Émile Delahaye and the beginnings of the automobile, Tours, 1894.
Visual reconstruction based on period photographs of Émile Delahaye, his early automobile and the Delahaye works in Tours. The scene brings these documented elements together rather than recreating a known historical photograph.

The Origins of Delahaye

At the end of the 19th century, the automobile was still little more than a promise. Internal-combustion engines were beginning to find practical applications, but nobody yet knew what the motor car of the future would look like. In Tours, however, an engineer was already paying close attention to this rapidly developing technology.

Émile Delahaye was born in 1843 and trained at the Arts et Métiers school in Angers. After working in industry, he took over a mechanical engineering company in Tours in 1879. He gradually developed its activities around pumps and engines, turning his attention to gas and petroleum-powered engines. In 1888, Delahaye developed an engine intended for marine use, an experience that opened new possibilities for the emerging automobile.

In 1894, he took the decisive step.

In his workshop at 34 rue du Gazomètre in Tours, Émile Delahaye began developing his first automobile, which would become known as the Type 1.
It was a remarkably complete undertaking for the time: the chassis, body and engine were all produced by Delahaye.
The car featured a rear-mounted engine and belt transmission, solutions that reflected the experimental nature of the earliest motor cars.

The new automobile was soon presented to the public, and in 1895 Delahaye exhibited in Paris as the emerging motor industry began to establish its first dedicated exhibitions.

But Émile Delahaye was not interested merely in building automobiles. He also needed to prove what they could do.

At a time when reliability was still largely untested, long-distance road competitions offered manufacturers an opportunity to put their machines through serious trials. Delahaye embraced competition as a way of demonstrating the capabilities of his cars.

In 1896, barely two years after the construction of his first automobile, Delahaye entered the Paris–Marseille–Paris race, a 1,710-kilometre event run over ten stages. Émile Delahaye himself took the wheel of one of his cars.

The young manufacturer continued to compete in major events during the following years, including Paris–Dieppe and Paris–Amsterdam–Paris. These appearances, together with the growing reputation of Delahaye automobiles for reliability, helped attract new customers. Among the early owners was the Duchess of Uzès, one of the best-known personalities associated with the young marque.

The small workshop in Tours was beginning to reach its limits. By 1897, growing demand and Émile Delahaye's declining health encouraged him to consider a new organisation.

The solution came through two men already familiar with his automobiles: Georges Morane, one of his customers and a Delahaye competitor, and his brother-in-law Léon Desmarais.

In 1898, a new company was established in Paris, with its headquarters and new workshops at 10 rue du Banquier, in the 13th arrondissement.
The original Tours works continued to operate for a time, but the centre of Delahaye's automobile business had shifted to the capital.

What had begun only a few years earlier in a workshop in Tours was becoming an established automobile manufacturer.

And Delahaye's story was only beginning.

Delahaye works, 10 rue du Banquier, Paris.
Visual reconstruction based on period photographs of the Delahaye factory. The scene is an interpretation and does not claim to reproduce the site exactly.

From Workshop to Industry

The move to Paris marked more than a change of address. Delahaye was entering a new phase, transforming gradually from a small automobile manufacturer into a much larger industrial operation.

Two men would become closely associated with this development: Charles Weiffenbach and Amédée Varlet. Both joined Delahaye at the end of the 1890s and would play important roles in the company's engineering and management. Weiffenbach eventually became general manager and remained with Delahaye until 1954, while Varlet became a central figure in its engineering work.

Émile Delahaye's health, meanwhile, continued to deteriorate. On January 31, 1901, he handed over control of the business and retired from active involvement. He later withdrew to his property at Vouvray, near Tours, and died at Saint-Raphaël in 1905.

The company that carried his name continued to expand.

During the first years of the 20th century, Delahaye developed more powerful and refined passenger cars. But automobiles were only part of the story.

