My 1910 saw-bench Delage

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David Barker tells about the remarkable history of his Delage:
"The engine is a 1500c.c. side-valve Ballot 4G3 with a fixed head. It has a four-speed gearbox and because it has is no starter-motor, dynamo or battery and now carries a ‘voiturette de course’ type body, it is quite light and remarkably fast. It was exported to New Zealand as a new car in 1910 and was owned for the first ten years by the night watchman at Ballantynes Department Store in Christchurch. In about 1920 he sold it to a man called Ian Foster who took it to Cheviot in N.Z. where an engineer called McArthur cut it in half so that the front half could be used to power a saw-bench.

This it did for many years until it was bought in 1960 from Ian Foster’s son Don, by an enthusiast called Graham Pluck who spent the next forty years collecting as much of the rest as he could find. Unfortunately he did not live long enough to start putting it together, and never found the gearbox or steering and quite a few other bits. In 2007 his widow sold it to me, I shipped it back to England, found most of the missing parts and finally got it all restored in time to take it to the Gaillon Hillclimb near Paris in September 2009. I now use it regularly for competing in hill climbs, sprints and driving tests in England, the Isle of Man and France."

(edition 5000 competition , comp5000 )

 

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