58 replies to this topic

[Darren Galpin]

I'm currently going through Veloce's reprint of Boddy's "Montlhery" book, and came across the following paragraph:

"Leon Duray then went to work, going first to that piece of public road at Arpajon which the French were able to close for racing, to attack the 1/2 litre ss kilometre record with his Packard Cable Special, then returning to Montlhery to break records up to ten kilometres with a 1/2 litre Miller at over 139 mph, and up to ten miles at 135.33 mph."


I haven't come across the Packard Cable Special before, so it might well be 0.5 litres, but I believe that the Miller should be a 1.5 litre car (Ernest Eldridge had brought one over from the US a couple of years earlier) as the speeds seem to be too high for such a small engine. Can anyone confirm this at all? Does anyone have any further info on the run at Arpajon?

[robert dick]

In the summer of 1929, Leon Duray brought two front-drive Millers to Europe, his Packard Cable Specials, a 1.5- and a 2-liter.

On August 8 and 10, 1929, Duray drove the 1.5-liter at Montlhéry. He covered 5 kilometers in 1 min 21.05 sec (220.85 km/h), 5 miles in 2 min 0.18 sec (220.847 km/h), 10 kilometers in 1 min 15.09 sec (220.304 km/h), and 10 miles in 4 min 26.01 sec (217.296 km/h).

It seems that the road near Arpajon was used to prepare the car.

In September 1929, Duray started at Monza and sold the cars to Bugatti.

[Darren Galpin]

Thanks Robert. Where did you get that information from?

[robert dick]

Originally posted by Darren Galpin
Where did you get that information from?

"Le Miroir des Sports" = contemporary French magazine.

[Darren Galpin]

Many thanks Robert.

[dbw]

i think the millers were traded to bugatti for a number of t43's....

[WDH74]

These were also the cars returned to the US by Griffith Borgeson. One of them is still active in vintage events.

-Wm.

[rl1856]

The predecessor magazine to Car and Driver- Sports Cars Illustrated, sponsored the restoration of one of the Packard Cable Specials. The magazine published a series of articles on the histhory of Miller, the car and the restoration.

The serial begins with how the car was located, purchased and then brought back the US. Essentially after Ettore Bugatti finshed with the car, it was coated in protective cosmoline (sp?), covered by a tarp and then left in a corner of the factory for 30yrs. Reportedly, Bugatti copied the head design of the Miller 91 engine for use in his own subsiquent designs.

Google should turn up quite a bit regarding the car and it's subsiquent history.

Best,

Ross

[cheater2]

Borgeson recounts the story of the rediscovery and restoration of the two Leon Duray Millers in his seminal "The Golden Age of the American racing Car", which, for anyone who missed it the first time, is now back in print thanks to the SAE.

While it's no "Miller Dynasty", every early American racing enthusiast really ought to have a copy of "Golden Age" on his library shelf.

[Peter Lohmar]

Darren,

To address the speed/displacement issue; yes, they were that fast but they were blown straight 8s, intercooled, etc.

If you haven't seen one of them up close you'd be amazed at how tiny and slim they really are.

Harold Peters over at the Miller-Offy web site has some new video/audio up and you can see some of the 91 and 122 Millers circulating Milwaukee's 1 mile oval, although at a slightly more sedate pace!:

www.milleroffy.com

Cheers

Peter

[T54]

Borgeson also explains how he was screwed out of one of the two cars thanks to some serious BS at the Los Angeles Museum of Art if I recall. Very good book. Mark Dees' book is of course the reference in the matter.
I seem to remember that Duray traded the two cars to Ettore for several new and used road cars later sold in the USA. When I was a kid visiting Molsheim and as my dad was looking for parts as was trying to sell his T43 to the Schlumpf brothers in Mulhouse, I saw the two Millers, with their engines out of the cars and the tires royally flat to the ground. I thought at the time that their colors (faded purple and yellow and black and white) were rather garish. They were in poor shape but relatively intact. I did not know anything about them but they were American and believed that they were "Packards", so they were different and worth a look because the name Packard was always glorified in France since quite a few of them were left over by the US Army after the war and they were good machines indeed. I did not even look at their noses where the "Miller" logo would have been in plain sight!
Childhood memories...

[cheater2]

Damn, Philippe! Even as a child, you were having too much fun . . .

[T54]

That was not fun, that was life. My dad's car is now in the museum in Mulhouse and I am so sorry that he let it go instead of willing it to ME!
I would look so cool tooling along on the PCH with that car... it has a boat tail too!

[cheater2]

P, like I keep saying, you do have too much fun most of the time!

What kind of Bugatti did your dad have? (I am assuming it was a Bug . . .)?

[T54]

It was a boat-tail T43 torpedo. It had tan leather upholstery and a straight windshield. Somewhere I have a small 3" X 3" pic of my dad driving it. It is today part of the Schlumpf (I refuse to call it what they do now because I do not like grand-theft by states) collection.
When we were kids, we used to have rides in it, and I remember it to be quite noisy and uncomfortable, but it was really cool to see this old-fashioned blue car tooling around the perennial black cars at the time.

[fines]

Duray is said to have traded the Millers for three Bugattis. Does someone of the Bugatti experts know which type, and subsequent histories in the US?

