Looking for DELAUNAY-BELLEVILLE photos

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One of my all time favorites, Delaunay-Bellevilles were really superbly constructed and vastly superior to Rolls-Royce and Napier in silence,performance and refinement. Click the above attachment to see the nicest one I've ever seen, a 1914 40-50 roadster.

Here's an interesting historical footnote from 1920: "The late czar Nicholas had in his garages many Delaunay-Bellevilles,2 of which, fitted with dual control and constructed specially regardless of cost are now used by MM. Lenin and Trotsky".

Carleton,

There is no picture in your attachment <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

FINALLY IT WORKS!!!!!! Must have been a fault with the board or my server. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Where is your picture located?

Well Leo, now it's working. I see by your previous post it took you a good deal of time to post an attachment too.

One of the cars I hope to own one day.

For those like myself who have been fortunate enough to drive a friend's pre-WW1 D-B it is an unforgettable experience with silence, surprisingly light handling and smooth acceleration with little "roll"upon taking corners, this applies to the chain drive 75's. From what I've heard the shafties are even more refined, comparable to a pre-15 OHC Maudslay and much, much more civilised than a Silver Ghost which drives like a truck.

The main reason for this being I believe is the driving conditions in France { who at that time still led the world in advanced design}which favored high-speed flat-out driving over long distances {see Delage and Voisin in this regard} which fostered the developement of superior suspension geometry of which Bugatti is perhaps the outstanding example. Thus although many customers such as Czar Nicholas and the Rothschild clan purchased D-B's as dignified town carriages they were really designed for silent and effortless transport at high speed.

D-B did make some smaller 4 cyl cars as well, which probably did not have such sparkling performance. In about 1972 Bud Catlett got me to photograph and examine one of these which had been offered to Harrah's by a dealer. I suspect that I probably sent the negatives to them as well as prints, because I cannot find them now. When I visited USA in 1980, I saw the car again when Jim Edwards took me into one of Harrah's storage areas to look at a couple of other cars. It had new wood in the wheels, but was otherwise pretty much in the good unrestored condition from when it came from a big pastoral property in western Victoria.

Actually, the fellow Harrah's bought the car from turned out to be a pretty bad shyster, even if they got their car. Twice he sold one exotic car (under different aliases) to one man. Money changed hands, the car never did. It was probably ficticious. Smythe is no longer with us, (I am told); but friends in South Australia say he was involved in a pretty gruesome multiple murder where the victims were discovered in a disused bank vault. You often don't realise how bad are some of the people you encounter.

In the late 60's, HCCA were guests of the NSW VCCA at their Terrigal Rally on the coast north of Sydney. Bud Catlett told me he was going to be there, so Stuart Middlehurst put in an entry with his 1912 Alfonso Hispano Suiza, and we went. I saw the very big 6 cyl D-B that George Green owned.

You can best appreciate how a car perforns when you drive or ride in it; but if you are driving a car that really travels well, you get a pretty good idea what other cars on a rally are like. If I had to descibe the D-B in one word I would have used "lumbering". I may be quite wrong. It would be very interesting to have a comparative road test of a big Delaunay-Belleville and a small 7 litre Pierce Arrow of the same age; and maybe throw in a Type 20 or bigger Napier and a Silver Ghost for good measure.

Ivan Saxton

I found the photo of George Green's D-B mentioned above, my son put it in the forum space, and Wayne was kind enough to place it here for you. It is doubtless very well made, certainly impressive, and yet few people might consider it elegant. I don't know what the French had about the dual rear wheels. Perhaps it was to increase the grip on the ground for braking. One chassis

drawing I have of the early series Type 156 Peugeot, which was their top-line car with 6 cylinder, 6 litre cuff-valve engine shows dual rears also.

Ivan Saxton

Good morning Ivan. Maybe the French were trying to entice new car owners into thinking that thier new automobile could also be used as a "truck". They do "think" (used loosely here) a little differently from the rest of the world. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Wayne

Have you seen the book "Delaunay Belleville 1904 - 1947" by Pierre-Henri, Phillippe and Francois Richer? I bought a copy from the author at Retromobile in Paris about two years ago - he is a very nice man, along with his son and grandson, and a real scholar on the subject. I believe his father worked for D - B and they still have one automobile from the firm. The book is in French, has 200 pages, with both color and black and white photos, drawings and illustrations from period ads and brochures. It is softbound, ISBN # 2-84340-199-2. I think I paid around 25 Euros for it, and even though my college French really fails me these days, I enjoy looking at the photos. The bulk of the photos are period or factory photos, which are quite fascinating. I would definitely recommend adding it to your library, if you have an interest in unusual automobiles. Dave Mitchell