The car known as “Project Sultan” is a work in progress. It’s based on a baby blue 1948 Delahaye Type 175s Coupé, a vehicle from the automotive era of over-the-top extravagance. The Delahaye (once owned by British film star Diana Dors - opens in new window or tab.), was shown at Pebble Beach in 2006. Few would argue with it being one of the most beautiful cars ever built, and the absolute epitome of streamlining. The homage vehicle is ready to be customized and completed for a new owner for the tidy Buy-It-Now price of $150,000 on eBay Motors.
The car that inspired the homage: Ron Benach’s 1948 Delahaye at Pebble Beach in 2006.
Terry Cook - opens in new window or tab., the former editor of Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines, founded Delahaye USA, the company that builds tributes to such prized cars as the 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atlantic. Cook is a skilled designer, having created “Scrape,” an iconic customized Lincoln Zephyr coupé. Cook wanted to build a Delahaye but was too busy to take on a new project. Instead, he hired Ford Senior Exterior Designer John Caswell to do it for him.
Terry Cook’s “Scrape,” a radically re-imagined 1938 Lincoln Zephyr, sold for $275,000 in 2000.
Starting with Caswell’s drawings, a quarter-scale clay model was built in Detroit, and the results were digitized. A steel body was then hammered out from a wooden buck (the traditional way to build cars) in Thailand.
The car was designed by Ford’s John Caswell, who took design cues from a Saoutchik-bodied 1948 Delahaye 175s.
The 18-foot-long body was subsequently shipped to San Bernadino, Calif., where the car’s exterior brass body trim was hand-formed. From there, it was shipped to New Jersey, where further brass trim, the grille, windshield frame, trim and interior details are being fabricated.
The Bentley inline six made it into 2,500 R-Types, and is well supported on eBay Motors.
Delahaye USA now wants to complete the project for a new owner. The company describes the vehicle-in-process as “easily the most spectacular undertaking of all the cars designed and created by Delahaye USA.”
Under the primer-painted steel body is a restored 1953 Bentley chassis, with modern independent front suspension and a Ford rear end. The engine is a rebuilt inline-six Bentley with a matching automatic transmission. The unfinished interior features a unique design—a single driver’s seat with a wrap-around couch. The trunk is to have fitted luggage (as did many custom cars in the 1940s and ‘50s) and the front has a hidden spare tire well.
The interior is going to look like this, with a single driver’s seat and a matching couch.
The project comes with five wheels and wide-white tires. Though much of this car is custom made, it’s based on tried-and-true mechanicals. In 1953, Bentley was attempting to go mainstream with the R-Type, which was sold with a standard steel body. Some 2,500 of these cars, close cousins to the more-scarce Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn, were built. eBay Motors offers 1952-1954 R-Type cars and parts. The Ford 9-inch rear, and its parts and complete assemblies - opens in new window or tab., are abundant.
The side view shows off the car’s radical streamlining.
Much of the hard work on this custom car has been done. With the photos and renderings displayed in the eBay Motors listing for Delahaye’s Sultan project, it’s easy to imagine how stunning the vehicle will be when completed.
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