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Delahaye 175 was an automobile manufactured by Delahaye between 1947 and 1951. The last of the large Delahayes, the type 175 was essentially a brand new chassis and engine. The chassis bore little resemblance to the preceding Type 135, other than the cockpit area with its driveshaft tunnel and welded stamped-steel floor, which assembly formed a rigid structural member. The new 4.5-litre engine was visually quite similar to the Type 135, but significantly improved. It had seven main bearings versus the Type 135's four, and its cylinder head had six intake and six exhaust ports, twelve in all, versus nine in the standard Type 135 ( albeit a rare few Type 135 racing engines had twelve port heads). The larger engine was stronger and breathed better ==History== After having spent World War II building railroad rolling stock (train cars) for the German occupiers, Delahaye was included in deputy director General Paul-Marie Pons' 1945 ''plan Pons'' for French industry and engineering. His ''plan Pons'' was a five-year program for the reconstruction of French industry. The plan allotted Delahaye the position of building covetable sports and luxury cars for the export market. Over 80 percent of the company's automotive chassis were exported to France's colonies, including those in Africa. The plan's objective was to generate much-needed foreign currency for France's struggling postwar economy. The outdated prewar Types 134, 135, and 148L were revived, but Delahaye still needed a "halo car" like the 165. In consideration of the inordinate expense of producing the complicated V-12, with its exotic alloys, as used in the Type 145 sports-racers, the solitary Type 155 monoposto (all five were made exclusively for Lucy O'Reilly-Schell for her team Ecurie Bleue), as well as in the five luxurious and very impressive Type 165 grand touring cars, production of the V-12 ended in 1938, with just twelve sets of engine parts made. The excessively complex V12 had three camshafts in the block; four overhead rocker-shafts; three Stromberg carburetors (in the Types 145 and 155, but a single one in the detuned Type 165); two mechanical fuel-pumps, and dual Bosch ignition.〔Hull, p. 524.〕 The V-12 was replaced by a new, much less complex inline overhead-valve six-cylinder of the same displacement. The new Type 175 debuted as a glitzy show-chassis with partial frontal coachwork demonstrating the company's new postwar "face". It was one of very few to debut at the first postwar Paris Salon in October 1946, and it garnered considerable attention. It would also be Delahaye's first left-hand drive model.〔Hull, p.524.〕 The chassis however, was not yet fully developed (in October 1946), nor adequately performance tested, before being put into production. Problems were encountered with the Dubonnet front suspension, and shearing rear half-shafts, due to postwar enveloping-style bodies with hardwood body-frames under them, contributing excessive weight for the chassis' prewar designed and developed engineering. The same unchanged Show-chassis reappeared on Delahaye's stand in 1947, again in 1948, and finally in 1949, with somewhat more but still limited frontal coachwork. There was nothing whatsoever aft of the instrunment panel on the cowl-scuttle. Production did not truly begin until early 1948, and some say, with conviction, that the three-wheelbase chassis-series was never fully developed. However, as most of the French ''grandes marques'' no longer existed after the war, the coachbuilders descended upon the Type 175-S, in particular, to prove their art. The company's Production Build List verifies that 51 Type 175 chassis were built (numbers 815001 to 815051 inclusive), but that excludes the Paris Type 175-S Show-chassis. With it included, as it ought to be, the Type 175/175-S total comes to 52 in all.< Club Delahaye archive, Jean-Paul Tissot president> with no differentiation explaining which of these were Type 175 or optional 175-S chassis. While not a grand success in the marketplace, a Type 175S won the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally,〔Hull, Peter. "Delahaye: Famous on Road and Race Track", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. ''World of Automobiles'' (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 5, p.524.〕 the same car finished in twelfth place in the Carrera Panamericana, while a second Motto-bodied 175-S coupe was disqualified on a technicality. The 1AL-183 and Type 2AL-183 engines, when equipped with a single carburetor, produced 140 horsepower, allowing a top speed of 130 KPH (type 180), 140 KPH (type 178) and 145 KPH (type 175). The triple-carbureted 175-S raised this to about 160 KPH , although naturally these figures were subject to variation depending on which sort of body was fitted, and which coachbuilder made it. Coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik seemed oblivious of weight, and applied flamboyant heavily chromed brass embellishments on his extended enclosed fendered bodies. The rear-wheel drive Type 175, 178 and 180 chassis is considerably more sophisticated than its 135 predecessor, the front suspension being independent with pivoting horizontal cylinders that contained a powerful coil-spring and hydraulic shock absorber in an oil-bath Dubonnet. The rear was by de Dion, with semi-elliptical springs. Brakes were hydraulic type made by Lockheed. The brake-drums were deeply finned cast-iron, actuated by dual master cylinders with a balance-bar drums all around.〔 The custom bodies placed on these cars were often much too heavy for what the chassis had originally been designed and engineered for, leading to collapsing Dubonnet suspensions and sheared differential half-shafts. Wet-weather handling was considered unpredictable. A shortage of time and money for development may have been a cause of the 175's failure.〔 Delahaye's reputation for solidity took a serious hit in consequence, and although Delahaye managed to introduce the seemingly more modern 235 in 1951, the company did not survive much longer. Delahaye and Delage combined production dropped from 511 in 1949, to 41 in 1952, 36 in 1953, and 7 in 1954. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Delahaye 175」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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