Post by David Mitcham on Oct 5, 2018 15:58:46 GMT -5
Here's the start of the build of my GP entry in the International Thirties Proxy, the Delahaye 155 Monoplace.
The Delahaye 155 was entered in three races in 1938. In an attempt to compete with the Mercedes and Auto Unions Delahaye was commissioned by Lucy and Laura O'Reilly Schell to build a new Grand Prix car. The result was a sophisticated and complicated chassis design with the Delahaye V12 engine used in their 145 models. The 155 first race entry was at the 1938 German Grand Prix. René Dreyfus was only able to do some practice laps. The car was withdrawn. In his book 'My Two Lives' Dreyfus wrote: "The monoposto Delahaye was all wrong… we tried it during practice, the engine was good but the car just wouldn’t stay on the road.”
Three weeks later at the Coppa Acerbo, Pescara, Dreyfus drove the car again. This time, he had to give up due to suspension problems. A week later at Donington, Dreyfus got the car into the race but had to retire the car after 33 of the 80 scheduled laps. An oil pipe had broken. That was the last time the car competed before WWII and the Schell's sold it in disgust. After a few more races in privateer hands after the war it was broken up.
Here are couple of photographs of the 155.
Dreyfus at Donington
Why choose such an 'infamous' car? First I like it and second I wanted enter something a bit different in the ITP. Anyway bad racing cars don't necessarily make bad slot cars.
Clearly there is no commercially available body so I'm carving my own which will be moulded and cast in resin. I've had to make my own drawing from photographs of the car as I can't find any blueprints on the web. Fortunately I did find the wheelbase and track dimensions and its been fairly straightforward to guesstimate the the other dimension by scaling some of the photographs i have.
Here's how the carving has gone so far; there's a lot more shaping and refining to do. The main challenges are going to be making the engine cover louvres and the grille.
Best Regards
David
The Delahaye 155 was entered in three races in 1938. In an attempt to compete with the Mercedes and Auto Unions Delahaye was commissioned by Lucy and Laura O'Reilly Schell to build a new Grand Prix car. The result was a sophisticated and complicated chassis design with the Delahaye V12 engine used in their 145 models. The 155 first race entry was at the 1938 German Grand Prix. René Dreyfus was only able to do some practice laps. The car was withdrawn. In his book 'My Two Lives' Dreyfus wrote: "The monoposto Delahaye was all wrong… we tried it during practice, the engine was good but the car just wouldn’t stay on the road.”
Three weeks later at the Coppa Acerbo, Pescara, Dreyfus drove the car again. This time, he had to give up due to suspension problems. A week later at Donington, Dreyfus got the car into the race but had to retire the car after 33 of the 80 scheduled laps. An oil pipe had broken. That was the last time the car competed before WWII and the Schell's sold it in disgust. After a few more races in privateer hands after the war it was broken up.
Here are couple of photographs of the 155.
Dreyfus at Donington
Why choose such an 'infamous' car? First I like it and second I wanted enter something a bit different in the ITP. Anyway bad racing cars don't necessarily make bad slot cars.
Clearly there is no commercially available body so I'm carving my own which will be moulded and cast in resin. I've had to make my own drawing from photographs of the car as I can't find any blueprints on the web. Fortunately I did find the wheelbase and track dimensions and its been fairly straightforward to guesstimate the the other dimension by scaling some of the photographs i have.
Here's how the carving has gone so far; there's a lot more shaping and refining to do. The main challenges are going to be making the engine cover louvres and the grille.
Best Regards
David