“The best of the coach-built era, with a modern twist.” —Peter Mullin The Delahaye 235 was an exclusive sports car that exuded the luxury of prewar handcraftsmanship combined with postwar technological innovation.

Following WWII, economic power shifted to the U.S., where mass production became the new model to serve a growing American market. Only a handful of coachbuilders survived the postwar depression. Those that did designed for American clients that preferred large, “enveloped” bodies. The 235’s fully enveloped fenders and large steering wheel with its chrome rim and central crown insignia were quintessentially American, mimicking styling that could have been found on any Cadillac of the era.

While the Delahaye 235 was marketed as a new model, designed and styled for the postwar market, it was built on a modernized prewar Type 135 MS chassis. It sported a new grille, but retained the old 3.5-liter motor, with minor modifications to the camshaft and carburetors that boosted the horsepower to 150. The Saoutchik styled body was constructed from a unique combination of aluminum (applied to the body from the doors forward) and steel (applied to the rear), providing balance while reducing the car’s weight. When the car made its debut at the 1951 Paris Auto Salon, the public deemed it exquisite, but the price tag—nearly double the Jaguar’s—was too high. The 235 was Delahaye’s last luxury car, and none was more elegant than this example.

Chassis 818005 was owned by a French collector for nearly fifty years and was only stored away when it stopped working in 1964. It was rediscovered in France in 2006 by Jacques “Frenchy” Harguindeguy, an American collector from Walnut Creek, California, who displayed it in its original condition at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance. Peter Mullin purchased the car in 2007 and subjected it to a comprehensive restoration.

For those interested in restoration, the Delahaye 135 MS in the Mullin Collection is a road map for experts and enthusiasts who want to know what a truly original Type 135 MS looks like. This vehicle, Chassis 800727, is a remarkable, near-original example of Delahaye’s Type 135 MS chassis and coachbuilder Henri Chapron’s exquisite Art Deco coachwork.

The Delahaye Type 135 was produced in a variety of models prior to World War II. After the war the sport version, Type 135 MS, resumed production from 1946 to 1952. The six-cylinder MS had three carburetors and was capable of 135 horsepower. Even in today’s traffic, the extra horsepower of the Delahaye Type 135 MS engine makes driving this car a great motoring experience.

Chassis 800727 is a Chapron cabriolet with elegant postwar styling rooted in classic French lines. Henri Chapron called this his Vedette style: a cabriolet with covered rear wheels, chrome trim, and a top that folds down into the coachwork and disappears. Having spent the majority of its life preserved as a show car or in a museum, this untouched example provides invaluable guidance for anyone who wishes to undertake the renovation of a Delahaye. The exterior paint remains the blue-gray combination chosen by Chapron, who called the color Nice blue, after the premier city on France’s Côte d’Azur. The interior is original; the gauges are a slightly faded, and the knobs are worn, but everything works and has a comfortable feel. The seats are upholstered in blue and white leather with white piping, and the varnished wood frames surrounding the seatbacks match the trim on the doorsills and dashboard surround—each element combining to create a luxurious interior.

The entire car is a perfect example of the custom work at which Chapron excelled, and it has the kind of patina that collectors covet.

The future looked brighter after this French beauty’s debut at “The World of Tomorrow,” 1939 New York World’s Fair. No one guessed that the car of tomorrow was running on empty. After the racing success of its Type 145, Delahaye’s production version, the Type 165, was chosen to represent France at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, whose theme showcased the leading technology of the era.

The Figoni & Falaschi bodied, aerodynamic cabriolet was stunning—all it lacked was an engine. The New York World’s Fair was an important event for the French automotive industry. After many years of German and Italian domination on the track, Delahaye had produced a record-breaking Type 145 that raised the prestige of French automotive engineering throughout the world. The World’s Fair featured this great technology on a global platform. It had to be perfect.

