1944, until November 1945. Of the 51 cars built on the short, 2.95-meter wheelbase Type 175 chassis, 12 cars reportedly exist, most being the optional variant with three Solex 40-AiP carburetors, and chromed Rudge-Whitworth wire wheels. Those were the only factory options, limited to the Type 175S; but exceptions were made. Of the 38 Type 178s built on the median length, 3.15-meter wheelbase chassis, 7 are recorded as surviving. And, of the 18 long, 3.35-metre wheelbase Type 180 chassis, 6 survive. Charles Weiffenbach, the managing director of operations, who ran the company single-handedly since his appointment in 1906, devised the intentionally confused reference number strategy. His objective was to obfuscate the identity of the six evolutionary forerunners; and, the prototype. All seven would be surreptitiously liquidated, in early 1948, to recover some of the corporate developmental investment. The postwar front design was created by in-house industrial designer Philippe Charbonneaux, who developed the distinctive Delahaye "face". His effort provided the design of the entire front with a narrower, elongated, heart-shape grille with horizontal bars, and low horizontal grilles on each side. Delahaye required its coachbuilders to use the new frontal aspect although coachbuilders Joseph Figoni, Henri Chapron, Jacques Saoutchik, and Marcel Pourtout, obtained authorized artistic license. Development Although production officially started in early 1948 as announced, there were six pre-production units by 1946, known to select factory-workers and those with insiders' knowledge. There was also the experimental prototype that was the only example built in strict accordance with chief design-engineer Jean Francois' preliminary engineering drawings and specifications. Fernand Lacour, proprietor of The Wilson Garage, was a performance consultant to Delahaye. The six early units were referred to, as: 90001; 91001, 91002, 92001, 92002; and, the glitzy 1946-1949 Paris Auto Salon show-chassis, presented in optional Type 175S guise. The Type 175/178/180 prototype was not one of those six, having predated them by over two years, and kept aside for developmental reference. It was not numbered, nor otherwise identified, since as a prototype it was a one-off, unique, aberration. The prototype was eventually identified through research and discovered provenance documentation in 2014. Managing director Weiffenbach cleverly devised the intentionally convoluted reference-number strategy, to obscure the identity of the pre-production units,to differentiate them from the prototype. It took decades to determine Weiffenbach's strategy, to arrive at conclusions about what happened to the early pre-production chassis, and the prototype. All six evolutionary units were liquidated,