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The Delahaye is like a diamond ring on a satin pillow...

Just looked again at the first photo and it appears to have a Cord-like preselect transmission lever but on the left side of the Column??

Yes, they have a preselect that looks like the Cord but it's quite a different type of transmission, it's a Cotal epicyclic transmission and the shifts are accomplished by electromagnetic clutches. I believe the gearing is all planetary but I'm not absolutely certain of that, I've seen a number of them apart but never undertook careful notice of all the details. See below for a little more info on Cotals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preselector_gearbox

Peugeot also offered the Cotal transmission in the mid 60's, without much success. They later switched to a ZF type, for what it's worth. I was at one time consumed with Peugeots as well as Packards.....