Construction began in the beginning of 1939, and was a struggle to finish on schedule. Delahaye had planned a Type 165 featuring the 145’s retooled V-12 racing engine in a shock of extravagant aerodynamic coachwork by Figoni & Falaschi. The bright red, streamlined cabriolet featured Figoni’s characteristic voluptuous curves in what has come to be known as the teardrop style. The hood had a cutout so that the engine could be viewed, and the firewall was engine-turned, as were the valve covers—all of which made for a showy display. Deadlines passed and ultimately it had to be shipped before the engine was completed. It appeared on the stand with a hollow shell of an engine, and no one was the wiser.

Eventually the car’s original engine in France was sold separately from the chassis, which was sold in the United States. In the late 1980s the chassis resurfaced in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Peter Mullin and fellow enthusiast Jim Hull found and reunited it with its original V-12 engine from France. Beyond the paint and plush interior, the restored Type 165 is one of the most historically rich artifacts in the Mullin collection.

A Retired Racer that has grown more beautiful with age In 1937 Lucy Schell, founder of the Ecurie Bleue racing team, ordered four Delahaye Type 145s to compete in the French government’s automotive engineering challenge, the Million Franc Prize. The Mullin Automotive Museum is home to three of these historical cars. Chassis 48773 is one of the three.

The Mullin Chassis 48771, 48772, and 48773 were exotic V-12 racecars built for speed and endurance. The original aluminum coachwork was utilitarian and devoid of anything that would take away from the aerodynamic form needed to reach high speeds. They experienced much success on the track—racing in international grand prix throughout Europe during the 1937–1939 seasons.

With its racing career at an end, Chassis 48772 was bought by coachbuilder Henri Chapron, who transformed it into one of the most beautiful examples of classic French coachwork of the postwar era. Having by necessity been unproductive during World War II, Chapron began to rebody the car as a two-seat coupé in 1947. The long, narrow, and underslung body was ideal for sleek-looking coachwork. The car bore the signature Delahaye radiator with enveloped, teardrop-shaped fenders and an elaborate beltline that dipped with the downslope of the fenders toward the rear. Its priceless and historic twelve-cylinder engine has remained intact.

Renowned coachbuilder Joseph Figoni first sculpted the streamlined lines and arcs known as “the French curve” and “the double curve” on the Delahaye Type 135. For today’s automotive enthusiast, the name Delahaye conjures images of the low, sweeping chassis that were the epitome of the streamlined designs fueling the Art Deco movement.

This Delahaye is one of three surviving vehicles that bear the fluid Figoni body shapes that drew raves during the 1936 Paris Auto Salon. The curved arcs of the fenders established the standard for the “French curves” that are considered a signature characteristic of streamlined automobiles from the 1930s. Indicative of the Art Deco movement’s fascination with the machine and flight, Figoni’s designs were inspired by aviation, particularly by René Couzinet’s Arc-en-Ciel (“Rainbow”) plane. The shape of the pontoon covers on the landing gear of Couzinet’s plane are distinctly mirrored in the Type 135’s voluptuous fenders.

This Type 135M, chassis 49150, is known to some as The Star of India. It was commissioned by explorer and businessman Casimir Jourde, a personal friend of Figoni’s and devotee of streamline styling. Jourde owned several Figoni vehicles that he had shipped to India for use during his long travels. In 1939 chassis 49150 was shipped to Bombay (present-day Mumbai), where it caused quite a stir and was eventually sold to Prince de Berae Mukarran Jah. It was rediscovered in 1982 sitting on wooden blocks in a garden shed in Jodhpur. After a complete restoration, The Star of India has returned to its former grandeur and remains one of the shining centerpieces of the Mullin Automotive Collection.

