Delaugere (France) - AllCarIndex

Delaugure was a typical French regional firm, with sales largely made in the district of Orleans, south-west of Paris.
Jean-Pierre Delaugere established a carriage works in the middle of the 19th century, and his son Emile and great nephew Felix built a three-wheeler car in 1898, followed by a De Dion powered four-wheeler in 1900. Twins came in 1901 and fours in 1902, the engines being of Delaugere's own manufacture. In 1904 Maurice Clayatte joined the company, which became known as Delaugere-Clayette.
A wide range of cars from an 8/10 hp twin to a monstrous 80/100 hp four of 15 litres were made, as well as taxicabs and trucks. Some vehicles were sold as far afield as Romania, United States and Mexico, although the Delaugere-Clayette never became well known, even in France, and the company's products were seldom written up in the press.
In 1909 the factory employed 350 workers, and production ran at an average of two cars a day. 1913 saw the introduction of a sleeve-valve 15hp model using the patents of the Swiss designer Martin Fischer.
During World War 1 Delaugere-Clayette made army trucks and artillery shells, and in 1920 returned to car production with a range of conventional side-valve designs, a 2.2 litre four and 4.8 litre six. Overhead valves came in 1923, and front-wheel brakes in 1925, but the small company could not compete against the big French manufacturers such as Citroen, Peugeot and Renault.
In 1926 the factory was bought by Panhard for the manufacture of bodies, while spare parts for Delaugere-Clayette cars were made until 1931. The works later passed into the hands of Citroen when it purchased Panhard, and were demolished in 1973 to make way for a block of flats.