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DELAHAYE 175
Image by Peer.Gynt
Vadim Zadorozhny’s Vehicle Museum, Moscow
Delahaye 175 was an automobile manufactured by Delahaye between 1947 and 1951. The last of the large Delahayes, the type 175 was essentially a 135 with a larger engine and more modern suspension,[1] with between 120 and 160 hp depending on compression and how many Solex carburettors were fitted. The front end design was by Delahaye’s young head designer Philippe Charbonneaux, and marked an effort to develop a particular Delahaye “face”. Delahaye required coachbuilders to use the corporate front-end, although famous ones such as Figoni et Falaschi were given a certain amount of leeway. The 4.5-litre engine used in these cars carried the “183” model code.
fter having spent World War II building train cars for the German occupiers, Delahaye was included in deputy director Paul-Marie Pons’ 1945 plan Pons for French industry and engineering China. His plan Pons was a five-year program for the recreation of French industry, allotting Delahaye the position of building covetable sports and luxury cars intended to raise much-needed foreign currency. The 134, 135, and 148 were revived, but Delahaye still needed a “halo car” like the 165. In consideration of the lower quality materials available in the immediate post-war era, the elaborate 4.5-litre V12 engine of the prewar 145[2] was replaced by a new, less complex six-cylinder engine of the same displacement.[3] The new 175 was one of a very few debuts at the Paris Salon in October 1946, and therefore garnered considerable attention. It would also be Delahaye’s first left-hand drive model.[4]
The car, however, was not fully developed yet: while shown again in 1947, production did not truly begin until 1948, and some say that it was never fully developed. However, as most of the French grandes marques no longer existed, coach builders all descended upon the 175 to prove their art.
No more than 51 Type 175s were built.[1][6] While not a grand success in the marketplace, a Type 175S won the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally[7] and had a strong showing at the 1950 Carrera Panamericana.[8] The 175 was available with twin carburettors and a 295 cm wheelbase; two longer wheelbase versions with single carburettors and 125 hp were also built: The types 178 (315 cm, 37 built)[3] and 180 (333.5 cm). Only seventeen Type 180s were produced, mainly for heads of state and the like. Two Henri Chapron-bodied, fully armoured 180 limousines with divisions were built for the leadership of the French Communist Party in 1948.[1] A prototype “Delage D180” was also developed on this basis, but never entered production as Delage instead focused on their D6 model.[8] The total produced of the series is 105, although some sources claim only just under a hundred were built.
The type 183 engines with single carburettors produced from 120 to 140 hp depending on compression, allowing for top speeds of 130 (type 180), 140 (type 178) and 145 (type 175) km/h. The triple-carbed versions available in the 175 and 175S raised this to about 160 km/h (99 mph), although naturally these figures were subject to variation depending on which bodywork was fitted.
While still rear-wheel drive, the 175 chassis is considerably more sophisticated than its 135 predecessor, the front suspension being independent with Dubonnet struts. The rear was by de Dion, with semi-elliptical springs. Brakes were hydraulically operated drums all around.[8]
The custom bodies placed on these cars were often too heavy for the chassis, leading to collapsing Dubonnet suspensions and shearing rear transmission half-shafts. Wet-weather handling was considered unpredictable. A shortage of time and money for development may have been a cause of the 175’s failure.[3] Delahaye’s reputation for solidity took a serious hit in consequence, and although Delahaye managed to introduce the more modern 235 in 1951, the company did not survive much longer.[9] Delahaye and Delage combined production dropped from 511 in 1949 to 41 in 1952 and 36 in 1953.
ManufacturerDelahaye
Production1948–1951
ClassLuxury car
LayoutFR layout
Engine4,455 cc type 183 I6
Transmission4-speed pre-selector (Cotal)
RelatedDelahaye 135
TЕХНИЧЕСКИЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ
ПРОИЗВОДИТЕЛЬ: Delahaуe
СТРАНА:Франция
ВИД И ТИП:Легковой Кабриолет
ГОД ВЫПУСКА:1948
ВСЕГО ВЫПУЩЕНО:51
ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ДВИГАТЕЛЯ:6 цилиндров
МАКСИМАЛЬНАЯ СКОРОСТЬ:160 км./ч
.ГАБАРИТЫ:4800 (длина) мм
СНАРЯЖЕННАЯ МАССА:2,080 тонн
КОЛЕСНАЯ БАЗА:2950 мм
ОБЪЕМ ДВИГАТЕЛЯ:4455 см3
МОЩНОСТЬ ДВИГАТЕЛЯ:150 л.с.
