Gorgeous Delahaye 135 MS joins Monaco line-up

A highly desirable 1938 Delahaye 135 MS Competition Cabriolet is one of the lots to be auctioned at RM Auction’s inaugural Sporting Classics of Monaco event, held at the beginning of May. Featuring stunning, one-off cabriolet coachwork by Figoni et Falaschi and an exquisite Hermes interior, this unique Delahaye offers an attractive blend of the best in late 1930s French custom body design with some of the highest specification mechanicals ever offered by the company – a powerful combination that saw the car participate in both concours d’elegance and motor racing events. Beautifully restored to concours-quality condition, it boasts an impeccable provenance and ownership history including French racing driver Marcel Contet and, later, a former President of the Delahaye Owners’ Club, who carefully maintained the car for over 42 years.

Founded by Emile Delahaye in 1895, the company located in Tours soon became renowned for the quality and elegance of its luxury cars. Exquisite engineering combined with refined styling epitomised the Delahaye brand, earning it a reputation as one of the most elegant and luxurious carmakers in the world. Added to the beautifully tooled mechanics was graceful bodywork from leading French coachbuilders such as Figoni et Falaschi, Saoutchik, Chapron and Letourneur et Marchand. On a par with the finest British, American, German and Italian cars, the Delahayes built in the 1930s are regarded as being amongst the most beautiful cars ever built.

Added to this is a surprisingly good racing pedigree too, with success in legendary competitions such as the 1937 Monte Carlo Rally. Even more epic was the victory of René Dreyfus in the 1938 Million Franc Race, where the Jewish driver in a special Delahaye Model 145 beat the best that the Nazi regime could throw at it – in this case the Mercedes Benz Silver Arrow.

Although Delahaye disappeared in 1954, its models have continued to rank amongst the most hotly desired classic cars in the world. On May 1st, these and many other of the finest cars ever made will come together in Monaco in a unique display of design and engineering genius.

www.rmauctions.com

New post on at Thursday, 1 April, 2010, 8:55 am and is archived in Classic cars, Lifestyle, Luxury, Sport. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.