A mysterious Delage D8 fitted with a Gaston Grummer full Aeroprofile body

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Andrew Minney, from Twickenham, near London sent us an interesting letter:

"I was sent a photo which contained a car and a plane and was asked to identify the car. From the information provided, I learned the plane was a Boeing 247D which was the taking part in the 1934 London to Melbourne Air Race. The airfield was described as being near to Seattle and I confirmed it was Boeing Field (a big airport now) which made sense.

The Delage D8 had been unveiled at the 1934 New York Auto Show held at Madison Square Gardens. The car was purchased from the show by Mr. Meyer who was the New York representative for a well-known car magazine.

The Boeing flew to New York where it was disassembled and sent by ship to Southampton and then to Hamble (about 6 miles from Southampton) for reassembly. It flew via Heston to RAF Martlesham and then to RAF Mildenhall where the race started. The Delage D8 fitted with a Gaston Grummer full Aeroprofile body next appears in an advert in Autocar dated 19th March 1937 – see the attached advert. After that, it disappears. The advert is the last known sighting of the car.

As Dixon's Garage is close to where I live, I will be visiting the Local History Section at (Lavender Hill) library to look for any later adverts for the selling of the car. The Aeroprofile design was not a popular one with the public, like the Chrysler Airflow so by around 1937 onwards interest waned.

Bearing in mind that the car could be rebodied (Coopers Motor Bodies were close by) and it was, after all, a Delage D8 with low mileage it is not unreasonable to assume that the next owner had a new body fitted. I will be finding out about Dixon's Garage locally and hopefully move forward from there. But I would like to know how the car got from New York to Seattle and back, did it go to England for Mr. Meyer to report on the start of the Air Race?

The full patented Aeroprofile design was used on 3 different chassis (Delage D8, Hotchkiss 620 and Renault Nervastella). There was only one example per each chassis. It caught my attention (I love coachbuilders of the 30s and 40s). I want later, after I have exhausted all possibilities for the Delage, to move onto the other two.

Any information and pictures which can link up what I know already would be gratefully appreciated!”

Please comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected] if you have any information on the Delage D8 with the full Aeroprofile body.

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