1937 Delahaye 145 Franay Cabriolet
Sam Mann has one of the most enviable and beautiful collections of cars on the planet. His cars can be seen regularly at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. This Delahaye was exhibited there in 2015. I was spellbound by both its styling and its color. It has an interesting past.
It was hidden away, possibly by Delahaye himself, until after WWII. But it didn’t look like this then. That didn’t happen until 1945 when it was commissioned to coach builder Marius Franay for this gorgeous cabriolet body. It took about 10 months to build, but a week before delivery its new owner was jailed as a Vichy French collaborator! The Vichy Government was a collaboration of Frenchmen who ruled Nazi-occupied France during WW II, from about 1940 until near the end of 1944. Without a buyer, the car was auctioned off, and Franay bought it back to show at the 1946 Paris Auto Salon. He kept the car until 1956. Possibly convinced this was the “Million Franc” car, in 1980 the next owner recreated the original Grand Prix body and moved this Franay body to a 6-cyl Delahaye chassis. Current owner Sam Mann first acquired the Franay-bodied 6-cyl car when he saw it offered at auction. A year later he found the original 12-cyl chassis, and reunited it with this artful bodywork. The chassis is one of two ’37 Delahaye 12 cylinder Grand Prix racers still thought to be the “Million Franc” Delahaye that won the 1937 Prix du Million.
In late 1936 the Automobile Club of France and the French government, determined to end Germany’s domination in auto racing, offered a million-franc prize to any French man or company who could best the German speed record at the famous Montlhery race track. This was a challenging road track with 20-some hairpin turns and challenging corners over its 7.8 miles. The famous French brands of Bugatti, Talbot Lago, Renault and Delahaye frantically set to work but, after having secured the backing of American heiress Lucy Schell, Delahaye soon became the leading candidate. Schell funded four aluminum-bodied, 4.5 liter V12 145 racers capable of 165 MPH. After months of testing, they settled on an aluminum body with a magnesium block engine, even stripping the body of its lead-based paint to save an extra 6 pounds. The Delahaye won the prize with a 91 MPH average speed over the 120 mile time trial at the Montlhery Racetrack outside Paris in 1937. It followed that with Grand Prix victories at Pau and Cork against the powerful Reich-sponsored Mercedes, angering Hitler at being beaten by a French car and a Jewish driver (Rene Dreyfus).
Rene Dreyfus was an accomplished race driver, who scored many victories during his racing career. He even won the Indianapolis 500. We will hear more of those exploits related to another car manufacturer at another time.
With the war and Hitler’s orders to find and destroy the Delahaye, the race team dismantled the cars, hiding the chassis and engines in various places, including a mountain cave. It is disputed whether this car, or another one owned by collector Peter Mullin, is the true “Million Franc” car. With the complications of time, missing records and race team habits of swapping parts between cars, it may never be resolved. Either way, it’s a very beautiful car, reinforced by its 2015 Pebble Beach class win, the most elegant convertible award and its nomination for Best of Show. It was then, and remains now, one of my favorites.