Первый показ автомобиля этой модели на Парижском автосалоне 1946 года произвел сенсацию. Дорогой, комфортабельный кабриолет с экстравагантным дизайном явно не предназначался французской публике, а был разработан с расчетом на экспорт за океан. Но и там его дебют не был удачным.
ИСТОРИЯ МОДЕЛИ
Компания Delahaye представила свою первую послевоенную модель на Парижском автосалоне в 1946 году. В отличие от большинства автопроизводителей, показавших слегка модернизированные довоенные модели или новые, но простые по конструкции и дешевые (что и требовало обнищавшее европейское население), компания Delahaye поразила всех, представив роскошный и дорогой седан с оригинальным по дизайну кузовом, впоследствии оказавшим большое влияние на работы художников – конструкторов из разных стран. Выпуск автомобиля начался в 1948 году. Рамное шасси с 6-цилиндровым, 4,4-литровым двигателем, разработанным на основе старого, 3,6-литрового, было дополнено кузовом французского кузовного ателье Figoni & Falaschi и отличалось применением новой пружинной независимой передней подвески типа , а также использованием подвески задних колес типа . Тормоза получили гидропривод, а в салоне были установлены отопитель и радиоприемник. Предлагались варианты как с лево-, так и с правосторонним рулевым управлением. Автомобиль планировали экспортировать в страны, не пострадавшие от Второй Мировой войны, но эта цель так и не была достигнута. Всего за 4 года (1948 – 1951 г.г.) собрали не более 150 автомобилей, а с кузовом кабриолет был выпущен всего 51 экземпляр.
ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ
Практически каждый из выпущенных экземпляров имел оригинальный открытый или закрытый, стальной или алюминиевый кузов, изготовленный фирмами Henry Chapron, Guillore, Figoni & Falaschi, Saoutchik и др. Двигатель с 7-опорным коленчатым валом представлял собой мотор 135 модели с увеличенными диаметрами цилиндров. По желанию покупателя он поставлялся в двух исполнениях: с мощностью 125 и 140 л.с. Коробка передач Cotal с электромагнитным переключением ступеней в планетарном механизме существенно облегчала работу водителя. Подвеска обеспечивала высокую плавность хода, при этом в качестве упругих элементов спереди применялись винтовые пружины. Сзади у зависимой подвески типа (при жестком закреплении к кузову картера главной передачи) упругими элементами служили две полуэллиптические рессоры. Качающиеся полуоси в подобной конструкции проходили через отверстия в лонжеронах рамы.
1999 Packard V-12 Sedan
Image by aldenjewell
Wikipedia says:
Resurrection of Packard name
Packard® Motor Car Company, a registered Arizona Corporation, is the registered owner of the Packard Name Trademark for automobiles and parts. The Company uses the trademark by licensing various companies to use the Packard name, and the Company also manufactures and markets Packard branded automobile parts.[17]
The Company answers e-mails and phone calls on a daily basis from people wanting information about Packard, past and present. The Company assists people and companies world wide, requesting specific Packard parts and puts them in touch with suppliers.[18]
In 1995, Roy and Barbara Gullickson purchased the rights to the Packard name and, subsequently, had the company design and build a new V12-powered luxury sedan, hoping to attract support for short-run manufacturing China. The enterprise has been promoted on a website[19] which details the prototype, featuring an overhead-valve, fuel injected 525 cu in (8,600cc) all-aluminum V12 engine. The car was shown at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2003. The 1998 prototype and Company, such that it was, were put up for sale in 2008. As with the Avanti Motor Corporation around the same time, there were interested parties, but no eventual takers. Both remain in limbo, the last great remains of a distilled empire, Studebaker-Packard Corporation, once the 75th largest corporation in the United States.
Renault 4 CV
Image by pedrosimoes7
Belem, Lisbon, Portugal
in Wikipedia
The Renault 4CV is an economy car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947 to July 1961. As the first French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was ultimately superseded by the Renault Dauphine.
The 4CV was a four-door sedan of monocoque construction,[1] 3.6 meters in length with rear suicide doors[3] and using Renault’s Ventoux engine in a rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout.
The car’s name, 4CV, translates from the French for four cheveaux or four horse, specifically four taxable horsepower.
