Delahaye 135CS: Rob Walker’s Gallic warrior

By Simon Taylor

| 3 Dec 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Delahaye 135CS: Rob Walker’s Gallic warrior

It’s a story that lives on in motor-racing folklore.

In the last months before the Second World War, a very wealthy young Cambridge undergraduate called Robert Ramsay Campbell Walker buys a famous Delahaye and enters it for Le Mans.

Because he has virtually no experience, he decides to ask a top British driver to be his teammate.

The tight cockpit of the Delahaye 135CS puts the driver close to the steering wheel

In the night, a broken exhaust burns the ace’s feet so badly he cannot continue.

So the youngster races on alone for 16 hours, stopping frequently to plunge his feet into a bucket of cold water and quaff the occasional reviving glass of Champagne.

Having started the race in a pinstripe suit, he decides this pattern is inappropriate for a Sunday morning, and at 8am he changes into a less formal Prince of Wales check.

He finishes eighth.

Rob Walker tackles the Esses at Le Mans in the Delahaye 135CS – during the 24 Hours he raced bare-headed © Walker Family Archive

That young man would go on to become the most successful private entrant in Formula One history, forming a famous partnership with Stirling Moss that earned a string of Grand Prix wins.

After he wound up his team in the 1970s, he started writing elegant features for an American magazine, and became a cherished member of the posse of regular British race reporters as we went from Grand Prix to Grand Prix.

On long-haul flights and over hilarious dinners, he loved to regale us with stories of his life in racing, and some of the best of them involved his beloved Delahaye.

Rob Walker and the Delahaye 135CS in the pits during the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans © Walker Family Archive

In 1935, backed by American millionaire Lucy O’Reilly Schell, Delahaye introduced a Compétition Spéciale version of the big six-cylinder Type 135.

Its hefty ladder chassis was shortened, lowered and drilled to save weight.

It wore independent front suspension by transverse leaf spring and wishbones, and externally mounted leaf springs at the rear, with massive cable-operated drum brakes.

The Delahaye 135CS has a beautiful tapering tail, which hides 30 gallons of fuel

The 3.6-litre engine gained a strengthened bottom end, a revised camshaft and a six-port head with three Solex 44HD carburettors.

A very light, cycle-winged aluminium body completed the recipe.

For the 1936 season, chassis 47188 was at first a works car run under Schell’s Ecurie Bleu banner: the great Albert Divo raced it at Reims, Montlhéry and Miramas.

Then it came to England to be handled by the British Delahaye concessionaire, a hard-drinking White Russian count named Doric Heyden.

The Delahaye 135CS has Art Deco-style sidelights on its cycle wings

By then registered DUV 870, it was sold to British amateur racer Tommy Clarke.

He got it up to third place in the Tourist Trophy, held for the last time at Ards, before ignition trouble intervened.

For a while his best lap was fastest, before being pipped by René Le Bègue’s works Delahaye.

In 1937 the Siamese Prince Chula bought it for his famous cousin Prince Bira, who drove it to victory in the Donington 12 Hours.

A Scintilla magneto sparks the Delahaye’s 3557cc straight-six engine

A year later, back with Count Heyden, it was hired out to several drivers, and Jay Willing and Ron Jarvis won the Brooklands Three Hours.

After Willing disappeared from the scene (he was jailed for illicitly selling arms to China), the car reappeared in the window of the Count’s showroom on London’s Park Lane.

There it was seen by the young Rob Walker, who fell for it.

‘A classic, long-nosed 1930s sports-racing car, with low-set headlights faired-in beside the Delahaye grille’

Rob’s family wealth came from the Johnny Walker whisky empire, and for his 21st birthday his mother had already bought him a superb Delahaye drophead.

But there was a problem. While he was a student, Rob was living on a strict £30-a-month allowance from his parents.

The 135CS’s price was £400, roughly £32,000 in today’s money.

So the Count introduced him to hire purchase, a concept he’d never heard of, and the car was his.

Raced at the highest level well into its teens, this remarkable Delahaye 135CS was bought three times by legendary driver and team boss Rob Walker

Having competed in a few minor events at Brooklands – and loaned 47188 back to Bira for him to win the Sydenham Plate at Crystal Palace – he was drawn into a controversy started by The Autocar about who had the fastest roadgoing car in Britain.

A two-part race was arranged at Brooklands, using both the Campbell and Mountain circuits, and bets were laid.

Favourite was the Mille Miglia-winning Alfa Romeo 2.9 of Hugh Hunter.

Rob decided 47188 needed an experienced driver, and called on the talented ERA racer Arthur Dobson.

The Delahaye 135CS has a traditional aeroscreen, which offers some protection against the elements

In the first part Hunter just beat Dobson, but in the second he retired with gearbox trouble.

