I bought the super hi-res version of this Bill Brunell pic of Delage2 thinking it might show 'J Taylor' driving it. It didn't and for one minute I thought it was that bounder Sir Alastair Miller who imported Delage1 and 2 but thankfully not! Its Mr K Donsky, an Irish gentleman of note...Surbiton MC event, Brooklands, Sept 1928. Nice pic, part of a series. (Protip: You can tell Delage1 and 2 apart in period by the drilled x-member under the rad on Delage2)

Kaye Don spent a little time in clink too after the TT mechanic fatality incident on the IoM...it's a small world!

This really is my reply to a question on The Nostalgia Forum but I thought a slightly wider audience might find it of interest.  By no means anything other than sketchy as forum posts are to avoid the dreaded 'tl;dr' but I'll add a few more details and pics later.
There is another Delage magnum opus in preparation which will give all known details of these cars c/w chassis numbers but it won't be out this year!
OK, firstly the 'Strasbourg' car was built using a four-cylinder engine and was known as the '2LC' being an abbreviation for '2 Litre Course'.  It was a neat design incorporating some clever touches including the interior-mounted spare wheel and mechanic's arm rest as seen in the montage I've done below.  Notable was the Frontenac-esque nose cone as tried on the Torpille (hence the name) but discarded in the latter due to overheating problems.  The 2LC looked good but the performance of the engine was pretty useless and would have fared badly against the Fiats, Bugattis and Sunbeam and while it was entered for the GP de l'ACF at Strasbourg it wisely was withdrawn. 

Charles considered various configurations and architecture and finally decided on the jewel of a V12 as we know...and the 2LC became the 2LCV.  The chassis and some bodywork was duly modified and the first V12 installed in the erstwhile 2LC and thus 2LCV #1 was born in 1923 just about in time for the GP de l'ACF at Tours on the 3rd of July 1923.  This was against the better judgement of Louis D who was being pressurised to an extent by René Thomas.  The car lasted 8 laps and DNF'd.  That was the only time the 2LC/2LCV hybrid ever appeared in a GP

No more cars were produced in 1923 and the prototype 2LCV remained at the factory until it was given (not sold) less engine (so the engine in the Turin Motor Museum is not out of the Béquet car) to Maurice Béquet who, of course, fitted the V8 Hispano engine and the car still exists. 

Thomas, never one to call a spade a shovel, grumbled incessantly about the engine not producing the expected power on the dyno and eventually Louis D, tenuous family connections notwithstanding, fired poor old Charles Planchon and entrusted the development to Albert Lory.  This was grossly unfair on Planchon who then disappeared into virtual obscurity but that's how it was at the Delage emporium.  Lory, in his usual whirlwind style and with an eye over his shoulder to see if Louis or René were prowling about, virtually re-designed the entire car.  Planchon's V12 was modified in various ways, the most notable being the cylinder-head configuration with the exhaust exiting centrally in the 'V' rather than laterally. 

Four brand new cars were produced for the 1924 season and a 3-car team was entered for the GP de l'ACF at Lyon where they performed most creditably...much better than the subsequently much-vaunted Bugatti T35s!  2nd, 3rd and 6th with Divo finishing less than a minute behind Campari in the P2 Alfa.  The Bugattis were expected to turn the tables at San Sebastian with their superior road-holding on the twisty Lasarte circuit (chassis design was never Lory's strong point!) but, of course, everybody had forgotten about Segrave in the Sunbeam who won.  2LCVs 3rd and 4th behind Costantini in the T35 with Benoist DNF after an off.  That was it for 1924 as Delage did not contest the Italian GP at Monza.

