Delage D8S Grand Sport

Recently, we travelled into nearby Woodend to do some shopping. The sun was shining, so we were in the the MGTD. With it is pre-war styling and simple  one and quarter litre XPAG engine (that always, always starts), coupled with rack and pinion steering, it is a lovely little car for trips to nearby towns on quiet country roads.  It has plenty of easily accessible space behind the seat for shopping too.

On arrival in the town, it was clear that the Vintage Sports Car Club had chosen to stop for lunch at Woodend’s Keatings Hotel. Scattered around the town were about a dozen magnificent vintage cars. We parked the little red MG in front of a glorious green Lagonda and started to wander around to see what treasures we could find.

Parked outside the pub was a spectacular Delage Series 8 with a beautiful open touring body. I believe that this was a Grand Sport model. I thought it was a body by Letourneur et Marchand. However, my doctor – who knows the Delage in question well – tells me that the body was made in Melbourne in recent years. Cleverly designed as both a two or four seater, this is simply one of the most beautiful cars ever built. The pictures above do not do it justice. At the front there are voluptuous front wings enveloping front wheels that sit well forward on the chassis. The large and vertical grille is flanked by simply enormous headlights. Behind the confident grille (which sits back so far that it is in line with with front axle) a long bonnet stretches back to a delicately-framed windscreen. The cockpit is well trimmed and the dashboard is studded with instruments. Behind the short cockpit, the rear of the car sweeps back, incorporating a concealed rear cockpit before dropping off to streamlined drooping tail that also tapers in from the sides with just a hint of boat-tail about it. The car’s styling certainly does not ignore streamlining, but it never sacrifices a sense of confidence and occasion to the task of reducing wind resistance. Instead, the Grand Sport presents a balanced approach, combining some of the arrogance of a car such as a Daimler Double Six Corsica Drophead or a pre-war Lagonda, with the sleekness and stylish curves of a post-war sports car. To put it another way, the car has neither the traditional vintage upright styling that was common to what might be termed “the perpendicular” school of design, nor the low-slung, wind-cheating curves that came to dominate after the war when speeds rose to the point where wind resistance was a serious issue. Instead, the Delage Series 8 Grand Sport combines the stateliness of an upmarket pre-war tourer with the curves and beauty of a post-war sports car. “Grand Sport” is an unusually apt name for this Delage.

The Series D8 was produced from 1930 until 1935. They were powered by a straight eight engine that had a cast iron block and a cast alloy five-bearing crankcase. This engine, initially coming in at a fraction over four litres in capacity produced about 120bhp in standard form and 145bhp in the uprated D8SS form. Later versions of the engine were expanded to 4.7 litres.

The brakes (shaft and cable operated) were assisted by a vacuum servo mounted to the gearbox.

The Grand Sport that I saw in Woodend would not quite reach 100MPH due to its large and upright radiator causing significant drag at speed. However, in the 1930s, a special bodied, works prepared Delage D8S Grand Sport ran at nearly 110 mph for 24 hours at Montlhery.

Its creator, Louis Delage, started work at Peugeot before setting out on his own to make cars at the age of 30 in 1905. In 1913 a Delage won the French Grand Prix and by the time the Great War broke out, his racing cars had brakes on all four wheels and double overhead camshafts. In 1924, a 12 cylinder Delage set a world speed record of 230 km/h. The company’s complex V12 two litre racing engines of that era were producing 195 bhp when supercharged. In 1926, a Delage won the British GP at Brooklands. By 1927, with twin supercharges, 1.5 litre (actually 1.488 litre) Delage engines were putting out 170 bhp. That is well over 100 bhp per litre – a truly extraordinary output for the time.

Building on the racing successes of the 1920s, and the experience gained from the excellent Series D1 tourers, Delage set about creating a large glamorous car for the 1930s. The wisdom of offering a large eight cylinder car and expensive chassis to the market after the stockmarket crash of 1929 could be questioned. The Great Depression claimed Invicta and many others as well as sending Bentley into the arms of Rolls Royce. Perhaps inevitably, Delage fell to rival Delahaye in 1935.

However, before the company’s demise came the great Series D8. It is this model that was, I assume in the mind of Peter Ustinov, who  – noting that Delages seemed only to appear in the company of beautiful women – is said to have claimed that “One drives, of course, an Alfa Romeo, one is driven in a Rolls, but one gives only a Delage to one’s favourite mistress”.