4 replies to this topic

[ry6]

Do any of our Portugese enthusiasts have any information on Alvaro (Alvarro?) Lopes, the Portugese Angolan race driver of the mid-50's to early '60's.
I know that he raced a Maserati 300S with great success and had a troublesome time with a Lotus 30 in races in Angola and Lourenco Marques.

[Marcor]

I've seen the name of this Portuguese driver in the 1958 newspaper I'm consulting today in a Brussels library. It was about the Luanda race which was held on September 21 and won by Jimmy de Villiers ahead of my fellowman Alain de Changy. In fact those three drivers set the pace of the race. de Villiers was regular and won; de Changy was heroic and Lopes stayed a long time in third position. Lopes was not in the 12 first finishers (I supposed he didn't finish the race).

The newspaper is a Belgian daily paper called "Les Sports" and explains that de Changy in his ENB-entered Ferrari 250 TR was unlucky and had to win easily. His car had a puncture and he stopped to the pits and started again with a spare wheel smaller than the other wheels. So he stopped again and the mechanics put in the car an hastily repaired tyre with a rubber repair...

Luanda GP, Sunday 21 September 1958, 300 km, length of lap = 4.621 km
1- James (Jimmy) de Villiers (Rhodesia) Jaguar D, 2h 24' 29.22" (124.73 km/h)
2- Alain de Changy (Belgium), Ferrari 250 TR #10, 2h 25' 31.84"
3- John Love (Rhodesia), Riley
4- Marques Pinto, Mercedes 300 SL
5- Mac Pherson
6- Dias Gomes
7- Emil Duray
8- Spinette, Triumph TR2
9- Vasco Cardiga
10- Yves Tassin (Belgium), Ferrari Berlinette ENB
11- de Doncquers, Triumph
12- Costa Macedo

FL- de Changy

DNF- Pierre Berchem, Lotus (lap 4)

Also entered:
Alvaro Lopès, Maserati 3 L
Oliveira, Maserati 3 L
Derville, Trumph

I could also post it in another thread about the Angolan GP...

I read there that Lopès finished 5th in the 1959 Luanda race.

[ry6]

Thanks Marcor.
Was de Changy a count or some sort of nobleman?
I seem to remember that at one time he was entered in a F1 event in a Cooper - perhaps by one of the great Belgianteams - ENB or EB or EF?
As a matter of interest John Love's mount was a Riley Special - a cigar shaped car which Bill Jennings built using mainly 1934 components! Not a sportscar at all and a car which won Bill the SA Championship three times in the 50's.
I will endeavour to get a picture of it.

[Vitesse2]

Alain de Changy was entered by ENB in an F2 Cooper T51 for the 1959 Monaco GP, but failed to qualify for the race.

[Marcor]

I'm sorry not to have a scan as I've got a picture of the start of the 1958 Loanda race. It was a 4-3-4. Alain de Changy was in the first line with a Maserati (Lopes ?), a spyder (Porsche ?) and John Love's Riley Special beside him. On the second line there were Jimmy de Villiers's Jaguar, a Mercedes (Pinto) and a Maserati.

You're totally right: the Love's Riley (Special) is immediately recognizable. It was clearly, as you said, a single-seater.