DELAHAYE 135 M Cabriolet For sale
Description
This very rare Delahaye 135M “Grand Luxe” chassis 60139 received the Chapron body number 6013. It has been build from the 13th of January to the 7th of March 1939 for an important Portuguese customer in Lisboa, according to the original Chapron’s building sheet. The colour scheme chosen is a combination of “Rouge Ponceau” and “Gris Irizé n°1”. Mainly the special specifications include the “Torpille” front fenders, half integrated spare wheel, “Ouies à coquilles deux barres”, and monoplan bumpers. The original correspondence, between the customer and Chapron underlines the very high specifications and requirements the car was built to. After completion the nice 135 was delivered to Delahaye Lisboa were it was exhibited a few days in their showroom. A picture has been done then and happily followed in the car’s file until today, all the special details can be seen. Actually only very little use has been done to the car, it was sold in the mid 50s to another owner and in 1971, it was purchased by our customer in Portugal. It was then in lovely original and working condition, only repainted into black. He used the car in the 70s into this condition before putting it into storage. In the 80s a frame off restoration was decided and the car putted back in its original colours. Very recently after another long storage the car was mechanically overhauled including a total engine rebuild and a revised gearbox. The bodywork benefitted also from a high quality paintwork and finished with original hand crafted “filets” all around the car.
60139 is in excellent condition, still retains all of its original components, a real “Grand Luxe” and no-stories car. We recently shown it two times and won the “Concours d’Elegance Touquet Paris-Plage ), receiving the “Best of Show” prize from the hands of the president of the French historic cars federation. This is an interesting opportunity to acquire a highly original prestigious Delahaye, in excellent condition and beautiful original colour scheme.
Model history
Delahaye 135 M Cabriolet - chassis 60139 -- Authentic Grand Luxe Chapron body
- All original and no stories car
- 42 years into the same ownership
- Recently restored and Concours d’Elegance winner
Back in the 30s during the golden days of the “Concours d’Elegance” and “La Grande Carrosserie Française”, Delahaye trusted the best places with splendid bodyworks built by the best specialists of the period such as Chapron, De Villars, Figoni or Saoutchik. These were fantastic days when a customer only bought a chassis from a manufacturer and could choose himself its “carrossier”.
Henri Chapron’s bodyworks were of rare classicism and elegance, he also always took an important care that a car had to be functional, benefitting of a decent driving room, ergonomy, visibility and excellent quality of building. Chapron built thousands of bodyworks and reached in the end of the 30s, quality levels which no other builder could clame. Chapron offered a large range of bodies for the 135, including a very successful and classic Cabriolet Mylord. Apart from the normal production, he crated a taylor-made variant called “Grand Luxe” to satisfy the most demanding customers. This consisted in a new shape of the doors, bonnet, bumpers, wings and redesigned interior with new wood, seats etc… This very expensive option ( a 40% extra ), also proposed to the customer to finish the car upon his own choice into the very least detail. There were only about 40 Cabriolet “Grand Luxe” built by Chapron from 1937 to 1939 and according to the Delahaye club less than 20 authentic ones are know to have survived.