjoyed around the mountain roads of Alsace, but after two years the thirsty 4½-litre was traded back to Jean-Pierre Bernard, the manager of Delahaye’s Paris showroom.

The complex V12 ultimately became a problem, and at some point in the early ’50s it was replaced by a competition straight-six 135S engine.

Repainted green, the Chapron 145 coupé was spotted by the Schlumpf brothers and joined their secretive automotive hoard in Mulhouse.

‘After the designs were agreed, progress halted soon after the Germans invaded and the V12 Delahaye pair was hidden away’

The Schlumpfs prized the Delahaye for many years before trading it with Luxembourg-based Bugatti dealer Bart Loyens, who exported the Type 145 to America.

New owner Ed Andrews had the Delahaye shipped to Chicago in the winter of 1967, but when transport was disrupted by the frozen Lake Huron, story has it Andrews and his brother had the coachbuilt exotic taken off the ship in the Detroit docks and drove it the 280 miles home.

The idea of the Delahaye cruising past family Fords and Peterbilt six-wheelers on Highway 94 in the winter, or parked covered in icy slush at a roadside diner for lunch, conjures vivid images.

The Delahaye Type 145’s cabin features deeply pleated leather and fitted carpets

Determined to return the Chapron Type 145 to original specification, Andrews instructed Loyens to try to track down the V12.

The quest proved successful and the rare motor was also shipped to Chicago.

Andrews never completed the complex engine rebuild, and it remained dismantled in boxes.

Coachbuilt Delahayes have a passionate following among US collectors, particularly in California, and the rare 145s were regarded as automotive lost treasures.

The Delahaye Type 145’s swoopy profile is a far cry from the aesthetically compromised competition bodywork originally designed for it

In the early 1980s, Bill Hinds heard rumours of a surviving 145 in Chicago and asked his friend Bill Jacobs, a local BMW dealer, to investigate.

Within a day Andrews had been contacted, but took longer to agree to sell before a deal was finally struck and the project headed west.

The first priority was the engine, for which Hinds enlisted Alec Giaimo, a talented specialist based in Redwood City, California.

The Delahaye’s neatly curved dashboard

Further investigation of the lightweight engine components revealed that the V12 was a detuned racing motor with special crankshaft counterweights for higher revs, a multi-plate clutch and triple Zenith-Stromberg carburettors.

Upon stripdown, the chassis displayed evidence of older wing and body mounts, with French Racing Blue paint apparent under the later colours.

Once rebuilt, the engine was run up to 4000rpm on the dyno to produce 185bhp and 221lb ft of torque.

Delahaye’s V12 engine breathes through three Stromberg carburettors

For the restoration, a bold two-tone scheme of navy blue with contrasting burgundy was used to highlight the raised sections of the side flashes and outer wings.

As a final touch, a French lacquer further enhanced the dramatic scheme, and after two years’ work the Chapron beauty was shown at the Blackhawk Concours.

When Californian Peter Mullin started to focus on pre-war French classics, the story of the Type 145 and Dreyfus’ famous win over Mercedes in the 1938 Pau Grand Prix captured his interest.

As well as a major rebuild of the million-franc prize car to racing order, Mullin became fixated on the Chapron-bodied coupé road cars and in 2003 bought 48772.

The ‘fencing mask’ grille of the Delahaye Type 145

The 145 looked immaculate, but Mullin wasn’t happy about some inaccurate detailing, particularly the interior and engine bay, which featured excessive chroming and an engine-turned finish.

He dispatched 48772 to High Mountain Classics in Fort Collins, Colorado, for a full stripdown and restoration.

Jim Stranberg’s talented team had just completed a meticulous Pebble Beach-winning rebuild of the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic (later co-owned by Mullin), and a similar approach was taken with the V12 Chapron coupé.

During the works, Mullin also acquired the sister car, together with a dismantled single-carb Type 145 engine, from German collector Count Hubertus von Dönhoff.

Delahaye’s V12-powered, Grand Prix-inspired Type 145 supercoupé predated Ferrari by eight years

For the first time since 1948 the two delectable Delahayes were reunited, and although they look almost identical, there are several distinctive details in their bodywork that helped clarify the histories.

The clearest variations are the split rear windscreen and panelled bonnet sides of the second chassis, 48773, which was finished in metallic grey.

Once both restorations were complete, the stunning pair was displayed together for the first time at Pebble Beach before becoming a dramatic feature of Mullin’s museum in Oxnard when it opened in 2010.

The Chapron Type 145s also inspired several popular miniatures, including in the Matchbox revival of the famous Dinky name.

This Delahaye Type 145 was displayed in the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, for many years

Of all his remarkable collection of Art Deco beauties, Mullin was particularly proud of the Delahaye set, of which Type 145 chassis 48772 was a long-term favourite.

In 2023 the navy-and-burgundy Chapron beauty made a return to Europe, but sadly Mullin was too ill to travel.

One of Peter’s last wishes before he died last September, aged 82, was to see a photo of his prized coupé at the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance, with special instructions it must be a side shot at his best-loved event.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: Merle Mullin, Peter Reeve of the Hadleigh Group and Richard Adatto

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