In 1905, Delahaye began producing trucks and buses. The following year, the company entered another field that would become particularly important: fire-fighting equipment, building specialised vehicles on its own commercial chassis.

This diversification was not a temporary detour. Passenger cars, commercial vehicles and fire-fighting equipment would together become defining elements of Delahaye's industrial identity.

Delahaye 20–24 HP tipping truck, 1912.
Visual reconstruction based on period photographs of the Delahaye tipping truck exhibited at the 1912 Paris Motor Show.

Delahaye-Farcot Type 32 fire engine, 1910.
Visual reconstruction based on period photographs and the surviving Type 32 fire engine used as technical references.

The company developed increasingly capable commercial vehicles, including the Type 36, introduced in 1909 with a payload of around 3.5 tonnes. By the years preceding the First World War, Delahaye was producing several types of heavy vehicles alongside its passenger cars.

The passenger-car range was evolving as well. The Type 32 introduced a new generation of four-cylinder engineering, while the Type 44, presented in 1911, adopted an unusual V6 engine. Delahaye was also expanding beyond France, exporting automobiles and establishing licensed production in Germany.

By 1911, the scale of the operation was considerable. A contemporary description of the works at 10 rue du Banquier recorded around 1,200 workers and an annual production of approximately 1,500 to 1,600 vehicles.

The small manufacturer of the 1890s had become an established industrial company.

Delahaye Type 32 Coupé-Chauffeur, c. 1910–1912.
Visual reconstruction based on a surviving vehicle.

Delahaye Type 32, c. 1910.
Visual reconstruction based on a surviving vehicle.

Then, in 1914, the course of European history changed.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Delahaye's production was redirected towards the needs of the conflict. Heavy vehicles and industrial equipment became increasingly important, while the company also produced military material, including vehicles, artillery shells and rifle components.

Passenger-car development largely gave way to the demands of wartime production.

By the end of the war, Delahaye was a very different company from the one Émile Delahaye had founded in Tours. It had grown from an experimental automobile manufacturer into an industrial producer with experience in passenger cars, heavy vehicles and fire-fighting equipment.

The next challenge was to find its place in a rapidly changing automobile market.

Wartime production at Delahaye during the First World War: artillery shells and military vehicles.
Visual reconstructions based on period photographs.

A Changing Direction

After the First World War, Delahaye entered a period of transition. Passenger cars remained part of the business, alongside trucks, buses and fire-fighting equipment, but the French automobile industry was changing rapidly. Large manufacturers were moving towards increasingly standardised production, forcing smaller companies to find their own place in the market.

For Delahaye, the 1920s were not yet the great era for which the marque would later be remembered. The change became more visible in the early 1930s, as economic difficulties encouraged the company to reconsider its passenger-car strategy.

The introduction of the Type 134 and, in 1933, the Type 138 Superluxe marked important steps in this new direction. The six-cylinder 138 brought a more sporting character to the range and pointed towards the faster, more sophisticated automobiles that would soon transform Delahaye's image.

The engineering department was evolving as well. Jean François, progressively succeeding Amédée Varlet in responsibility for design, played an important role in this new generation of Delahayes. Charles Weiffenbach, meanwhile, remained one of the key figures in the company's development.

Then came another important step.

In 1935, Delahaye acquired Delage.
Delage automobiles could continue to be produced using Delahaye's industrial facilities, while the acquisition strengthened Delahaye's position in the prestige-car market.

The transformation was taking shape. Competition would soon give it its strongest expression.

Delahaye Type 134, c. 1934.
Visual reconstruction based on a surviving vehicle, set outside the Hôtel Negresco in Nice.

Delahaye Type 138 Super-Luxe, c. 1934.
Visual reconstruction based on a surviving vehicle, set at a period French roadside filling station.

In early 1934, Delahaye's competition department began preparing sporting versions of the Type 138, combining lighter chassis with more powerful engines. The cars were entered in road events by drivers including the Schells and Albert Perrot.