On the startline for Part 2, amid much excitement, the Delahaye caught fire.

Once this was put out, it got away last. But Dobson pushed his way to the front, and won.

Thereafter, Count Heyden was able to publicise the 135CS as the fastest road car in Britain.

The Delahaye 135CS has fairings behind the wheels, which help to direct airflow over the arches

The Delahaye racer had left the factory with a conventional crash ’box, but Rob’s roadgoing drophead was fitted with one of the French electromagnetic Cotal gearboxes.

As well as allowing fingertip gearchanges at the flick of a switch, the Cotal transmission also gave four speeds in reverse.

This meant that, in theory, it would go as fast backwards as forwards.

One night, after rather a good party, Rob decided to put this to the test.

‘The tremendous torque of the big, grumbling ‘six’ makes the Delahaye 135CS very easy to drive’

With four friends squeezed into the drophead, he was doing 60mph peering over his shoulder when the car went into a ditch and turned over.

One friend had a broken arm, and Rob was left with several stitches in his left thumb.

Le Mans was a week away, and this could be a problem for changing gear in a 24-hour race.

So his mechanic, Bob Aves, hastily drove 47188 to the Delahaye factory in Paris.

The Compétition Spéciale version of the Delahaye has a shorter chassis than the standard Type 135 it’s based on

A Cotal ’box was fitted in three days and Aves drove the car on to Sarthe.

Meanwhile, Rob sat his Cambridge finals, then flew to Le Mans and that brave eighth place.

He ran the car in the last-ever Brooklands meeting in August, and four weeks later WW2 was declared.

Rob joined the Fleet Air Arm, flying Gladiators, Rocs and Fulmars, and the Delahaye was hidden away at the Walker family pile in Wiltshire.

Rob Walker ran the Delahaye 135CS at the final Brooklands meeting in August 1939, shortly before WW2 © Walker Family Archive

In 1940 he proposed to Elizabeth Duncan, who accepted – with the proviso that he stopped driving in races.

Rob kept his promise, and became an entrant.

With hostilities over, the Delahaye was dusted off and raced by Guy Jason-Henry, who scored several victories at Goodwood and elsewhere.

In 1949 it went back to Le Mans, 10 years after its previous appearance.

From the cockpit, the Delahaye 135CS feels smaller and more agile than it looks

Driven by Tony Rolt and Jason-Henry, it got up to fifth before the big ends failed.

Rob confessed that the engine hadn’t been touched since 1939.

Jason-Henry crossed the Channel frequently, taking the Delahaye to Reims, Pau and Comminges.

In 1950, after winning his race at the June Goodwood meeting, he was naïvely persuaded by a gang of professional smugglers to carry out a little task for them.

The quick-release fuel filler leads to the Delahaye’s twin tanks, where high-value Swiss watches were once hidden

He entered 47188 for the Montlhéry 12 Hours and, having taken part in practice on the Saturday, told the organisers that the car had a mechanical problem and could not start Sunday’s race.

It was then spirited away, and one of its two 15-gallon fuel tanks was cut open and filled with no fewer than 3400 Swiss watches.

In those post-war days of rationing, austerity and import duties, top-quality watches carried a high value on the British black market.

The Delahaye 135CS has a single faired-in mirror fixed to the scuttle

Jason-Henry drove the Delahaye to Dieppe and took the ferry to Newhaven.

As he drove on to the quay, the customs men were ready for him.

The car was seized, the fuel tank removed and the watches revealed.

Evidently somebody had upset someone else in criminal circles, and customs had been tipped off.

Leather straps hold down the Delahaye’s bonnet

Jason-Henry confessed all to the police and revealed the names of the gang members, which led to his acquittal – although he was fined £25 for carrying a revolver in the car.

But Rob’s beloved 47188 was impounded, and to his dismay he had to pay the authorities £300 to buy it back.

In 1952, busy with his growing activities as an entrant, he sold the Delahaye to Dan Margulies, who raced it energetically before passing it on to the eccentric Scottish millionaire Major Edward Thompson.

‘The Delahaye 135CS is nicely balanced, and you feel you can place it to the inch. What a satisfying long-distance racer this must have been’

The Major had a superb collection of famous cars, and behind the scenes he was also responsible for financing most of Ecurie Ecosse’s activities.

When he died in 1970, everything was auctioned in aid of the RNLI.

Rob hastened to bid for the Delahaye 135CS, buying it back for the third time.

It was in a poor state, so Rob’s race mechanic, John Chisman, embarked on a superb and painstaking three-year rebuild.

