Compétition Spéciales: Delahaye 135 CS

4 April 2023 Redazione News, Racing Cars, Vintage

Words Carlo Brema / Photos courtesy of Fiskens

Veteran cars, pre-war models that are increasingly rare to meet on the street, nevertheless capable of awakening unchallenged emotions that tell the quintessence of automotive pioneering, thanks to a raw nature and stories of competitions of another era, incomparable to the contemporary scene. It’s a journey back in time where the racing world was extremely harsh and dangerous and where the drivers were adventurers struggling with cars that were nothing more than shells sketched around chassis and engine. Born to race and with the only goal of winning.

We travel back almost a hundred years, to the exploits of the famous racing driver Louis Villeneuve, who battled numerous races between the 1930s and the early post-war period. The 135 Compétition Spéciales was built in just 17 examples exclusively for racing in the late 1930s based on the Delahaye 135 and featured a shortened chassis, improved suspension and a powerful in-line 6-cylinder engine delivering approximately 170 horses. The bodywork, work of Figoni, manages to outline the characteristic traits that racing cars shared and needed to cut through the air at high speeds in the fastest circuits in the world, such as Le Mans.

We’re talking about an open two-seater with thin wheel covers and a sloping fin tail that emphasizes the concept of speed itself. There is only the bare essentials to allow the driver to sit on board and tinker with the large steering wheel, behind which you get the various gauges, including a rev counter in a prominent position, in such a way as to facilitate control during the race moments. Stylistically pure and at the same time devoted to speed, the Delahaye 135 CS however manages not to give up the elegance conferred by the front grille divided into two parts by a chrome profile that surrounds it, making it one of the sexiest and most performing racing cars ever. This is poetry, art, history and it mumbles as if it’s ready to chase the next checkered flag.