Anglo-French Alliance

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It is difficult not to think of Delage without picturing one draped in the most splendid French coachwork. The name is more or less synonymous with beautifully-crafted Labourdette skiffs and the elaborately elegant bodies of Letourneur et Marchand, and there was never a more natural habitat for them than the concours d’elegance in Cannes and the Bois de Boulogne.

The chassis which underpinned these bodies were certainly deserving of the attention they received from the best carrosseries. Louis Delâge was a skilled engineer if not necessarily a radical one, and his cars had a reputation for quality which he affirmed by driving his products all over France, often at rather enthusiastic speeds. The DI series ranked amongst the best grand-tourers of the 1920s, and would nudge 75mph.

1925 Delage DISS

Meanwhile, in Camden Town, Victor Broom had set up shop constructing bodies on some up market cars such as Bentleys, and the 1925 DISS illustrated here landed in his workshop. Broom’s drophead coupé may not be so opulent as some of its French contemporaries, but it’s functionally elegant and would look quite at home in London and in Paris.

It’s a pity that an on-off antagonism has prevailed between the English and the French since William of Normandy stormed across the Channel because, in the February issue of The Automobile, Marcus Rowe opens our eyes to a perfect example of Anglo-French concord. Or should that be concorde?

Words by Zack Stiling. Photographs by Reverendpixel.

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