DELAHAYE

Émile Delahaye founded the family-owned company in 1894 in Tours and moved production to Paris after it was incorporated in 1898 with George Morane and Leon Desmarais. Besides low-volume luxury cars with coachbuilt bodies it built trucks, buses, utility vehicles and fire engines, and made a number of technical innovations in its early years.

A racing department opened in 1932, and in the mid-to-late 1930s the company came to prominence with the record-breaking Type 138, the Type 135, which grew into the short-wheelbase 135CS, and the V12 Types 145 and 155. The war set it back, and in 1954 it merged with its rival Hotchkiss. Both were absorbed by the Brandt group, and Delahaye closed at the end of 1954, taking Delage with it.