Stumbled across this picture - would anyone be able to identify the driver, circuit, year and event?
Bugatti Type 35 crash information
Started by
Graham Clayton
, Nov 02 2024 22:51
5 replies to this topic
#1
Graham Clayton
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Posted 02 November 2024 - 22:51
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#3
Louism
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Posted 03 November 2024 - 06:54
At the end of Vitesse2 short video is Le Mans 1925 finish (the only time in history in Mulsanne straight...). Both tanks Chenard & Walcker crossing the line together. One of the two, chassis #1001 is today in Le Mans museum collection.
Thank you for sharing, unseen before for me.
Edited by Louism, 03 November 2024 - 06:57.
#4
Vitesse2
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Posted 03 November 2024 - 10:28
Memory didn't fail me. Report from Le Figaro April 25th 1927:
Photo in the OP is clipped from this one: https://gallica.bnf....8/btv1b9056540s
#5
Vitesse2
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Posted 03 November 2024 - 10:33
At the end of Vitesse2 short video is Le Mans 1925 finish (the only time in history in Mulsanne straight...). Both tanks Chenard & Walcker crossing the line together. One of the two, chassis #1001 is today in Le Mans museum collection.
Thank you for sharing, unseen before for me.
I assumed it must have been Le Mans 1925, given the driver names, but why is it tagged onto a film from 1927? 
With that opening it presumably comes from the Champion archive - I guess for US consumption.
#6
Doug Nye
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Posted 03 November 2024 - 11:21
The dangers of a dead stop hill-climb, maximum late braking to stop at the finish line, were emphasised by 'Papa' Cattaneo's terrible accident back at Chateau Thierry in May, 1935, when the track surface was wet. He too lost control of his Bugatti there - in his case a Type 51 - which dashed into the crowd. At least eight spectators died and some 18 injured (see motorsportmemorial.org).
The disaster ended hill-climbing on the Chateau Thierry course and while driver Cattaneo was later acquitted from blame, organiser Victor Breyer was apparently held responsible, being fined and having to pay compensation to surviving victims and bereaved families.
Italian-born, French-domiciled Cattaneo - a very considerable figure upon the Parisian prestige car-dealing stage - sustained a spinal injury which, although he escaped paralysis, would trouble him for the rest of his life. He famously brokered the Bugatti Royale commission between wealthy Armand Esders and the Molsheim factory which resulted in the Royale Esders Roadster. He was also a friend, mentor and occasional business associate of fellow Paris-based Italian emigré, Luigi Chinetti.
DCN
