It's a story that lives on in motor-racing folklore. In the last months before the Second World War, a very wealthy young Cambridge undergraduate called Robert Ramsay Campbell Walker buys a famous Delahaye and enters it for Le Mans. Because he has virtually no experience, he decides to ask a top British driver to be his teammate.
In the night, a broken exhaust burns the ace's feet so badly he cannot continue. So the youngster races on alone for 16 hours, stopping frequently to plunge his feet into a bucket of cold water and quaff the occasional reviving glass of Champagne. Having started the race in a pinstripe suit, he decides this pattern is inappropriate for a Sunday morning, and at 8am he changes into a less formal Prince of Wales check. He finishes eighth.
That young man would go on to become the most successful private entrant in Formula One history, forming a famous partnership with Stirling Moss that earned a string of Grand Prix wins. After he wound up his team in the 1970s, he started writing elegant features for an American magazine, and became a cherished member of the posse of regular British race reporters as we went from Grand Prix to Grand Prix. On long-haul flights and over hilarious dinners, he loved to regale us with stories of his life in racing, and some of the best of them involved his beloved Delahaye.
In 1935, backed by American millionaire Lucy O'Reilly Schell, Delahaye introduced a Compétition Spéciale version of the big six-cylinder Type 135. Its hefty ladder chassis was shortened, lowered and drilled to save weight. It wore independent front suspension by transverse leaf springs and wishbones, and externally mounted leaf springs at the rear, with massive cable-operated drum brakes. The 3.6-litre engine gained a strengthened bottom end, a revised camshaft and a six-port head with three Solex 44HD carburettors. A very light, cycle-winged aluminium body completed the recipe.
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