12 replies to this topic

[kayemod]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but a TNF search didn't find anything, and none of the existing Mille Miglia threads seemed to fit. It's about the painting pictured, I photographed it on Friday at the Goodwood Bonhams auction, if anyone is interested, it eventually sold for £1000.00.

 

 

The caption tells us that it depicts Hans Herrmann and Herbert Linge in a Porsche 550 Spyder, taking part in the 1954 Mille Miglia. If the painting is accurate, it looks like a close thing, especially if the steam engine was moving as appears to be the case. Looks like a risky operation, unless of course either Hans or Herbert had been along with a tape measure to check on crossing dimensions during a recce. Can anyone add to the story? I'd have thought it would have been written about at the time, today of course it would have been filmed, but I they wouldn't have had a Go-Pro fitted to the car back then.

[jtremlett]

It is mentioned in quite a lot of places (e.g. here: http://silodrome.com...che-550-spyder/ and here http://www.sportscardigest.com/celebrating-the-85th-birthday-of-hans-herrmann-in-photos/ and here http://type550.com/history/special-spyders/doom-or-boom-gate/ with reference to the painting in question). Whether that makes it true or not is another question...

Jonathan

[D-Type]

I have read the story of Hermann driving the Porsche under the barrier, but there was no reference to the oncoming train being in sight.  

 

I suspect that there is an element of artistic licence in the picture.  A bit like Cuneo's Blue Train Bentley painting - apparently the train and the [correct] Bentley were never in the same place at the same time

[Mekola]

Specially, the main thing I know from 1954 Mille Miglia that it was the last of Alberto Ascari's major wins.

[JoBo]

I have read the story of Hermann driving the Porsche under the barrier, but there was no reference to the oncoming train being in sight.  

 

 

 

Yes, this painting shows more a "made in Hollywood situation" of that what had really happened.

 

JoBo

[TimRTC]

Excellent painting, although it might be considered slanderous to the driver!

 

Barriers in Europe don't usually close until the last minute, but even then I imagine this is a little too close.

 

My understanding of the story always was that Herrmann chose to go through, more because they were simply too close the barriers as they were closing to safely stop without possibly damaging the car, than as a life endangering attempt to save some time in the race. But then maybe I have read more into the story than is really known.

[Allan Lupton]

  A bit like Cuneo's Blue Train Bentley painting - apparently the train and the [correct] Bentley were never in the same place at the same time

When the so-called Blue Train Bentley was on the Goodwood live stream, the commentator told us lots of unlikely stories about the Blue Train run without once mentioning that it is now thought that the Speed Six used was probably a Mulliner saloon and not the Gurney Nutting coupé

[D-Type]

Excellent painting, although it might be considered slanderous to the driver!

 

Barriers in Europe don't usually close until the last minute, but even then I imagine this is a little too close.

 

My understanding of the story always was that Herrmann chose to go through, more because they were simply too close the barriers as they were closing to safely stop without possibly damaging the car, than as a life endangering attempt to save some time in the race. But then maybe I have read more into the story than is really known.

That 's my understanding as to what happened.  So I'll stick with the 'artistic licence' argument.

 

When the so-called Blue Train Bentley was on the Goodwood live stream, the commentator told us lots of unlikely stories about the Blue Train run without once mentioning that it is now thought that the Speed Six used was probably a Mulliner saloon and not the Gurney Nutting coupé

The programme gives the true story - at least as far as it goes.  It says that Barnato took delivery of the Gurney Nutting coupé "shortly after" the wager-winning run.  I think I heard one of the commentators get the story right on one occasion.  But Bentley themselves have got it wrong.  Their FOS bumff says "The Bliue Train car at Godwood is the actual model that in 1930 the then Bentley Chairman, Capt. Woolf Barnato famously raced against the Calais-Mediterranée Express (the Blue Train) ~"  (My italics)
What Goodwood should have done is had both Speed Sixes there and told the true story (OK they could gloss over that a Rover Light Six had been the first to beat the train to Calais)

[Repco22]

      I thought the painting looked familiar so referred to a long-unopened, undated, book of Carlo Demand's drawings. His depiction of the incident is from a similar viewpoint. Both artists have the flaggie close to the crossing. I hope that copying from the book is acceptable. The description which is said to be in Hans Hermann's own words, makes interesting reading;

      "We had done about 200 miles or so since Brescia. The rev counter is showing the equivalent of about 120 mph when my co-driver tells me

that the next right-hander is a 100 mph one and 70 yards afterwards lurks a level crossing. Closed gates? Why should they be?

      The marshal who should indicate this with a red flag is nowhere to be seen. He is stationed long past the bend almost at the level crossing

and--the gates are shut! Braking is out of the question--so we crouch down in the car [the Porsche Spyder is very low] something whooshes

past overhead and we're through--a few inches in front of the train."

Edited by Repco22, 30 June 2015 - 12:33.

[Roger Clark]

I couldn't find any mention of the incident in contemporary magazines but it is mentioned in books by Karl Ludvigsen (Excellence Was Expected), Mike Lawrence (Mille Miglia) and Anthony Pritchard (Porsche Competition Cars). Apparently it happened in Chieti, the first town after the race turned inland at Pescara. All three books say that the oncoming train was very close. No doubt, everyone will have their own ideas about the seriousness and gullibility of these authors.

In case anybody doesn't know, Herbert Linge was a long-term employee of Porsche and a successful driver in the more serious sports-car races and rallies. Denis Jenkinson wrote that, after the 1959 Targa Florio, Linge and Paul Strahle drove the cars that finished third and fourth non- stop from Sicily to Stuttgart. There weren't many motorways in those days.

The cars were experimental 356s, fitted with 4-cam racing engines. The only work done since the race was to repair a broken sidelight, caused when Jenkinson and Jesse Alexander borrowed one for a few hours fun in the mountains. Linge and Stahle, with Eberhard Mahle, had finished second and fourth in the Targa - two cars shared between three drivers. They then drove the length of Italy, over the Gotthard Pass and through Switzerland and Germany. Porsche made tough cars and employed tough drivers.

[Ray Bell]

Roger, while you're on the case...

Didn't Jenkinson mention in his '55 Mille Miglia report that they checked the heights of these gates just in case they came across one closed in the race?

[Tim Murray]

Apparently the 300SLR wouldn't pass under the barriers without assistance. From DSJ's race report:

Although we occasionally saw a train steaming along in the distance we never came across any closed level-crossings, though if we had we had a remedy. In practice we had tried lifting the barrier, Italian gates being two long poles that lower across the road, and found that the slack on the operating cables was just sufficient to allow the car to be driven under the pole, much to the annoyance of the crossing-keeper. However, this did not arise ...

The Herrmann Porsche must have been a wee bit lower than a 300SLR.

[Allan Lupton]

Apparently the 300SLR wouldn't pass under the barriers without assistance. From DSJ's race report:


The Herrmann Porsche must have been a wee bit lower than a 300SLR.

I think it'd be the head fairings that made the difference.