Entrepreneur Laurent Tapie is raising the legendary marque from the grave…
In 1874 Pierre Louis Adolphe Delage was born in the verdant countryside of Cognac, France. Among some of the finest vineyards in the world, this watchmaker’s son studied the sciences, graduating from the nearby Ecole des Arts & Métiers with an engineering degree. After securing a financial backer in 1905, he founded Delage, which would go on to find great fame in the world of motorsports. With a fleet of hand-built, V12-powered racers, Delage would claim Grand Prix wreaths and world speed records, peaking in 1927 when his Type 15 S 8 crossed four European Grand Prix checkered flags, winning his eponymous nameplate the World Championship and the Légion d’Honneur for his driver Robert Benoist. Sadly, the halcyon years would be short-lived.
Despite building some of the most luxurious and expensive cars the world had ever seen, the knockout combo of the Great Depression and World War II conspired to kill the marque. By the early ’50s, after being sold to peers Delahaye, Delage faded to black.
Until today, that is. “Because I’m French, Delage was really an obvious choice,” Laurent Tapie explains from his headquarters in Magny-Cours. A serial entrepreneur, the son of businessman and politician Bernard Tapie — best known for reviving the moribund Adidas in the early 90s, and being owner of the Champions League winning Olympique de Marseille football club — has charged himself with resurrecting the storied marque. “The only two brands in French history that were ever world champion in Grand Prix are Bugatti and Delage, no one else,” he reminds us. “Delage set several world records of speed, and in the first half of the 20th Century won more Prix d’Elegance than any other brand in the world.”
However, “Nobody remembers that France used to be the number one country for luxury cars until the Second World War,” he notes with a hint of exasperation. “We were selling more prestigious cars than the English, the German, the Italians. We were number one!” Speaking with Tapie for only 20 minutes, it quickly becomes apparent his goal is not just to return the nameplate to the apex of global motoring, but the French flag as well. “Delage still remains one of the most prestigious brands in history,” he urges, “we just need to relive this past, and remind people of it.”
Luckily for Tapie, the vehicle he wants to spearhead this Gallic resurgence, his Delage D12, has all the ammo necessary to lead the charge. First off, the heavy artillery: powered by a gargantuan 7.6-litre, 12-cylinder engine fully developed in-house, the naturally-aspirated lump’s 990-hp come coupled to an electric motor with 110-hp of its own to create an asphalt-melting 1,100-hp.
Secondly, its nimble feet: the D12 sports a very expensive and rare F1-style pushrod suspension, a system that revolutionised Formula One two decades ago but is still so cost prohibitive that no other hypercar utilises one. And even if they could afford to, French engineer Mauro Biancchi, who holds the patent, granted Delage exclusive rights for road-legal cars. “Nobody else has it on a street-legal car, so it was one of the cool things I wanted the D12 to have,” says Tapie. Finally there’s the D12’s biggest innovation: a central seating position. Its twin seats come positioned one behind the other, as in a fighter jet, a geometry that offers unparalleled balance and vision — separating the hypercar from just about everything but perhaps McLaren’s fabled F1.
“The emotion has been there since I’m a boy, because I’m truly passionate about cars,” Tapie reveals, sharing how racing since the age of 20 lends the CEO an advantage — largely from how well he’s versed in the competition. Despite being a longtime fan of Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, et al, Tapie knew none quite appealed to him, at least not as a visionary. He credits (blames?) his stratospheric standards on winning a Porsche-organised amateur race in 1996 where the first place prize was driving an actual Formula One car.
“It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life,” he recalls wistfully, “and nothing I’ve ever driven since, even the very recent supercars that are 700- or 800-horsepower, can approach the feeling when I drove it.” Palpably excited by the memory, he continues, “The will to create a kind of road-legal Formula One car was born that day, [though] honestly I never thought I would actually build one.” He adds that, “If you have ever driven a car from the central position, you never want to go back to a side of the car,” he promises. “The D12 has been conceived to be the closest street-legal car ever to a Formula One.”
Since the D12’s conception, its success has hinged on one single goal: setting the world record lap time around the Nürburgring. As arguably the most coveted accolade in the automotive landscape, lapping the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife challenges a vehicle holistically in a way that no other single metric can. Notching this record would be final proof for Tapie that his D12 is worthy of the Delage name, of its robust heritage, and of waving the Tricolore flag.
“I am extremely confident that we’re going to beat [the record],” he states unwaveringly, “and we’re going to beat it by several seconds, not just one or two.” This supreme confidence is built upon some of motorsport’s most basic tenets, pointing out the D12 has more power than both the current (Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series) and previous (Lamborghini Aventador SVJ) record holder. It is also lighter than both, the prime combo of racing superiority. And then throw in the pushrod’s unique suspension, and the fact that it has more than double the downforce of its competitors.
It’s clear the Frenchman seems to think he has all the necessary elements to turn this goal into reality. But raw ingredients won’t suffice; to prepare the D12 for this ultimate test, the final stage of the US$2.3 million hybrid hypercar’s development will mean handing the keys over to famed F1 Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Simply because Tapie believes only a world-class driver — not an engineer — can orchestrate and balance all these parameters into one symphonic package.
Tapie learned this lesson from a vehicle he says is the best street car he’s ever driven: the Ferrari F430 Scuderia. The reason being that arguable F1 G.O.A.T. (all respect due to Lewis Hamilton) Michael Schumacher famously orchestrated the balance of that super machine, and its epiphany is the difference between a driver- and an engineer-led setup. “It’s very hard to explain but the Scuderia is a car that is alive. You make one lap with it and you end up with a smile on your face; you feel like the car and yourself are one body together,” he states. “I’ve never felt that in any other car, and that’s what I want from the D12.”
As only the third driver (after legends Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi) in all motorsports history to win a Formula One World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the CART/Indy- Car Championship, Villeneuve is the man Tapie believes can get the job done. “Jacques has a very great knowledge and feeling of the cars,” he muses. “One of the reasons he was World Champion and was able to beat Michael Schumacher was because he knew how to make the setup so him and the car can be one together. So that’s what I want him to do with the Delage. I will be happy once he gets out of the D12 and he says, Now, it feels like a Formula One.”
This past August the D12 finally made its American debut at Monterey Car Week, and as expected the otherworldly hypercar left many a potential customer slack-jawed. “We received many more people than we expected, with an incredible enthusiasm on the design — many visitors told us the D12 was the most beautiful car shown this year,” Tapie shares happily. “I was thrilled to hear some visitors saying ‘I did not know Delage but a friend saw your car and told me I had to come by your stand.’”
The fully functional D12 prototype will be shown early this year, with European clients testing the car first, followed by America. As orders are confirmed, D12s will be configured in spring 2022 with first deliveries scheduled for Q1 of 2023. As Tapie enthuses about the reception in Monterey, “perhaps most importantly we pre-sold several cars — which of course was the primary objective.” ■
By NICOLAS STECHER
Photography by ROBERT KERIAN
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