The results were immediate. A Delahaye 138 Sport won the Coupe des Alpes, while a streamlined 138 bodied by Figoni & Falaschi was prepared for record attempts at Montlhéry. Between May 8 and 10, 1934, it covered 10,000 kilometres at an average speed of 168.527 km/h, setting four world records and eleven international records.

These performances brought together qualities Delahaye had developed over decades — mechanical strength, reliability and industrial experience — with a far more ambitious sporting programme.

At the 1934 Paris Motor Show, the sporting 138s attracted considerable attention. From the following year, the Type 135 emerged from this development, retaining the six-cylinder architecture while evolving into a range that would extend from road-going cars to specialised competition versions.

The Type 135 was about to give this new direction its most enduring expression.

Delahaye had found its direction.

Delahaye Type 138/135 Sport “Coupe des Alpes”, 1935.
Visual reconstruction based on a surviving vehicle, set at a fictional roadside café in the French Alps.

Delahaye 135 Competition Court Torpedo Roadster by Figoni & Falaschi, 1937.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, set during a period-style photographic session at the Trocadéro in Paris.

The Delahaye 135

The Type 135 became the defining Delahaye of the 1930s.

Developed from the sporting work carried out with the Type 138, it combined a six-cylinder engine with a chassis capable of both performance and long-distance touring. Several versions were offered, from road-going cars to more specialised sporting derivatives.

More powerful versions were fitted with three carburettors, while the lighter 135 S was developed specifically for competition.

At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1937, seven Delahayes took the start. The 135 S of Marcel Mongin and Joseph Paul finished second, while René Dreyfus and Henri Stoffel brought another Delahaye home in third.

The following year, Delahaye went one step further.

Five cars were entered for the 1938 race, including four 135 S models. After 24 hours, Eugène Chaboud and Jean Trémoulet took overall victory, covering 3,180.940 kilometres at an average speed of 132.539 km/h. Two more Delahayes finished third and fourth.

It was Delahaye's first overall victory at Le Mans, and remains the marque's only one.

The 135 also competed successfully in demanding road events, including the Monte Carlo Rally and the Coupe des Alpes. But perhaps its most important quality was not a particular victory or technical specification.

It was adaptability.

The chassis could be configured for very different purposes, making the 135 particularly attractive to the independent coachbuilders who were transforming French luxury automobiles.

The same mechanical foundation that had carried Delahaye to victory at Le Mans could become something entirely different when it left the factory.

The 135 had proved what it could do. The coachbuilders would decide what it could become.

Delahaye 135 S Compétition Court, No. 52, Montlhéry, 1939.
Visual reconstruction of Eugène Chaboud's car during the Coupe de Paris meeting at Montlhéry.

Delahaye Type 135 M “Narval” Roadster by Figoni & Falaschi, 1947.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, set on the Pâquier in Annecy.

A Chassis, a Thousand Possibilities

For many Delahaye customers, choosing the chassis was only the beginning.

Delahaye supplied the mechanical foundation, while the body could be commissioned from one of the many independent coachbuilders working in France and abroad. This tradition was common among European luxury manufacturers, but the Type 135 proved particularly well suited to it.

A single Delahaye chassis could therefore become an open roadster, a four-seat convertible, a coupé or a formal saloon. The mechanical identity remained the same; what appeared above it could be remarkably different.

Delahaye 135 Coupe des Alpes by Henri Labourdette, 1935.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, chassis no. 46081.

Delahaye 135 MS Cabriolet by Henri Chapron, 1938.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, chassis no. 49299.

French and foreign coachbuilders seized upon this freedom, each bringing a different interpretation to the Delahaye chassis.
Some favoured restrained elegance, others sporting proportions or increasingly aerodynamic forms, while a few created automobiles intended to be almost unique.

There was no single Delahaye 135 silhouette. The same mechanical foundation could emerge from these workshops with an entirely different character.

