Monday, November 11, 2019

1937 Delage Aérosport in the Studebaker Museum

In September I visited the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana where Studebaker cars and trucks were made for much of the firm's existence.

Not all the cars on display were Studebakers. Most surprising to me was a 1937 Delage D8 Aérosport coupé that was on loan from the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.  I wrote about Aérosports and related models here, so I thought it would be worthwhile to present a set of photos I took of the one in South Bend.  It is an impressive design.

Let's give it as much of a walkaround as its placement allowed.

Gallery

The exhaust pipes are only on the car's right side.

The cars pictured in my linked post all had bumpers, but they are lacking here.  Note the sculpting around the headlights.

After World War 2 Delage abandoned the traditional grille seen here.  That's a Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow in the left background.  For a few years Studebaker owned Pierce-Arrow.

Left side, sans exhaust pipes.

Rear quasi-quarter view showing the decorative, semi-faux tail fin.  I think it wasn't necessary, though a windsplit of some kind would have been.

Although this  Aérosport has a solid roof, the windsplit emerges well towards the rear: no carryover to the front, because the windshield is a flat, one-piece affair and not divided and V'd.  Note the sculpting at the rear.

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