Five brand new cars were laid down for the 1925 season and the intention was to run four of these, fully tested, at Montlhéry for the first time at the GP de l'ACF aiming for a home victory.  However, Delage decided to give them a trial-run in the Belgian GP at Spa a month before the French event.  This turned out to be a big mistake.  Only one of the 1925 cars was (just about) race-ready so it was decided to wheel out three of the 1924 cars but fitted with the latest-spec engines now running twin superchargers and giving flash readings of over 200 bhp on the dyno.  There was some aggravation as to who should have the new car and it was given to Divo, probably to Thomas' disgust.  The three '24 cars retired relatively early but Divo put up a creditable performance in the new car, running close behind Campari in the Alfa, but Ascari had disappeared into the distance.  Divo ultimately had to retire with various problems which left the 2 remaining Alfas circulating alone, much to the displeasure of the paying public.  However, the 'picnic' story about Marinoni and Alfa 'humiliating' Louis Delâge is pure invented nonsense first appearing 50 years after the event.  Here's Thomas giving the older car the beans...yes, that's Spa-Francorchamps!

Three of the latest cars appeared at Montlhéry and Benoist achieved a somewhat Pyrrhic victory after the fatal accident to Ascari and the withdrawal of the Alfa team.  Delage sat out the Italian GP at Monza and Paul Torchy had to wait until the San Sebastian GP to get his hands on the new car.  Sadly he was killed driving it in the race where Delage scored a 1, 2, 3 with all four 1925 cars starting.  That was the end of the 2LCV's GP career but the Works supported the Targa Florio with them in 1926.  Tragically Masetti was killed in his example, running Number 13 as had Torchy at San Sebastian.

So, the result of all this rambling is that TEN 2LCVs were built one of which, the first, was the reconstituted 2LC.  Where are they now?  Well there's two, a '24 and a '25 not fifty miles from where I'm typing this. there's Lukas' '24 and there's the Brequét...that's four so far.  I'll continue this later...

Well, there's a turn-up for the book...as it were!  'Champion du Monde' has been awarded the hyper-prestigious 'RAC Specialist Motoring Book of the Year Award' for 2017.  While Daniel and I were delighted when we heard that the book had been shortlisted it would have to be said that we were more than a little surprised!  After all, half the text is in French with the English version on the same page, a layout some don't like apparently.  The likelihood of a book by a French author, published in France about a French car being chosen by an august bunch of English judges (most of whom probably don't speak much French!) seemed on a par with Accrington Stanley winning the FA Cup. 

Daniel's painstaking research and phenomenal archive of Delage documentation and photographs certainly deserved international recognition, as did the specific research on his own car by Christophe, but these accolades don't always go to the most deserving.  I alone spent over 800 hours on the project and Daniel probably four times that amount...and it's a lonely path the author treads...frequently in the small hours.  I'm surprised the fibre-optic cables in Normandy and Warwickshire didn't melt with the email traffic...often every 15 minutes!

By working over Christmas and the New Year we managed to meet the deadline by literally a few hours and the book was duly on sale at Retromobile to coincide with the first time five of the six cars had been together since they were dismembered in Uncle Reg Parnell's garage!

So...this recognition is a fabulous reward, not just for Daniel, Christophe and me, but for all those who sweated bricks helping out but with a very special mention and thanks to Sophie Jauneau the young lady responsible for the design and layout of the book.  How she sweetly put up with our, almost hourly, alterations and corrections I'll never know.

​We dedicate the award to the glorious memory of a great man who drove for France, fought for France and sadly died for France at the hands of the Nazis in Buchenwald....Robert Benoist.

The RAC press release reads:

Peter Read, the Chairman of the Club’s Motoring Committee, said. ‘The Club’s library at Pall Mall is already among the finest in the world, and fortunately for us there’s no shortage of exceptional new titles we’d like to add to it. Our independent judges undertake an incredible task for us, and it’s satisfying that the 2017 winner Watching The Wheels by Damon Hill is an excellent read with the widest possible appeal.
‘Meanwhile, Delage – Champion Du Monde, is an example of fresh research and beautiful production of which we wholeheartedly approve.’

The judges for the Award were leading specialist bookseller Ben Horton of Hortons Books; Gordon Cruickshank of Motor Sport magazine; Mark Dixon, deputy editor of Octane; commentator and reviewer Henry Hope-Frost; Mick Walsh, international editor of Classic & Sports Car magazine; Christian Whitehead from London bookstore Foyles; and Tom Wiltshire of Auto Express magazine.

