Louis Delage founded the company bearing his name in 1905 by giving up his 600 Fr monthly income and borrowing 35,000 Fr, his company had two lathes and three employees on if whom was a former Chief Designer at Peugeot.

Delage began manufacturing bodies for Helbé before building cars to it’s own design powered by a one cylinder de Dion motor.

By 1910 Delage had experienced competition success and steady growth such that it had moved into it’s third premises to keep abreast of the required production capacity.

The move coincided with the launch of the Type R powered, I believe by a Delage built side valve 4 cylinder motor that produced 15 hp.

The Type-R had a top speed of 40 mph with a full body equipped to deal with adverse weather.

Production of the Type R lasted until 1913 by which time the factory was manufacturing 1,000 4 and 6 cylinder vehicles a year built by 350 employees.

The Type R seen with Dave Barker at wheel at a VSCC Loton Park meeting was built in 1910.

Thanks for joining me on this “2 Lathes and 3 Employees” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !