Footnotes

• 'Delage have to their credit many world's records, including a world's championship, and more awards at the principal Concours d'Elegance than any other car in the world... To these achievements Delage have added a third and greater. They have made the highest known degree of luxury and performance available at the price the average motorist can pay.'
  Delage's publicity had every right to sing the praises of what, arguably, was the finest French car of its day. Founded in 1905 by Louis Delage, the company commenced production with a single-cylinder De Dion-engined runabout and within a few years was offering multi-cylinder designs. The publicity value of racing was recognised right from the start, a single-cylinder Delage winning the Coupe Des Voiturettes as early as 1908 and Louis himself taking the 1911 Coupe de l'Auto in a 3.0-litre four-cylinder. Victories at the Grand Prix du Mans and the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race were achieved prior to WWI, the company going on to become a major force in Grand Prix racing in the 1920s and setting a new World Land Speed Record mark in 1924 with a 10.7-litre overhead-valve V12.
  Four-cylinder DI and six-cylinder DM cars formed the mainstay of touring-car production in the 1920s, and then at the 1929 Paris Salon Delage launched the magnificent 4-litre D8 straight-eight, a model destined to attract the creative attentions of Europe's finest coachbuilders: Figoni et Falaschi, Henri Chapron and Fernandes et Darrin to name but three. For those of more modest means, there were the 14hp DS and 17hp D6 six-cylinder models; the latter in effect a D8 minus two cylinders. Produced between 1933 and 1934, the D6-11 was powered by an advanced, short-stroke (75x75.5mm) overhead-valve engine of 2,001cc coupled to a four-speed synchromesh gearbox. The electrically welded chassis featured transverse-leaf independent front suspension and came in short or long wheelbase versions accommodating the customary wide range of body styles.
  Following the take-over by Delahaye in 1935, Delages were built to Delahaye designs but retained their own superior short-stroke engines and hydraulic brakes. Introduced for 1937, the D6-70 was powered by Delage's own powerful 2,729cc overhead-valve 'six', which drive via a Cotal electrically operated four-speed gearbox. Both fast and durable, the D7-70 proved good enough to win the Tourist Trophy at Donington Park in 1938 and secure a brace of Le Mans 24-Hour second places: to a Bugatti Type 57 in 1939 and a Ferrari 166 ten years later.
  The Delage D6-70 tourer offered here carries original coachwork by Coachcraft Ltd of Hanwell, West London, from whose stand at the 1938 Motor Show it was purchased by first owner, film star Margaret Lockwood. (A design drawing and photograph of the car appears in John Dyson's recently published book on Coachcraft).
  Born in 1916, Margaret Lockwood was already a seasoned performer when Alfred Hitchcock cast her in The Lady Vanishes in 1938, coincidentally the same year she acquired the Delage. She is best remembered for playing a succession of femmes falates, most notably the scandalous female highwayman in The Wicked Lady (1954), co-starring with James Mason. She died in 1990.
  The current vendor's late father purchased the Delage from the Lockwood family in the early 1990s and commenced its restoration, entrusting the work to recognised specialists including Spencer Longland, Ian Polson, Belcher Engineering and Nick Paravani (Competition Fabrications). In the ten years between 1995 and 2005 everything was completed with the exception of the interior trim, hood and various minor details. Nothing has been done to the Delage since the vendor's father's death ten years ago. Offered as an unfinished project, the car comes with sundry restoration invoices, current MoT/tax and Swansea V5 registration document.

Auction Notices

• The Invoices for restoration work done on this car and various spare parts will be forwarded to the purchaser post sale at the vendors expense. The invoices total circa £40,000 from the specialist restoration companies mentioned in the catalogue. The parts include a new hood frame , chrome fittings, some interior parts and assorted other parts.

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Category: Motoring / Motor Cars

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