Colin Musgrove 05-11-17

When idly scrolling through some photographs of the 1929 San Sebastian GP by a couple of excellent Catalan photographers of the period I came across the above pic by Martin Ricardo. Now, notwithstanding my interest in aviation history causing me to note the British registered Avro Avian, I was really taken aback by the appearance of the four poseurs with it.  Apart from, maybe, the Homburg that pic could have been taken in the late fifties yet it was taken in 1929!  The cut of the gent's suits, hairstyles etc not to mention the girl's pleated skirt and general 'look' are all straight out of the start of the rock'n'roll era.  Who were these avant garde fashionistas?!  Well, you'll be disappointed to hear that I don't actually know for certain...yet!  However, I have a pretty good idea so all will be revealed.  First clue to follow was the '---elia' painted on the side of the Avian...'Delia'?  'Ophelia'?  'Amelia'?  Avians have been involved in many deeds of derring-do with the likes of, for example, Earhart, Hinkler, Guy Menzies and Bill Lancaster (who crashed in the Sahara having avoided a session with 'Old Sparky' the Florida electric chair (!) and whose mummified remains were found 30 years later by the Foreign Legion!) but 'Amelia' was obviously a red herring since there's not enough room to get that name plus the rest of the registration in...anyway Earhart's Avian was famously registered G-EBUG.  Time to wade through as many pics of Avians as I could find in ever more obscure places!  Lo and behold, on some Spanish blog I found this...

The pic shows Catalan aviator Josep Canudas and his wife aboard, not an Avian but, a De Havilland DH60 Moth with a Cirrus engine at Hatfield aerodrome, UK, where they had just taken delivery on behalf of the...NELIA Chocolate Company of Barcelona.  So the mystery word was 'Nelia'.  Obviously they had not had time to do proper sign-writing but the outline of the company and the Spanish 'M' registration can be clearly seen.  Señor and señora Canudas were about to set off home in hops by way of Croydon, Le Bourget, Lyon, Nimes, Montpellier, Perpinyà and finally Barcelona.
The 'plane was to be used for 'advertising purposes' but further delving into the activities of the Nelia organisation revealed them to be chocolate makers and a very forward-thinking outfit! 
The Nelia company was founded by Barcelona entrepreneur Rafael Massó who had been for a 'flip' over Barcelona with Canudas and had hit upon a demon advertising scheme.  Nelia were locally well-known for their 'Chocolate con Leche'...a sort of Cadbury's Dairy Milk of the day and they unashamedly used their trademark brand image to promote it.  I say 'unashamedly' in this PC world because the image was 'Little Miss Nelia' a sexy little Betty Boop type character (which is interesting in itself since she pre-dated the Betty Boop cartoon by two years)...here she is...

So...why the title 'Manna from Heaven' for this post?  Ah well, Señor Massó's demon scheme was to use the aircraft he had bought in an innovative advertising stunt.  The 'plane would be loaded with hundreds of little chocolate bars attached to mini-parachutes.  Having first bombarded the inhabitants of Barcelona and then other towns with leaflets and newspaper announcements detailing the time and place the aircraft would fly overhead, at the appointed time  'Miss Nelia' would then hurl out the goodies which would float down on the little orange parachutes and be collected by the kids (and bigger 'kids')!  Having scoffed the chocolate said kids could save the wrappers and exchange them for prizes!  10 cents and 10 wrappers got you a paper aeroplane "which flies splendidly" and 10 wrappers plus 50 cents got you a metal badge (button hole or pin to choice) depicting the sexy Miss Nelia!!  Top prize for the ten people collecting the most wrappers was no less than a flight in the Moth or Avian.  All this is explained in the advert...

Needless to say these stunts caused absolute pandemonium with kids shinning up trees and clambering on buildings, not to mention bun-fights and general mayhem, to get at the chocs!  So much so that the good Burgers of Barcelona soon put a stop to it but other towns and villages were more accommodating...hence the requirement for a second aircraft in the form of the Avian.  Pic below shows the Moth but another advertising card illustrates the Avian.