Delahaye Type 165 Cabriolet by Figoni & Falaschi, 1938.
Visual reconstruction of the aluminium body under construction in the Figoni & Falaschi workshop.

The mechanical identity remained Delahaye, but much of the finished automobile's personality belonged to its coachbuilder.

Figoni & Falaschi pushed this idea particularly far. Their collaboration with Delahaye had begun with the streamlined Type 138 used for record attempts at Montlhéry in 1934, and their subsequent creations would become some of the most recognisable Delahayes of the period.

Coachwork was therefore more than a matter of appearance. These individually bodied cars appeared at motor shows and concours d'élégance, contributing to Delahaye's growing international reputation.

To identify such an automobile simply as a “Delahaye 135” was often only the beginning of its story. One also had to know who had shaped its body — and for whom it had been built.

Meanwhile, Delahaye's competition department was preparing something very different.

The 135 had proved itself on the road. Now Delahaye was ready to challenge the world's best on the circuit.

Delahaye 135 Competition Spéciale by Figoni, 1936.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented competition car, chassis no. 46626.

The Million-Franc Challenge

By 1937, Delahaye's return to competition had already produced remarkable results. But the company was about to attempt something considerably more ambitious.

New international racing regulations for 1938 allowed naturally aspirated engines of up to 4.5 litres. Delahaye responded with an entirely new competition car: the Type 145, powered by a 4.5-litre V12. The project was developed with the support of Lucy and Dickie Schell and their Écurie Bleue, with René Dreyfus chosen as one of its principal drivers.

The first major objective was not a Grand Prix.

It was the Million-Franc Challenge at Montlhéry.

Created to encourage French manufacturers to develop cars capable of challenging the increasingly dominant foreign Grand Prix machines, the competition required a 200-kilometre timed run at Montlhéry. On August 27, 1937, Dreyfus drove the new Type 145 over the distance at an average speed of more than 146.5 km/h, securing the million-franc prize for Delahaye.

Delahaye had produced a purpose-built V12 competition car at a time when German manufacturers had become dominant in Grand Prix racing.

The real confrontation came in 1938.

At the Grand Prix de Pau, Dreyfus faced the Mercedes-Benz team and its new W154. The Delahaye was less powerful, but the race rewarded pace, reliability and careful management.

Dreyfus won.

The victory was particularly significant because it came against the Mercedes of Rudolf Caracciola. Later that year, the Type 145 achieved another victory at the Grand Prix de Cork in Ireland.

The 145's racing career was brief. Its development belonged to a very specific moment in motor racing, soon interrupted by the outbreak of war. A related development, the Type 155, took the V12 concept into a single-seater; only one was built in 1938.

Yet in little more than a year, the Type 145 had transformed Delahaye's sporting reputation.

At the same time, the marque was creating some of the most individual road cars of the period.

Delahaye had reached the height of its pre-war ambitions.

Delahaye Type 145 V12, René Dreyfus, Prix du Million, Montlhéry, 1937.
Visual reconstruction of the record-breaking 200-kilometre run on 27 August 1937.

When Coachbuilders Took the Stage

While Delahaye was building its reputation in competition, its chassis were also becoming the foundation for some of the most distinctive French coachwork of the period.

Figoni & Falaschi became particularly closely associated with the marque. Their increasingly fluid designs for the Type 135, with sweeping lines and carefully integrated fenders, produced some of the most recognisable Delahayes of the era.

Jacques Saoutchik followed a very different path. His creations were often more elaborate and imposing, exploring unusual proportions, dramatic details and highly individual finishes.

Henri Chapron, meanwhile, produced numerous bodies for Delahaye, ranging from elegant open cars to more formal designs. His workshop would maintain a long relationship with the marque, extending well beyond the pre-war years.

Other important coachbuilders — including Pourtout, Labourdette, Guilloré, Franay and Antem — contributed their own interpretations. Together, they gave Delahaye an extraordinary variety of forms, from restrained grand tourers to automobiles created to command attention at the concours d'élégance.

