3 replies to this topic

[mariner]

Bernard Tapie, one of Europe's most colourful tycoons has died at 78. He once owned Adidas, and entered politics etc. Apparently he was also a racing driver.

 

From the France24 obituary

 

Tapie started by selling televisions by day in the working-class Belleville quarter of Paris while trying his hand as a crooner by night and as a racecar driver. But he soon ditched these early pursuits and amassed a small empire by the time he was 30 by taking over failing companies, scooping up 50 within a few years, and reselling them for millions.

 

Any info. on where he raced and with any success?

Edited by mariner, 04 October 2021 - 12:33.

[john winfield]

Formula 3 I've read somewhere but I don't think anyone has found real evidence thus far, even on the Autodiva site. The most anyone there has seen is a shot of Tapie at the wheel of an F3 car in 1966, the period when he was embarking on a musical career. The suggestion is a publicity stunt, with no trace of him ever having raced.

[Arjan de Roos]

I was about to say: use the search function to see his career, but he may have used a nom de plume. What I read is that he had a severe crash and was in coma for three days.  

[john winfield]

I was about to say: use the search function to see his career, but he may have used a nom de plume. What I read is that he had a severe crash and was in coma for three days.  

 

Arjan, I've been reading those articles too!

 

 

Laurent Tapie believes his father raced, "..when Matra were in F3".

 

Biographer Franz-Olivier Giesbert states that after his one music promotion lap Tapie hoped to race in F3, for Lotus or Ferrari (!)

 

Giesbert claims Tapie completed a few 'F3 grand prix', until his big accident, at Troyes.(!)

 

 

Elsewhere, I've read that the big accident was on the road, not the track, and that he was never in a coma.

 

 

Gérard Gamand doesn't believe Tapie ever raced in F3.  Unless someone proves otherwise I tend to agree with Gérard!