Casimir Jourde ordered this Delahaye in 1937. Painted red, it was one of eleven cars built for Figoni et Falaschi’s Paris Auto Salon between 1936 and 1939. In 1939 the car was shipped to Bombay (present-day Mumbai), where Jourde had business interests. Prince de Berae Mukarran Jah purchased Jourde’s Delahaye and added it to his collection. Years later the car was sold to an unknown buyer and dissapeared. When it was rediscovered in 1982, it was sitting on wooden blocks in a garden shed in Jodhpur. An English dealer bought it in the mid-1980s, disassembled it, and shipped it in crates to England, where it underwent a complete restoration. The original front-end coachwork had been changed in India, where—according to Claude Figoni, son of Joseph Figoni and curator of the Figoni Archives—the flush-mounted headlights were removed and replaced with externally mounted Marchal lights. Because the English dealer did not realize that alterations had been made, the car was mistakenly restored as found. The interior was also redone with the help of vintage photographs supplied by the Figoni Archives. Peter Mullin purchased the car after it competed in the 1992 Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance and returned to its original configuration, with recessed headlights and properly faired-in taillights. This automobile is now owned by the Mullin Automotive Museum.

Few would know that hidden beneath this beautiful Chapron bodied Delahaye coupé, lays the chassis of one of the most glorious Grand Prix race teams of the early twentieth century.

The Mullin Chassis 48771, 48772, and 48773 were exotic V-12 racecars built for endurance and speed. The original aluminum coachwork was utilitarian and devoid of anything that would take away from the aerodynamic form needed to reach high speeds. The cars experienced much success on the track—racing in international grand prix throughout Europe during the 1937–1939 seasons. While Chassis 48771 has remained bodied as a racecar, the other Type 145s went on to lead colorful lives.

After its racing career, this Type 145 was purchased by an A. M. Duprie, who sent it to Henri Chapron to be rebodied as a coupé in 1939. After several frustrating years, a world war, and changes in ownership, Chapron bought the car and finished the coupé as a beautiful two-seater similar to the Mullin Chassis 48772. The car moved around frequently over the next few decades, traveling to the United States and eventually back to France, where Peter Mullin found and acquired it in 2004.

In 1937 Lucy Schell, founder of the Écurie Bleue racing team, ordered four Delahaye Type 145s to compete in the French government’s automotive engineering challenge, the Million Franc Prize. After months of tuning, legendary driver René Dreyfus drove 200 kilometers in one of Lucy Schell’s Type 145s for a record one hour, twenty-one minutes, 49 1/2 seconds at an average speed of 91.3 miles per hour. The Million had been won.

The story of the Million Franc Prize begins with the charged atmosphere of pre–World War II Europe. In the years leading up to the war, when Germany and Italy were ramping up their military forces, sporting events were seen as metaphorical struggles between democracy and the totalitarian powers. When the Automobile Club of France changed its formula for the 1937 racing season—dictating that engines could be as large as 4.5 liters, unsupercharged—the French government saw its chance to pull ahead in the technology race. A challenge was organized: one million French francs would be awarded to the first car to break the 200 kilometer distance record set in 1934 by Louis Chiron in an Alfa Romeo.

Delahaye’s finished car was exotic and strictly utilitarian, fitted with all-metal-alloy coachwork that tightly sheathed the chassis. The engineers at the factory never tested it in a wind tunnel and relied instead on their experience and intuition, the power of the Type 145’s unsupercharged 4.5-liter, V-12 magnesium engine, and the aerodynamic properties of the low-slung and well-balanced chassis.

The car was returned to the factory before World War II. It was hidden during the war to protect its precious magnesium engine, which was eventually sold, separate from the chassis, to a mechanical school as a demonstration model. The chassis was rebodied, and its grand history forgotten, until Peter Mullin recognized and purchased it in 1987. With the aid of automotive historians and restorers, Mullin located the car’s original magnesium engine and restored the complete car to its original condition.

This is one of four racecars built for the Écurie Bleue racing team founded by the Americans Laury and Lucy Schell. Just before World War II hostilities began, Lucy Schell sent all her Delahaye racecars back to the factory. Delahaye carefully kept this car hidden to protect its magnesium engine from destruction. In 1947, after the war was over, the engine and transmission were donated to André St. Blancard, the director of the Lycée Pilote de Montgeron. a mechanical trade school.