The Type 165, introduced in 1938, brought this combination of engineering and coachwork to an exceptional level. Its 4.5-litre V12 was derived from the competition engine of the Type 145, while its spectacular body was created by Figoni & Falaschi. Two examples of the Figoni & Falaschi cabriolet were built, including the car shown at the 1938 Paris Motor Show and another prepared for the 1939 New York World's Fair.

The Type 165 brought together two sides of Delahaye at their pre-war height: the engineering developed through competition and the freedom of French coachbuilding.

But the timing could hardly have been worse.

The 1938 Paris Motor Show took place in a Europe moving towards another conflict. Within a year, the international exhibitions and concours that had provided such an important stage for these automobiles would be interrupted by war.

The great age of French coachbuilding had reached its peak — and Delahaye stood at its centre.

Delahaye 135 M Coupé by Antem, 1948.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, chassis no. 800990.

Delahaye 135 MS Aerodynamic Coupé by Pourtout, 1946.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, presented in a period Paris Motor Show setting.

Delahaye 135 M Cabriolet by Letourneur et Marchand, 1950.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, chassis no. 801348.

Delahaye 135 M Coach by Guilloré, 1946.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle, chassis no. 800410.

A World Turned Upside Down

The world in which the great Delahayes of the late 1930s had flourished disappeared with the outbreak of war.

From 1939, the motor shows and concours that had provided a stage for France's coachbuilders were interrupted, while Delahaye's production was increasingly directed towards the needs of the war economy. Its long experience with trucks, buses and fire-fighting vehicles gave the company an industrial foundation as passenger-car production largely came to a halt.

When peace returned in 1945, Delahaye faced a very different France. Materials and fuel were scarce, industry had to be rebuilt, and commercial vehicles became essential to the company's recovery.

The pre-war Type 103 truck helped restart production, followed by the new Type 163, a medium-duty vehicle offered in several forms, including diesel and specialised fire-fighting versions. It remained in production until 1954.

Delahaye 163 D 32-seat coach, coachwork by Duffau, c. 1948–1949.
Visual reconstruction based on period documentation.

Another important programme came from the French Army. Delahaye developed the VLR — Véhicule Léger de Reconnaissance, later known as the Véhicule de Liaison et de Reconnaissance. Produced from 1950, more than 9,000 were eventually built. Technically sophisticated but costly to manufacture, the programme would ultimately prove financially disappointing.

Delahaye VLR in French Army service, early 1950s.
Visual reconstruction based on surviving vehicles and period documentation.

Yet Delahaye had not abandoned passenger cars.

The Type 135 returned in 1946 and continued to find customers, particularly abroad. More than a thousand post-war 135 M and MS cars would eventually be produced, while French coachbuilders continued to create individual bodies for Delahaye chassis.

The new Type 175, introduced in 1946, represented a more ambitious attempt to move forward. Powered by a 4.5-litre six-cylinder engine, it offered a more modern technical specification, but reliability and material problems limited production to only 51 examples.

The 175 nevertheless achieved notable sporting success. In 1949, Charles Pozzi drove a Delahaye 175S to victory in the Grand Prix de l'ACF at the Circuit du Comminges, near Saint-Gaudens. In 1951, Jean Trévoux and Roger Crovetto took a 175 to victory in the Monte Carlo Rally.

Delahaye 175 S, Charles Pozzi, Grand Prix de l’ACF, Circuit du Comminges, 1949.
Visual reconstruction of Pozzi’s victory, based on period photographs.

But sporting success could not reverse the deeper transformation of the automobile industry.

Standardised production was becoming dominant, while materials, labour and individual coachwork made traditional luxury automobiles increasingly expensive to build. The world in which a customer could commission a chassis and have it individually bodied by a specialist coachbuilder was gradually disappearing.

Delahaye was still alive.

