4x4s.org DELAHAYE · HISTORY · MILITARY

History · Military · 1950 → 1969

The VLR in French service

Slightly more than 4,000 ordered after trials in late 1950, out of 9,621 built — and replaced by the Hotchkiss M201 within a decade.

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The VLR is the clearest case in the registry of a better vehicle losing to a simpler one. Independent suspension and an aluminium body gave it a ride and a turn of speed the Jeep could not match, and cost it the contract: complexity that a conscript army could not maintain, and differential locks that were blamed for accidents and taken out.

Delahaye was absorbed by Hotchkiss in 1954 — the company already building the Willys Jeep under licence in France. The M201 that replaced the VLR came from its new parent.

1 chapters, 1948 → today

1Trials and service (1950–1960s)1950 – 1969
194819601975199020052025
11950 – 1969

Trials and service (1950–1960s)

3 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTER

The army order, Indochina and North Africa, and the locks removed.

Registry records · chapter 1

VLR (1951–54)1951–55VLR, French Army1951–60VLR without differential locks1953–60

Sources

  1. Delahaye VLR — Wikipedia

Military vehicles in the registry

3 records, oldest first.
VLR (1951–54)1951–55 · FranceVLR, French Army1951–60 · FranceVLR without differential locks1953–60 · France