In 1948 the car, without its magnesium engine, was acquired by Charles Pozzi, entrepreneur and French driver of the Écurie Lutétia. Since the chassis had no engine, Delahaye lent Pozzi its new Type 175S engine. In 1950 Pozzi returned the engine to the factory, added a Ford Comète body to the racing chassis, and replaced the V12 engine with a 3.5-liter, six-cylinder Type 135S engine. After the 1951 season Pozzi asked Delahaye sales manager Jean-Pierre Bernard (who later founded the Delahaye Club) to sell the car. Bernard eventually sold it to the collector Serge Pozzoli, who discarded the Ford Comète body and Type 135S engine and replaced the latter with the Type 155 V12 magnesium engine and transmission that had been given to St. Blancard. However, Pozzoli and Bernard were unaware that this was the original magnesium engine, believing it to be a Type 145. Pozzoli stored the Delahaye under the stands at the Montlhéry racetrack until moving it to his château du Gérier near Evreux, France.

Peter Mullin purchased the car in 1987 and sent it to England for restoration by Crosthwaite and Gardiner, where the engine was rebuilt and the original racing body re-created. In 2006 Jim Stranberg of High Mountain Classics reviewed the drawings for the Type 145, 155, and 165 engines and determined that Chassis 48771’s engine was the original magnesium engine, not a Type 145, as previously believed. The complete, and original, Chassis 48771 is now owned by the Mullin Automotive Museum.

There are some cars destined to live peaceful, pampered lives. Others have a more hazardous existence— competing, racing, crashing, and competing again. —Richard Adatto

The Type 135 was the first model in Delahaye’s superluxe line after its merger with luxury car manufacturer Delage. The new aesthetic and caliber of machinery was on par with the finest producers of the era. Though the low-slung chassis where destined to wear some of the finest coachwork of the era, they were also impeccably balanced masters of the track, holding true to the company’s age old motto: Solid as a Delahaye.

While other manufacturers were producing hundreds of racing cars, Delahaye made its mark with only a few. Before the outbreak of World War II, the company had broken more than eighteen world and international class records and won numerous grand prix. The Type 135 made the Delahaye name famous, enjoying great success on the racetrack and at the fashionable concours d’élégance. It came in several models, ranging from the glorious Type 135M— bodied by streamlining sensation Joseph Figoni—to the 135CS racecar, of which fourteen were manufactured in 1936.

The Mullin Delahaye Type 135CS raced an enormous amount notably taking first place at the 1938 Le Mans Grand Prix and numerous awards on the Australian circuit after 1938. It is amazing that it has survived to retirement! After eight owners, dozens of races, numerous crashes and a slight searing after its transportation truck caught fire, it is still in action today.

In 1936 Delahaye built twenty-five low chassis that were badged Type 135S (surbaissé), including an estimated fourteen short chassis Type 135CSs (Compétition Spécials), of which this is one. Privateersman Henri Toulouse ordered the car to compete in the 1936 racing season; he won the Grand Prix de Marseilles and finished second at the French Grand Prix before crashing badly at the Grand Prix de La Marne. The car’s next owner, Eugène Chaboud, raced it at the 1937 Grand Prix de Tunisie and the Grand Prix de Bône in Algeria, and with Jean Trémoulet achieved notable success in the Automobile Club of France, Marne, and Antwerp Grands Prix. In 1938 the car was driven to outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Just three weeks later, Trémoulet crashed it at the Total 24 Hours of Spa race in Belgium. While he received only minor injuries, the car was significantly damaged.

An Australian, John Snow, purchased the car in late 1938. He restored it and competed at Brooklands, an English track near Surrey, and Le Mans. In 1939 it was shipped to Australia, where various owners competed with it at the Bathurst road race and the Australian Grand Prix over the course of the next decade. At one point, the car was damaged in a truck fire, and it changed hands several times before being purchased by Ian Polson, a British car collector who carefully restored it to its original configuration in 1968. Polson sold the Delahaye in 1994 to John Ruston. Peter Mullin purchased the car in 1999 and has enjoyed piloting it at numerous vintage racing events ever since.