The Delage D12 wants to break a ‘Ring record

Those of you with beards may have heard of Delage, a French manufacturer of racing (and later, luxury) cars that was hugely successful in its day, but ceased to exist around 1954. Now it’s back, thanks to entrepreneur Laurent Tapie.

The ambition? To build a hypercar that gets as close “to the sensation of driving a Formula One car” as possible, and while it’s at it nab the record for the fastest road-legal car to ever lap the Nürburgring. Bold.

Tapie wants to build around 30 D12s starting next year, with prices starting at a not insignificant $2.3million. Apparently two have already been sold. Power will come from a 7.6-litre V12 engine, supposedly developed in-house, supported by an electric motor for a total of 1,100bhp in the range-topping GT. The lesser-powered D12 ‘Club’ will be lighter and quicker around a track. Both get an eight-speed automated manual transmission. 1997 F1 World champion Jacques Villeneuve has signed-on as test driver, with Delage claiming the development team has 16 "FIA World Champion titles" between them. 

Construction is mainly carbon-fibre, with the D12 employing tandem-style seating like the Czinger 21C and a proper canopy instead of, y’know, doors. Anyone else seeing shades of Caparo T1 in its design?

The fastest street-legal car to ever lap the Nürburgring remains the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, which clocked a 6:44:97 way back in 2018. Beatable? Certainly, but will Delage be the ones to do it?

More as we have it.