But the world that had made Delahaye famous was disappearing around it.

The Last Chapter

By the beginning of the 1950s, Delahaye was still producing prestigious automobiles, but its traditional formula had reached its limits.

The Type 175 had failed to achieve the expected commercial success, while the 135 was based on an architecture dating back to the 1930s. Delahaye needed something new.

In 1951, the answer arrived in the form of the Type 235.

Rather than abandoning the 135 formula, Delahaye evolved it. The 235 retained the familiar 3.5-litre six-cylinder engine, while Philippe Charbonneaux created a more modern front end and appearance. The result was an elegant and capable grand touring car, but one launched at an increasingly difficult moment.

Only 84 production examples, plus a prototype, were built between 1951 and 1954.

Delahaye 235 by Henri Chapron: 1953 Coach, chassis no. 818069, and 1952 Cabriolet, chassis no. 818003.
Visual reconstruction based on the two documented vehicles.

The 235 nevertheless gave Delahaye one final demonstration of the qualities on which its reputation had been built.
In 1953, Colonel Marceau Crespin and Captain Jean Heurtaux drove a Type 235 from Cape Town to Algiers in 10 days, 5 hours and 15 minutes, establishing a new record for the journey.

Delahaye Type 235 Coach, driven by Marceau Crespin and Jean Heurtaux, Cape Town–Algiers record crossing, 1953.
Visual reconstruction of their record-breaking journey, completed in 10 days, 5 hours and 15 minutes, based on period photographs.

But there would be no new generation after the 235.

The economics of luxury-car production had changed fundamentally. Bespoke coachbuilding was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, while larger manufacturers could produce modern automobiles on a scale that independent prestige marques could not easily match.

Delahaye's industrial activities continued. Trucks, fire-fighting vehicles and other specialised machines provided a broader foundation, but they could not reverse the decline of the passenger-car business.

In 1954, negotiations with Hotchkiss led to a merger and the creation of Hotchkiss-Delahaye. After six decades of automobile production, Delahaye had reached the end of the road as an independent manufacturer.

From Émile Delahaye's first automobile in Tours to the final Type 235s, the marque had witnessed — and participated in — an extraordinary transformation of the automobile.

The Legend Remains

More than seventy years after production ended, Delahaye remains a remarkable expression of an era when engineering, competition and coachbuilding could come together in a single automobile.

The surviving cars tell that story particularly well. Beneath their often spectacular bodies lie the engineering and experience of a company that built everything from early motor cars to racing machines, trucks and fire engines.

Perhaps that is what makes Delahaye so difficult to define by any single model or achievement.

Delahaye Type 145, chassis no. 48773, built in 1937 and re-bodied as a Cabriolet by Franay in 1946.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle.

Its legacy lies in the combination of engineering, competition, craftsmanship and individuality that gave each chapter of its history a different character.

The factory is gone. The great age of independent coachbuilding has passed.

But the legend remains.

Delahaye Type 175 S Roadster by Saoutchik, 1949, chassis no. 815023.
Visual reconstruction based on the documented vehicle.

About the Ilario Journal

The Ilario Journal is a free editorial project dedicated to sharing the history, craftsmanship, and beauty of exceptional automobiles and their coachbuilders.
These articles are offered freely to enthusiasts and collectors, with no subscription or payment required. They are created out of a passion for automotive heritage and the pleasure of sharing knowledge.

About the illustrations

All illustrations in this article were created with the assistance of AI specifically for Ilario. Each is an original visual interpretation inspired by the historical record. They are intended to illustrate the story, not to represent historical photographs.

© 2026 Ilario / Carbone 43. Original editorial content and creative direction. Reproduction or reuse requires prior permission.

Selected Ilario Delahaye Models

At Ilario, every Delahaye miniature is more than a faithful scale model.
It is a tribute to an era when automobiles were individually imagined, shaped by hand and brought to life by some of the greatest coachbuilders the world has ever known.

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