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The 1.5 litre straight eight Delages of 1926/7 must rank amongst the
most exotic machinery ever conceived. They look impressive and they sound like nothing
else on Earth. The 1,484 c.c. engines had two overhead camshafts each running in nine
roller bearings. More than sixty roller and ball bearings were used in these engines, the
crankshaft using nine for the main bearings, the big ends another eight. Over twenty
timing gears all ran in bearings. A single large blower was located in front of the engine
and in 1926 form the power output exceeded 160 bhp at 7,500 rpm.
The Delage engines were always complex to maintain and the chassis, being made for racing,
were never going to survive indefinitely. Only four cars were made, one of which passed
through Alan Burnard's hands in the mid nineteen fifties, the engine having been replaced
with that from E.R.A. GP1 which had been crashed terminally in the Isle of Man. He always
regretted selling it and in 1964 managed to acquire a spare heavier weight chassis, one of
a batch that Prince Chula had commissioned Rubery Owen to build during the time when Bira
was racing the original Delages. Over a number of years he tracked down and bought enough
of Chula's old cache of spares to contemplate building himself an authentic GP Delage
complete with an E.R.A. engine and an ENV gearbox. Recently he has managed to acquire the
original Delage engine that had been in his first car and 1998 has seen it fitted and
operational at Goodwood and at the Brooklands Society Reunion. It sounds phenomenal and
goes like a rocket. You might be envious but you have to remember that Alan has been on
this project on and off for about forty five years which must be the last word in
determination and perseverance.
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© The Brooklands Society 1995-2002. © Colour Photographer: Robert Titherley.
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