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of the 4CV, in 1996 Renault presented a fully roadworthy concept car, the Renault Fiftie, with styling that recalled the 4CV, only in a two-door, mid-engine design.
Conception and history
The 4CV was originally conceived and designed covertly by Renault engineers during the German occupation of France during World War II, when the manufacturer was under strict orders to design and produce only commercial and military vehicles. A design team led by Fernand Picard, Charles-Edmond Serre and Jean-Auguste Riolfo envisioned a small, economical car suitable for the economically difficult years which would inevitably follow the war.
The first prototype was completed in 1942 and two more prototypes were produced in the following three years. Pierre Lefaucheux tested the 4 CV prototype at Renault’s Herqueville estate.[4] The 4CV was ultimately presented to the public and media at the 1946 Paris Motor Show. The cars went on sale a year later.
In 1940 Louis Renault had directed his engineering China team to “make him a car like the Germans”. And until the arrangement was simplified in 1954, the 4CV featured a ‘dummy’ grill comprising six thin horizontal chrome strips, intended to distract attention from the similarity of the car’s overall architecture to that of the German Volkswagen,[1] while recalling the modern designs of the fashionable front engined passenger cars produced in Detroit during the earlier 1940s.
An important part of the 4CV’s success, owes to the new methodologies used in its manufacture, pioneered by Pierre Bézier. Bézier had begun his 42 year tenure at Renault as a Tool Setter, moving up to Tool Designer and then becoming head of the Tool Design Office. As Director of Production Engineering China in 1949, he designed the transfer lines (or transfer machines) producing most of the mechanical parts for the 4CV.[5] The transfer machines were high-performance work tools designed to machine engine blocks. While imprisoned during WWII, Bézier developed and improved on the automatic machine principle, introduced before the war by GM (General Motors). The new transfer station with multiple workstations and electromagnetic heads (antecedants to robots), enabled different operations on a single part to be consecutively performed by transferring the part from one station to another.
On the 4CV’s launch, it was nicknamed “La motte de beurre”(the lump of butter) — due to the combination of its shape and the fact that early deliveries all used surplus paint from the German Army vehicles of Rommel’s Afrika-Corps, in a sand-yellow color.[1] The 4CV was initially powered by a 760cc rear mounted four-cylinder engine coupled to a three-speed manual transmission. [7] In 1950 the 760cc unit was replaced by a 747cc version [7] of the “Ventoux” engine producing 17 hp (13 kW).
Despite an initial period of uncertainty and poor sales due to the ravaged state of the French economy, the 4CV had sold 37,000 units by mid-1949 and was the most popular car in France. The car remained in production for more than a decade afterwards. Claimed power output increased subsequently to 21 hp (16 kW) as increased fuel octanes allowed for higher compression ratios, which along with the relatively low weight of the car (620 kg) enabled the manufacturers to report an 0 – 90 km/h (56 mph) time of 38 seconds and a top speed barely under 100 km/h (62 mph).[1] The engine was notable also for its elasticity, the second and top gear both being usable for speeds between 5 km/h (3 mph) and 100 km/h (62 mph): the absence of synchromesh on first gear would presumably have discouraged use of the bottom gear except when starting from rest.
The rear mounting of the engine meant that the steering could be highly geared while remaining relatively light: in the early cars only 2¼ turns were needed from lock to lock.[1] The unusually direct steering no doubt delighted some keen drivers, but road tests of the time nonetheless included warnings to take great care with the car’s handling on wet roads.[1] In due course the manufacturers switched from one extreme to the other, and on later cars 4½ turns were needed to turn the steering wheel from lock to lock.
The 4CV’s direct replacement was the Dauphine, launched in 1956, but the 4CV in fact remained in production until 1961. The 4CV was replaced by the Renault 4 which used the same engine as the 4CV and sold for a similar price.
Although most of the cars were assembled at Renault’s Île Seguin plant located on an island in the river opposite Billancourt, the 4CV was also assembled in seven other countries, being Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, Japan (where the Hino assembled examples gained a reputation for superior quality[1]), Spain and South Africa.[1] 1,105,543 cars were produced; the 4CV became the first French car to sell over a million.
The 4CV was easily modified and was used extensively as a racing car. The first collaboration between the Alpine company and Renault was the Alpine A-106 which was based on the 4CV. The partnership which would go on to win the World Rally Championship with the legendary Alpine A-110 in later years,