This, of course, brings us back to the opening photograph with the fashionable crew.  Who were they?  I don't know yet but I'd like to hazard a guess that it's Señor Massó and friends...even the prototype Little Miss Nelia.  I don't know what happened to the Nelia Chocolate Company, Spain was heading for civil war and ultimately the Franco era but at least  Miss Nelia lives on in the internet age...that is a good thing :-)

© Colin Musgrove 2017

Staying on the Delage theme for a bit here's a little insight into how the great marque got started.  Whether I continue this is a moot point at the moment but I think I will!  There are a myriad of great stories surrounding the progression of the Delage marque, most of which concern Louis himself!  A book from the Musgrovian viewpoint might just augment the learned tomes with a bit of pathos and humour :-)
http://online.pubhtml5.com/cycj/dgge/

à bientôt

Colin :-)

Well, there has been a very good reason for the paucity (read 'total lack'!) of posts for a couple of months and the above picture explains all.  I've been working flat out with Daniel Cabart to get the print-ready copy of 'Delage Champion du Monde' at the publishers by the January deadline...we made it by 12 hours!  A daunting but very rewarding task and we think the final sumptuous volume justifies all the effort.  The entire text is in both French and English and is testimony to Daniel's vast knowledge and fantastic archive of the Marque.  It takes the reader from the days of the 2LCV and the young Albert Lory being dropped in at the deep end after Planchon's dismissal through the design and development of the legendary 15 S 8 to the glorious championship year of 1927.  Not content with that (!) we detail the subsequent history, owners and successes of the four team cars and the two 'Chula/Lory' versions up to the present day.  Profusely illustrated with many hitherto-unseen photographs and scans of Lory's copious notebooks and records (try translating those at 2 o'clock in the morning!)  we have attempted to do justice to this magnificent jewel of a racing car. We hope all those who obtain a copy will enjoy reading it and, hopefully, further their knowledge and understanding of motor racing in the 'Golden Age'.  Here are a few snippets to whet your appetite

Colin Musgrove 28-01-17

Dateline 5th August 1913...venue Le Mans Circuit d'Ecommoy and Paul Bablot with riding mechanic Losson waits on the start line for the non-championship 3rd Grand Prix de France (not to be confused with the 13th Grand Prix de l'ACF which had been run three weeks earlier at the Amiens circuit).  Interested onlookers include Charles Faroux (in the bush hat) the omnipotent owner/editor of 'La Vie Automobile'. The timekeeper checks his watch, the starter, in white coat (and duelling scar!) is ready to set in motion an epic drive.
The car?  The all new for 1913 Delage Type Y weighing in at 820kg dry, only fractionally above the stipulated 800kg and utilising aluminium wherever prudent and possible...the only wood on the car was the steering wheel rim.  Powered by the Michelat-designed 6.2 litre (6208cc - 105 x 180mm) 4-cylinder masterpiece of an engine, the details of this power unit were kept as a closely guarded secret.  As in the rest of the car maximum lightness was sought in the engine.  It boasted a hollow four-part crank running in five ball bearings with 'trick' ribbed retainers, hollow rockers and pushrods, 8 spark plugs and two magnetos (it could run on either or both) and a host of other refinements...it wasn't 'state of the art'...it WAS the art!  Driving through an aluminium encased 5-speed gearbox with manual lockout on 1st and 5th with 4th being direct and utilising the ultimate quality Derihon BND steel throughout, as indeed did the axle and many engine components the entire car was a testament to the magnificence of Delage design and manufacture.  Indeed, in its entire racing history as Delage team cars all cars always finished.

