8 replies to this topic

[Henk Vasmel]

I have just concluded a long discussion on a Dutch Facebook page about motor racing history in the Netherlands. It was about the Porsche 718/2 of Ecurie Maarsbergen, or Carel Godin de Beaufort.

In virtually all sources we see that he got killed in practice for the German GP 1964, using his regular car 718/2-01. Apart from that, he also had a "spare" car, 718/2-02. At first the question was, what happened to these cars, where are they now. Then someone described the car that had been in the Donington museum as the car that was crashed. However, that one is usually referred to as 718/2-02. So we started to look at old pictures, comparing details etc. and we came to the conclusion that it must have been 718/2-02 that was used that day.

I will not yet give away all the details that led to that conclusion, but first, I would like to ask if anyone here has more information that can support (or invalidate) our conclusion. And is there also anyone who knows why CGdB used his spare car that day?

[Nemo1965]

Henk, there is a film on Youtube, perhaps you have seen it, but on it, you can see the wreck of the car. Another thing: Godin De Beaufort was a youth friend of my mother and I was born in the year of his death. So we talked a lot about him, in our family. That is not important, but you write that he was 'killed during practice'. That is what I also always thought: that he was killed instantly. On the aforementioned clip you can see he was alive and conscious after the crash. So more correct to say: he was fatally injured or mortally injured during practice.

 

Regarding the accident: I remember someone (Tonio Hildenbrand? Gijs van Lennep?) once telling that in the corner where De Beaufort was killed, there was a kind of ridge on the inside of the corner. If you dared to, you could put your front wheel in that ridge, on drain, or whatever, and kind of slingshot your car around the apex. Faster, but dangerous. According to (Hildenbrand? Van Lennep) Beaufort usually was a safe driver, but that day he decided to take the risk. To his own demise.

[Tim Murray]

De Beaufort's entry on Motorsport Memorial says he died in hospital in Cologne the day following his accident:

http://www.motorspor....php?db=ct&n=71

[Henk Vasmel]

I know all the details about the aftermath of the accident. Basically he was left in a condition that he couldn't and wouldn't survive. Since the focus of the post was the car he was using at the time, I put it in as few words as possible, knowing that it was a bit "cutting corners".

[Nemo1965]

I know all the details about the aftermath of the accident. Basically he was left in a condition that he couldn't and wouldn't survive. Since the focus of the post was the car he was using at the time, I put it in as few words as possible, knowing that it was a bit "cutting corners".

 

Clear, it was no critique!

[Cavalier53]

Henk,
 
Carel's 2004 biography by Frits van Someren very clearly states chassis no. 202 was the car in the accident, then located in the Donington museum. 201 went to the Raamsdonkveerr museum, so is now presumably in the The Hague Louwman museum collection.
This would confirm your findings in the first post, so your question seems rather where it was claimed 201 was the crashed car. Indeed 201 is stated on the http://www.carelgodindebeaufort.nl/ tribute website but the authors (including a respected TNF contributor) may not have had access to conclusive evidence. 
The biography seem extremely well researched, with access to the family archives, several other archives, and interviews with many contemporaries such as Gerard van Lennep (a racer not related to Gijs or his brother David).
Gerard van Lennep in Zandvoort totaled a brand new Porsche 904 they planned for Le Mans together, earlier in 1964, and also explained the ridge mentioned above as a worn out grass verge normally used by De Beaufort. Except that it had been repaired prior to the event, possibly contributing to the crash. Ben Pon (racing his 904 the Saturday) however denies that story in a 2014 interview as he would have noticed the change to the grass verge .himself at he time.

[Henk Vasmel]

Indeed, Frits van Someren is the only source I found where 202 is specifically mentioned. All other sources I know mention -01,or are vague about it. When going into more detail, they describe -02 as the spare car, or even a car for spares. And it was the first time since Zeltweg '63 that it was used again. We now know that photographic evicendence is pretty conclusive, so for me, the only question remains why it was preferred over -01 for this race. After all the previous race, Solitude, -01 for sure, ended with an 8th place. I now realise, by looking at the results again that -02 finished 4th in the D-GP '63, so maybe it was considered more suitable for the 'ring. But this is just a wild guess.

