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September 30, 2019

Delahaye Type 165: The Most Beautiful French Car of the 1930s

1939 Delahaye Type 165 is viewed by many as the most beautiful French car of the 1930s, only 5 of them were ever made with this one having been fatefully chosen by the French government to represent France at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Shortly after the car arrived at New York customs, Germany invaded Poland and set off World War II, thus the Delahaye became stranded in no-mans land where it sat for 8 long years before being acquired by a Beverly Hills car dealer for the staggering (at the time) sum of $12,000 USD.












8 comments:

  1. Wow! The most beautiful car that I have ever seen anywhere anytime! How come I never heard of this car before?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Umm, you haven't been interested in automotive history?

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  2. I don't doubt that this is French, but why is the steering wheel on the wrong side?

    In addition changing a wheel must be a real pain in the arse! ;-)

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. driving on the left side of the road with steering on the right was common in France and Sweden and other places in Europe. It came from the race tracks on performance cars as most of the tracks and even LeMans were set up to go the direction that favored right hand drive so the sports and race cars were RHD. It was after WWII when the allies unified Europe for the first time since the Romans that one drive RHD or LHD was made common. It took some countries like Sweden a long time to switch. The choice of LHD may have been unduly push by the major Liberators the American Army and culture.

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  3. Great showpiece, now worth millions I'm sure.

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  4. Tell me... show me the powerplant!
    Straight 8? Heck, that hood could house a straight 16!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 4.5l V12. LIke most posts here, this one mixes up a bunch of unrelated pictures. There are two model 165 shown here - a dark red one with a white top, and a bright red one with a red top. If I'm not mistaken the dark one was built for the Paris show, with a V12, and the bright one was for New York, originally without an engine. In recent years it's been equipped with a V12 from a model 145. The other two model 165 were destroyed in WW2 bombing raids. Incidently, neither of the interior views is from a model 165, who knows what they from.

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