The large displacement Delage was not re-introduced after the war, but the D6-70 continued, in low numbers, until Delahaye ceased to exist at the end of 1954.

The 3045 cc engine of the original D6 placed it in the 17CV car tax band which, for many contemporaries, would also have defined its position in the market hierarchy.

During its long production run the car underwent a succession of changes, many of which involved enlargement or modification of the six-cylinder engine.

Delage took a traditional view of its role as a car producer, and provided cars in bare chassis form to have their bodies fitted by one of the more prestigious bespoke body builders operating (in most cases) in the Paris area which reflected the way that most of France's auto-industry had, from the earliest days, been concentrated on this one region.

The other two were the slightly lighter (but still six-cylinder powered) DS and, at the top of the range, the very large D8 launched the previous year.

A complementary model, the D6-11, was presented at the 26th Paris Motor Show in October 1932, although production only got under way the following Spring.

The “-11” suffix referred to the fiscal horsepower which was a function of the cylinder diameters and determined the level of annual car tax to be paid by owners in France.

[2] In 1935 Delage retained a separate management, but production was transferred to the Delahaye factory, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.

The D6-70 seems to have been the star of the Delage 6-cylinder range at this time, with some particularly elegant bodies provided such as the “Coach Panoramique” 2-door sports saloon from Letourneur & Marchand, a Chapron cabriolet bodied car depicted in the 1937 Delage catalogue and a particularly well balanced “Berline” (saloon/sedan) from Autobineau.

[4] Many things had changed in the intervening years, but post-war Delages, like the Delahayes, still had their steering wheels on the right,[5] something which would have been mainstream in France thirty years earlier, but which now very firmly set the high-luxury end cars apart from the Peugeots, Renaults, Citroëns, Panhards, and Simcas that many French citizens would have seen daily on the roads, and which the more fortunate among them might have aspired to drive or purchase.

[4] Performance would have varied according to the weight and shape of the body fitted, but a top speed of approximately 135 km/h (84 mph) was quoted by the manufacturer.

[5] The bespoke body builders had less work now than in the 1930s, but their craft based methods enabled them to respond more immediately to new styling trends than the volume automakers, and many of the Delages from the late 1940s and early 1950s look strangely modern when compared to the early post war products from Renault, Peugeot and Citroën.

The coach builders were willing and able more immediately to copy and build on the developments in car design that during the early 1940s had been more apparent in North America than in Europe.

[4][5] The Delage D6 3-litre was listed as part of the Delahaye-Delage range till 1954: it is thought that the last of the cars, in bare chassis form, were constructed during the closing months of 1953, but the final batch were still available for purchase during 1954, most of them bodied by Chapron.

The political context and the state of the post-war French economy were hostile to large cars in France.

By 1955 Delahaye had been taken over by Hotchkiss whose own business now survived, at least for the time being, not from producing luxury cars but on the basis of rebuilding and, by now increasingly building from scratch, Jeep based vehicles.

This gave rise to an output of 100 hp (74 kW), now with the engine spinning up to 4,500 rpm, and corresponding with a top speed of approximately 140 km/h (87 mph).