At the previous GP de l'ACF at Amiens, the Type Y's first outing, they had been hyper-quick and the lead battle between Guyot and Bablot in the Delages versus Boillot and Goux in the Peugeot EX3s was wheel to wheel in the opening laps...don't forget that this was 29 laps of a 31km public road circuit!  Then problems...both Delages suffered punctures requiring wheel-changes and, worse, Guyot's mechanic, Achille Seeuws, jumped from the car before it had stopped and got his leg run over and badly hurt.  Guyot had to fix the tyre and the mechanic before driving relatively slowly back to the pits.  Result...Peugeot 1-2 with Bablot and Guyot 4 and 5 behind Chassagne's Sunbeam...Bablot set a new record lap though as some consolation.  Thus three weeks later at Le Mans Louis Delâge and co were out to stuff the cars of his erstwhile employer Peugeot.  Now, the previous race counted towards the Championship and was run to the regulations then in force i.e. 800 - 1100kg weight limits and a maximum fuel consumption of 14mpg but the Le Mans race, being non-championship adhered to the weight limits but fuel consumption was free.  Peugeot were entered but, at the very last minute, withdrew citing "insufficient time to make the necessary carburation adjustments" as their reason!  This fooled nobody and the general consensus was that they'd chickened out having seen how quick the Delages were.  If the Delages could tickle their carburation they would probably be even quicker.  This time Delage entered three cars for Bablot, Guyot and a third for Arthur Duray, the New York-born Frenchman of Belgian parentage who was something of a veteran by then.  While the Peugeots depleted the field slightly there were still 19 starters including, worryingly, the 4 car Mercedes team of Lautenschlager, Pilette, Salzer and Elskamp.  In the light of the political situation pertaining the hopes of all France rested on the Delages with worried faces remembering the 1908 event at Dieppe where Lautenschlager and his Mecedes won causing gloom throughout France.

The Le Mans Circuit d'Ecommoy was even longer than the Amiens circuit being 54km per lap with 10 laps (540km) to be completed.  As usual it was closed public roads being principally a semi-compacted loose stone/gravel surface through villages and countryside with one straight being nearly 13km long (!).

The cars were started at one minute intervals and at the end of lap one it was clear that Bablot in his Type Y was by far the quickest car on the circuit with Guyot not much slower.  Duray had a problem with the magneto which dropped him to 7th behind the four Mercedes but the mag mysteriously cured itself and he got back up to speed again.  Lap after lap Bablot increased his lead setting fastest lap after fastest lap.  Guyot had held second in spite of some slower pit-stops due to Seeuws, the mechanic, hopping about on his injured leg from the incident at Amiens three weeks previously.  Came the final round of pit-stops and Bablot had a commanding lead but Guyot had dropped to third, albeit only a minute behind Pilette in the Merc.  Then...disaster!  When Losson swung the motor he and Bablot contrived to flood it!  Try as he might Losson couldn't get the mighty engine to fire and completely exhausted himself in the process.

Losson is distraught and Louis Delâge is beside himself seeing victory seemingly snatched away with Pilette's Mercedes having gone past.  'Cometh the hour, cometh the man' and Léon Molon, who had retired his Vinot et Deguignand on lap 2 with bearing failure and who was in the Delage pit offered to have a go.  Molon was an aviator well used to swinging aeroplane propellers and with one mighty heave the Type Y burst into life!  Regs allowed a change of crew but 'change' meant 'change so  Léon Molon had to leap into the mechanics seat and endure 54km of Bablot driving like a man possessed.  Paul Bablot smashed his own lap record, caught the Merc of Pilette inside half a lap and going on to win by nearly 5 minutes.  To further rub the Mercs noses in it Guyot also caught Pilette near the end giving Delage a famous 1-2 victory.  Duray came home a creditable 5th after his sparks problems.  The Type Ys didn't race again in Europe but the aforementioned WF Bradley did one of his demon deals and two of the three team cars were shipped to the US to be entered in the Indy 500 in 1914...and they won again with French cars taking the first four places, Delage (Thomas) - Peugeot (Duray) - Delage (Guyot) - Peugeot (Goux).  Sadly the third team car (Bablot's GP winner) didn't survive as, en route to Mont Ventoux it burst a front tyre with Bablot driving and went into a ditch, throwing driver and mechanic out but without much injury.  The accident caused a fuel line to rupture, the car caught fire and was pretty much destroyed. The Indy winning car is now in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum (where it says it is the 1913 GP winner...probably as a result of Bradley being economical with the truth!)    In Europe 1914 was to be the year of the Type S, the fabled 'Desmodromic' Delage but that's for another time.  Anyway, Louis D had a great celebration after the event and presented Léon Molon (who could not attend) a magnificent chronometer...very richly deserved.

