1939 Delahaye Type 165 V12 Is Fireball Malibu VLOG 549

For Cars, Movies and Cool… it’s Fireball Tim!

Fireball heads to the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard California to see some incredible french cars including a concept 1939 Delahaye from the 1939 New York World’s Fair!

ABOUT DELAHAYE from Wikipedia… Delahaye automobile was an automotive manufacturing company founded by Émile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France, his home town. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines mounted at the rear. His Type One was an instant success, and he urgently needed investment capital and a larger manufacturing facility. Both were provided by a new Delahaye owner and fellow racer, George Morane, and his brother-in-law Leon Desmarais, who partnered with Émile in the incorporation of the new automotive company, “Societe Des Automobiles Delahaye”, in 1898. All three worked with the foundry workers to assemble the new machines, but middle-aged Émile was not in good health. In January 1901, he found himself unable to capably continue, and resigned, selling his shares to his two equal partners. Émile Delahaye died soon after, in 1905. Delahaye had hired two instrumental men, Charles Weiffenbach and Amédée Varlet in 1898, to assist the three partners.[1] Both were graduate mechanical engineers, and they remained with Delahaye their entire working careers. Weiffenbach was appointed Manager of Operations, and, with the blessing of both George Morane and Leon Desmarais, assumed control over all of Delahaye’s operations and much of its decision-making, in 1906. Amédée Varlet was the company’s design-engineer, with a number of innovative inventions to his credit, generated between 1905 and 1914, which Delahaye patented. These included the twin-cam multi-valve engine, and the V6 configuration. Varlet continued in this role until he eventually took over the Drawing Office, at 76 years of age, when much younger Jean François was hired in 1932 as chief design-engineer. In 1932, Varlet was instructed by Weiffenbach, under direction from majority shareholder Madame Desmarais, Leon Desmarais’ widow, to set up the company’s Racing Department, assisted by Jean François. Those who knew him well at the factory affectionately referred to Charles Weiffenbach as “Monsieur Charles”.

Two Type 165 cars exist today, both being Paris and New York showcars, identically bodied as streamlined roadsters, finished in different shades of deep red, by Joseph Figoni. Two other Type 165 bodies were designed and built by Henri Chapron, but were demolished during the Second World War.

The government had ordered all private automobile sales to cease in June, 1939, but small numbers of cars continued to be built for the occupying German forces until at least 1942.

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