Internet Find of the Day: 1946 Delahaye 135M in French Blue

Monaco Luxury has introduced the immaculate 1946 Delahaye 135M Roadster to eBay Motors’ Other Makes section. This beautiful roadster comes in a striking French Blue color and sports a red leather interior. The Type 135Ms are truly a prestigious masterpiece with a strong racing history and heritage that was formed on stability and robustness.

Emile Delahaye built his first automobile in 1895 and in 1896 he drove it to sixth place in the Paris-Marseilles-Paris race. His truck making business was crippled by the WWI surplus of army trucks. Delahaye hung on, aided by a marriage with Chenard et Walcker and F.A.R. Tractor, until the 1930s when Ettore Bugatti urged him to restart his performance car ambitions. The vehicle for Delahaye's new direction was the Superluxe and its sports sibling, the Delahaye Type 135.

This particular car is rich in racing history, including several races at the historic Circuit Park Zandvoort located in Burgemeester van Alphenstraat between 1957-1961. In the early '80s this beautiful Delahaye 135M was shipped from Holland to California were it was rebodied by the second owner. The sympathetic restoration process resulted in the original triple Solex carburetors being kept. In 2008 the car received a $40,000 (EUR31,000) restoration from the renowned Alan Taylor Company of Escondido, California.

The car is powered by a water-cooled, inline, six-cylinder, 3.6-liter engine, fitted with a single Solex carburetor, coupled to a four-speed manual transmission. This 115 horsepower car only weighs 2,450 pounds (1110 kg). Just 2,000 Type 135 Delahayes were produced over two decades, but they had a profound effect upon French sports car racing.