DELAHAYE

235

The Delahaye 235 is a luxury car built by French manufacturer Delahaye from 1951 until 1954. Presented at the 1951 Paris Auto Salon, the 235 was an attempt at updating the pre-war Type 135 for the 1950s.[2] It competed with the Grégoire and Anjou models, built by Hotchkiss, another French luxury marque. Delahaye needed a boost, as combined production of the Types 135 and 175 (and long wheelbase 178/180) had dropped to an abysmal 77 by 1951.[3] Most noticeable was the new modern ponton-style bodywork, with the full width front designed by chief designer Philippe Charbonneaux. The mechanics were credited to Fernand Lacour.[1] The prototypes body was manufactured by Motto in Italy, and a total of 84 Types 235 were built. The 235 was originally sold only in chassis form and received bodywork from various coachbuilders, mainly Henri Chapron, but also from Figoni, Saoutchik, Antem, and others. The company's own business premises at the rue de Banquier in Paris were never tooled up to build car bodies for the 235,[4] but in 1953, as a response to sluggish sales, a standardised "factory" bodywork ("un coach d'usine") from Chapron became available, at 2,700,000 Francs a saving of nearly thirty percent on the bespoke coach-built versions.