Delahaye

Delahaye, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Founded in 1894, Delahaye is probably best known for the almost impossibly outlandish exotics that coachbuilders such as Figoni et Falaschi and Chapron built in the pre-war years. But, the company also built slightly more down to earth cars, with graceful coachwork that is still capable of winning beauty contests today. Interestingly, Delahaye was also one of France's major truck manufacturers, a line that continued after the Second World War. In fact, Delahaye's biggest earner was a Jeep-like vehicle built for the French Army! Eventually the company merged with Hotchkiss (another French truck manufacturer with a sideline in cars), which discontinued Delahaye's car manufacturing arm, ending a run of over fifty years.

Bugatti

Bugatti Type 59, originally uploaded by William 74.

With a history that dates back to 1909, Bugatti has quite possibly the best pedigree in automobiledom. "Proper" Bugattis were among, if not the, most exotic cars of their time, and often times the fastest as well. Cars such as the Type 35, the Type 57 Atlantic, and the famous Royale were exclusive, fast, and beautifully designed and built. The cars were renowned for the high level of detail in their engineering, as well as the artistic way in which the designs were made metal. This exoticism came at a price, though-you couldn't just jump into a Bugatti, fire it up, and run down to the shops (or the club, as a Bugatti owner was far more likely to have someone to do the shopping for them). Finicky starting procedures and specialized maintenance was the rule for these highly strung sports cars. This one happens to be a Type 59 Grand Prix racer from the late 30's. It is ridiculously quick and sounds amazing.

So, apropos of nothing, do you like what you see here? Know someone who likes to look at fabtastic photos of awesomeriffic cars? Then hustle on over to Doug's Used Cars, where you'll find images like this one, for sale even, to fill the blank space on the wall of that gearhead in your life. Don't know a gearhead? No problem! We've got other stuff over there too!