Delaunay Bellevulle for sale
The Delaunay-Belleville automobile is best known as the car of choice for the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, known for his opulent tastes. Of the 30 or so automobiles in his luxurious garage in the early 1900s, Nicholas II was said to have loved the Delaunay-Belleville best for short trips and drives about town, while he preferred his faster Mercedes automobiles for longer trips. In many instances, the Russian monarch also preferred driving the cars himself and old photographs show him next to his Delaunay-Belleville automobiles.Made in France, Delaunay-Belleville cars had a reputation for being built with only the finest materials and superior craftsmanship. Other rulers with a fondness for them included King Alphonso XIII of Spain and King George I of Greece. The infamous French gangster, Jules Bonnot, also reportedly used a Delaunay-Belleville in some of his hold-ups.
Louis Delaunay and Marius Barbarou founded the company in Saint-Denis, France in 1903. Delaunay had married the daughter of Julien Belleville, a maker of marine boilers and then succeeded Belleville as head of the company. Several years later, he went on to form the Delaunay-Belleville company with Marius Barbarou, who had been a designer at various auto manufacturing companies, including Benz. Barbarou had a background in boilers as well.
The first model appeared at the Paris Salon exhibition in 1904. In addition to hand craftsmanship, Delaunay-Belleville automobiles were distinguished by an inline-six cylinder engine, although some had four cylinders. Many also featured a rounded engine compartment in the front, a design that echoed the boilermaker background of the two founders. And Delaunay-Belleville automobiles were the first to feature a mechanized system of pumps for oil lubrication, as opposed to the drip system, which was standard for automobiles of the day.
Like many companies of the early 1900s, any ounce of opulence gave way to the deprivation of the First World War and then The Great Depression. The Delaunay-Belleville automobile lost its luster and the company turned to truck and military production. Car production continued, but it declined, even after the release of a new Delaunay-Belleville RI-6 model after the war. By 1948, production at Delaunay-Belleville had been reduced to just four cars a year. Later that year, the factory was sold to the French automaker Robert de Rovin, who used it to manufacture mini cars.
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