The Delahaye 135CS wears big wire wheels, also painted French Racing Blue

After enjoying 47188 for 30 more years – and getting Stirling Moss to drive it for him in a Le Mans historic race – Rob died in 2002.

But it remained in the family, looked after by his son Robbie and exhibited in several museums.

Recently, this great and famous car found a new home, after it went under the hammer with RM Sotheby’s at The Peninsula London hotel on 2 November 2024.

Robbie Walker graciously suggested that I should sample the Delahaye before it went to auction.

Struts across the Delahaye’s nose help to steady the wings

I approached it with some trepidation, because here is a significant and very valuable motor car of impeccable provenance.

With its remarkable history, it deserves respect. But I needn’t have worried, for 47188 proved to be friendly and eminently usable.

It looks wonderful in its correct French Racing Blue: a classic, long-nosed 1930s sports-racing car, with low-set headlights faired-in beside the Delahaye grille, the lines of the deep chassis frame visible beneath the panelling.

Rob Walker looked after this Delahaye 135CS long after he stopped racing it

The leather-strapped bonnet has cooling vents that can be slid open and shut, and the wings, as on other French sports-racers of the period, have fairings behind the wheels.

The drilled brake drums, with cooling scoops, are blue also, as are the big wire wheels.

Climbing aboard is difficult, because the gap between the seat and the big sprung-spoke steering wheel (still wearing its worn original leather) is tight.

It’s best to perch on the back of the cockpit and slide in, legs straight.

The Delahaye 135CS has bonnet vents which slide open and shut

The next problem is that the pedals are very small, and close together.

Unless you have dainty feet you must wear shoes without welts.

Otherwise, as you come off full throttle to hit the brake, you can get your foot caught behind the brake pedal: rather worrying as a corner rushes up.

Once you are in, however, the cockpit is comfortable, even though there are just plain, flat cushions forming a bench seat with no support.

The Delahaye 135CS is not intimidating to drive

The dash is straightforward, with the usual small gauges.

The rev counter reads to 6000rpm, but the red zone starting at 4000rpm reminds you that this is a low-revving engine.

Sprouting from the dash is the tiny four-fingered gate for the Cotal ’box.

Underneath, almost out of sight, is a conventional-looking lever, with three positions: forward, neutral and reverse.

Triple Solex carburettors and exhaust sit on the same side of the cylinder head

Check that it is in neutral, jab the starter and the big engine fires at once, settling to a calm burble.

Select position 1 on the little gate, push the clutch, select Forward on the gearlever, let in the clutch in the usual way, and you’re off.

Thereafter you can forget the clutch, and change up and down using the little switch.

The tremendous torque of the big, grumbling ‘six’ makes the Delahaye very easy to drive.

‘The Delahaye’s rev counter reads to 6000rpm, but the red zone starting at 4000rpm reminds you that this is a low-revving engine’

It copes well with slow traffic, helped by a modern electric fan.

On the open road, flicking the switch to the next gear at 4000rpm lands you back at the peak of the torque curve and it accelerates relentlessly.

The brake pedal has a disconcertingly long travel, but, once you reach the point where the cable-operated brakes actually come on, they give confidence.

The Delahaye 135CS has independent suspension up front and externally mounted leaf springs at the rear

The real surprise is the handling.

I expected the steering of this big car to be heavy, but once you’re moving it is light and precise, and the ride is no harsher than you would expect from a 1930s sports car.

You can push it hard into a corner before prodding that long brake pedal, and the Delahaye answers the helm without understeer.

It is nicely balanced, and you feel you can place it to the inch.

The delicate shifter for the Delahaye’s Cotal electromagnetic gearbox

Back on the power, the back digs in as the torque pushes you up the road, helped by the effortless changes from the Cotal ’box.

In its day, what a satisfying long-distance racer this must have been.

In fact, with that long bonnet pointed down a straight road, as the revs rumble up to 4000 and you flick the switch into top, you are back in the heady days before the war.

Hopefully this Delahaye 135CS will return to Goodwood and Le Mans in the future

Over your shirt and tie you’re wearing a Prince of Wales suit, and you’re weaving past the backmarkers down the Mulsanne Straight towards your next pitstop and your next glass of Champagne.

Which makes me hope that whoever is lucky enough to come up with the winning bid will not hide away this wonderful piece of motor-racing history in a silent collection, but will explore its potential at the Le Mans Classic and the Goodwood Revival.

It should know its way around both tracks pretty well.

Images: Luc Lacey

Thanks to: RM Sotheby’s; Robbie Walker

Enjoy more of the world’s best classic car content every month when you subscribe to C&SC – get our latest deals here

Ballot 3/8 LC: the first Italian Grand Prix winner

Alfa Romeo 8C-2300: the story of the ‘Wrigley Special’