Léon Molon

                                  Guyot                     Bablot    Faroux     Louis D          Michelat     Duray           Lossom

Colin M 22.09.16

With my interest (!) in the ladies who graced the Concours d'Elegance circuit of the Twenties and Thirties I was going to write a post on a few of them.  Contrary to popular opinion these ladies were not just pretty faces obtained by shouting "Anyone for Concours?" at the stage door of the Moulin Rouge!  No, many of these femmes en vogue led very interesting lives and occupied quite high positions in French society.  Nadine Picard, for example, was born in Brazil of Jewish parents which was to prove something of a problem when she was later living virtually next door to the Gestapo HQ in the ave. Foch. She married (much to the displeasure of her new father-in-law) the son of Henri Fayol, the management science pioneer, when she was 19.  Henri fils also became a top industrial strategist and government official in charge of iron and steel production.  This was singularly lucky for Nadine as her husband managed to get an official (signed by Hitler) exemption from wearing the hated 'étoile jaune' and all the restrictions (like being sent to the gas chambers) that went with it.  Nadine continued to live in the ultra prestigious XVIe address until her death at the age of 90.  Nadine is the lady in the header pic on my homepage :-)
However...nobody compares even closely to the lady who graced almost exclusively Delage cars and became a great friend of Louis Delâge.  That lady is actress/singer/comedienne Betty Spell.  Born Leone Betina Guimbellot on September 25, 1903 at Rochefort her life reads like some Roaring Twenties fiction!  Betty lived to be 103 years old and I have, courtesy of my good friend Patrick Delâge, a lovely picture of her with Patrick and his D8 when she was just 100 years old!  I confess to be totally enamoured with Betty's life story and I can do no better than post her own words which she jotted down when she was 89!  I have made the story into a flip-book and added a few illustrations.  I have also done a less-than-perfect translation into English.  Here they are, I hope you all enjoy them.

French Version:  online.pubhtml5.com/iicb/xipb/#p=1

English Version: online.pubhtml5.com/cycj/jtcf/#p=1

Before my erudite post disappeared into the ether I was bidding you all welcome and offering a less than convincing explanation as to why yet another old fart had taken to the blogosphere.  As some will know, I'm a reasonably active Facebooker in various classic and vintage groups but Facebook is not really the medium for intelligent discussion!  Notwithstanding my propensity for rambling on a bit ( too long, didn't read!) a few misguided souls have asked me why I don't write a blog.  Well, I've always given the stock answer "Too busy" which, of course, is a cop-out!  Sure, I spend a great deal of time on research for my 'Ultimate Delage Resource Website' (don't ask, it will go live in the due fullness of time!) and other topics but there's always time to scribble a few extra lines.
Problem is...the historic vehicle virtual world is full of blogs good, bad and indifferent, mainly the latter regurgitating the same old inaccurate badly-researched guff.  No point adding to that and being tarred with the same brush let alone getting involved in arguments with self-appointed experts!  Nonetheless there is an altogether different perspective from which to view historic vehicles.  Nowadays I want to find out a lot more about the people involved in the manufacture and, particularly, the ownership of these vehicles when new.  It was on just such a quest for info on a D8 Delage the other day when I found myself wandering off into the realms of haute couture, business management theory, French films of the 1930s, the Paris stage and the French textile industry!  Not to mention a certain lady being half-Jewish and living virtually next door to the Gestapo during the occupation of Paris...'next door' being on the Avenue Foch!  All this, and a lot more, as a result of some desultory research into one particularly elegant lady who appears as an essential adjunct to mainly Delage cars on the Concours d'Elegance circuit.  She, and her counterparts, will be the subject of my first 'proper' post so here's one of her quotes (concerning Christian Dior) to whet your appetite:

« L’homme qui sait habiller une femme est plus précieux que celui qui la déshabille.»

"The man who can dress a woman is more valuable than one who undresses her."

à bientôt
Colin