Tag Archives: D8

Triple Feature Hollywood Star – Delage D8 120 Chapron Cabriolet

Today’s featured Delage D8 120 sits on the same Delahaye sourced chassis and is mechanically similar to the Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé” I looked at last week.

Delage D8 120 Chapron Cabriolet, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

However once complete the chassis was sent to the Henri Chapron carrosserie for it’s magnificent Cabriolet body to be fitted in 1939.

Delage D8 120 Chapron Cabriolet, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

An unfortunate French General is said to have shipped the car to the United States, before being denied access to the country because of his alleged Nazi sympathies in 1946.

Delage D8 120 Chapron Cabriolet, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

During the 1950’s this car belonged to the Warner Bros Studio in Hollywood and it stared in three films, when it was still painted it’s original Ocean Blue a shade of green with a white roof; Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye with James Cagney in 1950, An American in Paris with Gene Kelly in 1951 and finally Carmen Jones with Harry Belafonte in 1954.

Delage D8 120 Chapron Cabriolet, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

The Delage seen in these photograph’s at the Goodwood Festival of Speed was acquired, restored and painted Burgundy for it’s current owner Peter Mullins in the 1980’s, when not on tour the car is to be found at the Mullins Museum in Oxnard, California.

Thanks for joining me on this “Triple Feature Hollywood Star” edition of “Gettin’ a little psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be going testing at Donington Park. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Pillarless Vue Panoramic – Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé

By 1937 when today’s Delage D8 120 was built, Louis Delage had sold the controlling interest in his company to his French rival Delahaye who continued to market cars with both brand names.

Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance, Palm Springs

The 1936 Delage D8 100 and 1937 Delage D8 120 were designed to top the ranges of both brands.

Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance, Palm Springs

The Delage D8 120 like the D8 100 introduced a year earlier used Delahaye sourced steel ladder chassis frames.

Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance, Palm Springs

There seems to be a good bit of confusion about the origins of the engine used in the D8 120 with some sources believing it to have origins in a Delahaye truck and by others to have origins in the Delahaye 135MS straight 6, so far as I am aware both of these suggestions are no more than chewing the cud piffle of the highest order.

Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance, Palm Springs

I believe the D8 120 engine is a 120hp developement of the straight eight Delage first built in 1929 with it’s capacity now stretched to 4,302 cc / 262.5 cu in.

Delage D8 120 Letourneur & Marchand Aerosport Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance, Palm Springs

As before the Delahaye take over top of the range Delages were supplied only as rolling chassis onto which the creme de la creme of boutique coach builders were given instructions by customers as to their exact body requirements.

The Aerosport Sport Pillarless Vue Panoramic body on today’s featured car, now owned by the Peterson Museum, is by Letourneur & Marchand a Parisian coach building company founded in Paris on the 1st of April 1905.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photographs taken at the Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance, Palm Springs a couple of years ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “Pillarless Vue Panoramic” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the 400 cars collected by a man who know’s more about the inside of cars than most and has made a fortune out of writing books about how to take them apart and put them back together again. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Short Wheelbase Sport – Delage D8S

After the successes of winning the 1927 World Manufacturers’ Championship with it’s D15 S8 model Delage urgently needed to turn it’s attention to it’s road car business in order to restore it’s finances.

Delage D8, Mike Hawley, Chateau Impney,

The outcome of it’s endeavors were the D8 available with three different wheelbases as chassis on to which, mostly Parisian, coach builders weaved their magic with exotic designs and the shorter wheelbase D8S optimised for sports car applications such as the example seen in these photographs.

Delage D8, Mike Hawley, Chateau Impney,

Power for all the D8 models came from a 4061 cc / 247.8 cui straight 8 which for the D8 S application was tuned to produce 120hp, the four speed gearbox had synchromesh on 3rd and 4th gear only.

Delage D8, Mike Hawley, Chateau Impney,

Top speed was dependent on the weight and drag of the body fitted, but 82 mph should have been possible for a D8 S.

Delage D8, Mike Hawley, Chateau Impney,

The D8 S like the D8 was manufactured from 1929 to 1933, the example driven by Mike Hawley in these photographs taken at Chateau Impney last year was built in 1930 and first registered in the UK July 1st 2001.

Thanks for joining me on this “Short Wheelbase Sport” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be visiting Queen Square in Bristol.

Don’t forget to come back now !

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