8 replies to this topic

[mzvztag]

Today it's exactly 100 years since the greatest race of all times.

And 100 years on, Mercedes is winning again and today's World Cup match also fits :-)

 

But anyway, this is to Christian Lautenschlager and Georges Boillot!

[ensign14]

I wrote something about the race a while ago...

 

The ACF gave Szisz the honour of starting first.   Felice Nazzaro had gone the constructor route, and took the wheel of one of his own, forcing Fiat to take on a couple of unknowns to team up with Cagno.  Delage, Sunbeam and Vauxhall all entered Grand Prix cars (Jean Chassagne had been third for Sunbeam in the previous year’s race) - Ralph de Palma had been tabbed as a Mercedes driver, but somehow ended up with Vauxhall - and there were assorted oddities from Switzerland and Belgium.  The heroic manufacturers were also almost all gone; no more Bayard, Brasier, Hotchkiss...adieu.

Szisz was followed successively by Joerns in an Opel, Léon Elskamp in a Nagant, Hancock in a Vauxhall and, fifth, the idol, Georges Boillot.  And Boillot was duly the first back in front of the pits.  A clear lead, surely?  Next was a white car.  Joerns?  No.  It was Sailer.  Who had number 14.  A quick check of the clocks and it was clear that Sailer was just about ahead...

Boillot found out at the end of his second lap, by which time Sailer had increased his lead.  Boillot therefore poured it on anew.  To no avail, the unknown neophyte Sailer was even further ahead.  By lap five Sailer had Boillot in his sights and by lap six had overtaken the French hero.  On track.

This was utterly impossible.  What on earth was happening?  Boillot pressed on, and on, and got his reward.  Sailer overstressed his car with Boillot so close.  Out.  But his hare job was done.  Boillot’s car was also tired.

The problem was Lautenschlager was now in second, and Wagner and Salzer were also lying in wait.  Boillot in the lead and Goux in third were the hopes of France.  And both had a problem.  Both Boillot and Goux had started ahead of Lautenschlager and could only track themselves against him in retrospect, not knowing his times for any lap until they came back around 20 minutes later.  And Salzer, Wagner and Pilette were the last three starters of all.  Pilette at least crashed out, but there was no way of dealing with the others.

The race was 20 laps.  Lap 15, Boillot led by two and a half minutes.  Lap 17, Boillot led by seconds.  By lap 18, Lautenschlager led and Wagner was in third.  The cruellest blow of all came on the very final lap.  A valve, a stupid ridiculous valve, failed on Boillot’s car.  He did not even have the satisfaction of the runner’s up position.

First, Lautenschlager, 7 hours 8 minutes 18 seconds.  Second, Wagner, a minute and a half back.  Third, Salzer, five minutes back.  Fourth, Goux, five minutes behind Salzer.  Then Resta’s Sunbeam another ten minutes back, ex-Mathis designer Esser in a Nagant sixth and the rest nowhere.  

It was an absolute disaster for France.  The best the French had to offer had been up against the best Germany had to offer.

And been destroyed.

Within months they were at war.

[Vitesse2]

The French took the defeat well, of course This is from the front page of Le Matin the next day.

 

[David Birchall]

I posted th is response to a similar discussion some years ago-and I am not going to retype it!

 

If you would care to search "Ralph DePalma and Vauxhall" here on TNF you will, hopefully, find a  description of the difference between Mercedes approach and Vauxhall's to the 1914 GP.

 

It will not transfer for me...

[D-Type]

I posted th is response to a similar discussion some years ago-and I am not going to retype it!

 

If you would care to search "Ralph DePalma and Vauxhall" here on TNF you will, hopefully, find a  description of the difference between Mercedes approach and Vauxhall's to the 1914 GP.

 

It will not transfer for me...

 

This one I think

 

http://forums.autosp...l/#entry1779919

Edited by D-Type, 05 July 2014 - 12:01.

[Michael Ferner]

Also think of Bert Dingley, who drove his very last race on this day, not knowing that a hundred years later many would regard him as the first AAA National Champion ever.

And, there were the Duesenberg brothers from Germany, who won their first big race in the new world...

[arttidesco]

While we are waving the MB flag, was it not also 60 years ago yesterday that JM Fangio won the French Grand Prix aboard the W196 Streamliner with his team mate Karl Kling close behind  ?

[byrkus]

It was, yes. I have for some time now considered july 4th as a sort of 'day of destinv for german sport'. Like - French GP 1914, French GP 1954, 1954 WC finals on same day (known as "wonder of Bern"), 1990 WC (when Germany bet England on penalties), and of course 2014 WC, when Germans beat the French (those two just can't avoid each other...).

 

When it comes to July 4th, Germans just can't lose...

[Roger Clark]

I wrote something about the race a while ago...

 

The ACF gave Szisz the honour of starting first.   Felice Nazzaro had gone the constructor route, and took the wheel of one of his own, forcing Fiat to take on a couple of unknowns to team up with Cagno.  Delage, Sunbeam and Vauxhall all entered Grand Prix cars (Jean Chassagne had been third for Sunbeam in the previous year’s race) - Ralph de Palma had been tabbed as a Mercedes driver, but somehow ended up with Vauxhall - and there were assorted oddities from Switzerland and Belgium.  The heroic manufacturers were also almost all gone; no more Bayard, Brasier, Hotchkiss...adieu.

Szisz was followed successively by Joerns in an Opel, Léon Elskamp in a Nagant, Hancock in a Vauxhall and, fifth, the idol, Georges Boillot.  And Boillot was duly the first back in front of the pits.  A clear lead, surely?  Next was a white car.  Joerns?  No.  It was Sailer.  Who had number 14.  A quick check of the clocks and it was clear that Sailer was just about ahead...

 

I don't know whether it was intended but this gives the impression that the cars were started singly.  In fact, they were started in pairs: Szisz and Joerns started together then Elskamp and so on.