Edited by Henk Vasmel, 29 March 2017 - 20:56.

[Arjan de Roos]

Quite some time before Van Someren published the biography on CGdB, I studied the career and cars of Careltje. Two 718 F2's have remained, in orange colour for us to admire. One in the UK (Donington, yet now sold) and one in Holland (collection Louwman).

The former has always sported #17, the latter #9.

 

The Ecurie Maarsbergen did not only use 202 as a spare, but also raced it with a second driver several times (Pon, Mitter, Schiller). EM once even entered a third driver, Slotemaker, a grey subject and was discussed elsewhere.

Yet I am not convinced EM raced just 201 and 202.

 

What is noticeable in pictures of the time, is the height of the roll over bar. CGdB, being a long guy, needed a longer bar. This is also seen on the car #9. Or the Louwman car.

 

When I scanned several pictures for this respected TNF contributor, I also passed on an article that states that Cornelie, his sister offered his car on loan to the Riemer car museum in Driebergen (passed on to Louwman (via Raamsdonkveer to Wassenaar). A picture clearly showed #9 with long roll bar.

 

CGdB did make a dent or two, but had a local garage patch up his cars.

Now at Solitude CGdB he raced under number 9. In this race he had dented the nose of his car. Possibly this car had more damage and made him take the spare for the German GP.

 

Pictures of the 1964 German GP shows him with a 718 with a lower (standard?) roll over bar.

 

In an article I found it was confirmed that his mother rushed to the hospital in Germany and was still able to speak to him. Making you wonder, like in Petersons case: if only...

The Donington 718 was sold of. I believe it now resides in the Hamburg Prototype museum, yet no longer in orange color, but (over)-restored and (luckily, rightfully) sporting the EM badge. It carries #11, which it never raced. Also the #17 when still orange is a mystery to me. #17 was only used at the 1963 ....German GP.

[Henk Vasmel]

At first I didn't want to show the details that led me to the conclusion, waiting for others to come up with the same or different ones. Arjan pinpointed all the details except the hole in the front cover. However, that one (the cover) is replaceable, so no absolute proof.

Arjan is sort of right when he supposes that Ecurie Maarsbergen raced more than -01 and -02. Once they entered 787-01 for Ben Pon, who promptly wrote it off, and once they entered 718/2-05 for Hans Herrman. In both cases however, I suspect that it was only out of convenience that CGdB took care of the paperwork.

There is a source that claims 718/2-03 was used for the Belgian GP 1963.

I have 718/2-02 raced 8 times in my database. To that D-GP '64 still has to be added. Gold Cup '63 I have as -01 with the remark that it has to be -02 because -01 was already on its way to USA and arrived there with the starting number of the previous race (Monza) still visible.

Other -02 drivers were Jack Fairman (replacing Herbert Müller), Gerhard Mitter, and Kurt Bardi-Barry. Rob Slotemaker too, but that was only an entry, he never drove the car.

Now that we are at it, let's give some more details:

In April '62 Wolfgang Seidel entered 718/2-01 5 times under his own name

-02 was the works car forHans Herrman in 61, raced once by Baghetti for Scuderia Sant' Ambroeus. In 62 it went to Heinz Schiller (Ecurie Nationale Suisse and Scuderia Filipinetti), raced once by Heini Walter.

-03 was tho other Works 718/2 in 61, for Gurney and Bonnier. In 62 it was a Serenissima car for Bonnier + Abate and Vaccarella. Bonnier raced it once as a Works car. In 63 it was entered by Volpi for Bordeu and Abate

-04 was raced by Bonnier and Gurney  (Works 61)  in '62 it was written off in it's first race by Ludwig Heimrath (Works entry)

-05 was entered only once as a factory car for Hans Herrman. That makes the Maarsbergen entry for this car with the same driver a little suspect

 

-02 (Rob Walker's car 60/61) and -03/-04 (Works, 60/61 and 61/62) were the cars that were taken to South Africa

 

This is only about the F1 career of the cars, 1961-64. F2 is another story.