Historic French marque, once a formidable Bugatti rival, revived for wild 810kW V12 hybrid.
The Delage D12, a new hybrid hypercar from a revived historic marque, made its world debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend.
The wildly styled two-seater combines an electric motor and a naturally aspirated 7.6-litre V12 engine, which spat flames as it screamed up the hillclimb.
With a low, long, fighter jet-inspired body, it offers a “Formula 1 driving experience for the road”, a Delage spokesman told Automotive Daily Network partner Autocar at Goodwood.
The V12 produces 728kW at 8200rpm and 832Nm of torque at 6200rpm, while the electric motor makes 81kW in the road-going D12 GT or 15kW in the track-focused D12 Club. This yields respective combined outputs of 810kW and 1077Nm or 743kW and 884Nm.
Drive is sent to the rear wheels only by an eight-speed automatic transmission, with reverse handled by the electric motor.
The more potent D12 GT weighs 1390kg dry, while the D12 Club weighs 1300kg, giving it a power-to-weight ratio of up to 623kW per tonne.
Delage claims this will enable the latter to lap the Nürburgring 5.0sec faster, at 6min 40sec. An attempt at the road-legal production car lap record at the famous German circuit is scheduled for 2023. This is currently held by the 2018 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, at 6min 44.97sec.
Delage claims a 0-100km/h time of 2.6sec for the D12 GT and 2.9sec for the D12 Club, eventually reaching 300km/h in 20.2sec or 19.8sec. Top speed is said to be 393km/h.
The car is based around a central carbonfibre monocoque, with a frontal carbonfibre crash structure and an aluminium rear frame. The passenger sits behind the driver in tandem configuration.
It employs a unique contractive suspension set-up, as used to great success by McLaren and Ferrari in 1990s Formula 1, this system having been invented by Delage chassis and suspension chief Mauro Bianchi.
Bianchi works alongside technical director Benoit Bagur, who has a great amount of experience in rally car engineering, and chief test driver Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 champion.
The company boss is Laurent Tapie, a serial entrepreneur with a lifelong passion for cars, while the president of honour is Patrick Delage. He is the great-grandson of Louis Delage, who founded his company in 1905, going on to record grand prix success in the 1920s and sell pioneering luxury cars. It never recovered from the hiatus of the Second World War, eventually ending production in 1954.
Delage is based at a technology park by the F1 circuit in Magny-Cours in central France, where it works with partners including Ace, Aisan, Danielson, Exagon and Oreca.
Tapie has previously told French media that Delage also has plans for its historic Courbevoie factory near Paris.
The road-registered D12 present at Goodwood was the first completed prototype. Delage plans to build 30 cars, priced at €2 million (AUD$3 million).
Kris Kulmer
Keyword: Delage D12 hybrid hypercar set for Nurburgring lap record