[Vitesse2]

T43, as dbw said above No idea of their subsequent history - there's a picture of Duray/Stewart with one of them in Hugh Conway's "Grand Prix Bugatti". Conway says they were sold in New York, Venables (in "Bugatti - a racing history") says they were shipped to California.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
Conway says they were sold in New York, Venables (in "Bugatti - a racing history") says they were shipped to California.

Duray told Borgeson they were shipped to California (as recorded in Bugatti by Borgeson)

[fines]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
T43, as dbw said above

All three of them? That means touring cars, alright? At which point my interest endeth... :yawn:

[dbw]

well...sort of a touring car...as i recall the t 43's had a 2.3 blown rollerbearing t35b engine and pretty much all gp running gear...much more at home in a long distance race than on the street. i think all the duray cars had factory grand sport coachwork and he had trouble getting rid of them.

[David M. Woodhouse]

I do not pretend to be a Bugatti "expert", but have been a member of the ABC for many years and have at hand the latest (2003) Register and Data Book compiled by Sandy Leith, who is certainly knowledgeable about the cars and their whereabouts. Early in this thread, the Duray cars are said to be one front drive Miller 91, and one front drive 122. Griff Borgeson, who bought and imported both cars from Bugatti in France, states that both were 91 inch (1.5 liter) cars.

The three Type 43 Bugattis that Duray received for the Millers were, according to the Leith register, chassis #s 43264, 43266, and 43267. The fist two originally had Weymann cabriolet coachwork, and 43267 was originally a T43A Jean Bugatti design roadster. 43264 was rebodied in streamlined coupe form and survives less engine and drive train with a long time Club member in the Reno area. According to the Registry, the only surviving part of 43266 is the engine sump that is now with Jay Leno. The third car was rebodied by Zumbach's as a GP car in the '30s and was known as "The Black Bastard" with several owners including McClure Halley, George Rand, and actor Keenan Wynn. It wound up with Buick engineering VP Charles Chayne where it was dismantled by GM Styling Institute, some parts going to Bugatti restorer/recreator Ray Jones who used them in other cars.

The two Millers have been restored with the black car that Duray ran at Indianapolis now in the Speedway Museum collection, and the other car in Packard Cable colors going from Borgeson to Harrah's collection, then to William Lyon who sold it to Robert Rubin, and finally to the Smithsonian collection by a donation and funded restoration by Rubin. All this is documented in Borgeson's book "Miller - Cars and Biography".

Woody

[fines]

Borgeson was right, both Millers were 91s*. One was entered in the 1501 to 3000 cc class at Monza, but it is unlikely it was really over the limit. Probably just a Duray scheme to get two starts, and double starting money!;)

* For the record, a Miller 91 engine has a bore of 2 3/16 inches, and a stroke of 3 inches. That makes 1478 cc. To get it over the 1.5-litre limit, the bore would have to be taken out to 2 7/32, i.e. 1/32 inch. Not much, so it could have happened!

[HistoricMustang]

During our annual event this weekend the AIRPS organization was presented numerous photographs from the 1910/1911 events in Savannah, Georgia. This one is labeled Duray and just wondering if the same individual being discussed in this thread?



Also, have numerous others from these events, which appear to be original if the members are interested.

Henry

[VDP]

Seems to be Arthur Duray (Belgian) who came at Savannah at the wheel of a Lorraine Dietrich 1908

Robert

[David McKinney]

As hinted at in Post 17, "Leon Duray" was a nom de course for George Stewart
Arthur Duray's real name was Arthur Duray

[Buildy]

Leon Duray(George Stewart) was named Leon Duray by Alex Sloan-promoter of Hippodromed Fairgrounds circuit in the teens. They played up the French racing champion thing to all the rubes who of course ate it up.
Despite that,Leon Duray became one of the hardest chargers at Indy and the Boards in the twenties.Later he became a car owner at Indy.

[fines]

Agree, looks like Arthur Duray. He came to America a second time, around 1918 - I believe that's when George Stewart became the "famous French ace Leon Duray"!

Originally posted by HistoricMustang
Also, have numerous others from these events, which appear to be original if the members are interested.

Henry

Yes, definitely interested!

[Marc Ceulemans]

No doubt, It's Arthur Duray, from Belgium (and after granted French citizenship, in the 30's).

Arthur Duray came in the USA on several occasions (as a driver).

1905 and 1906, Vanderbilt Cup, de Dietrich
1908, American GP, de Dietrich
1914, 500 Miles Indianapolis, Peugeot
1918, Liberty Handicap at Cincinatti and International Sweepstakes at Sheepshead Bay, car entered by the promoters of the races.

[fines]

Originally posted by Marc Ceulemans
Arthur Duray came in the USA on several occasions (as a driver).

Yes, of course!

Wasn't he even born in the US?

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by fines
Wasn't he even born in the US?

That rings a bell
Or perhaps his mother was American?

[Vitesse2]

Born in New York, parents Belgian. Later took French nationality.

[HistoricMustang]

As soon as I can get them scanned I will place numerous original photographs presented to our organization this past weekend under the "Savannah" thread from the 1910/1911 activities.

Henry

[Buildy]

Thank you Henry!

[robert dick]

Leon Duray in 1925:
http://memory.loc.go...4900/14989v.jpg

[VDP]

Richard

Duray is definitely born in Brussels and not in NY

He took the french nationality in 33 34

Robert

[fines]

Originally posted by robert dick
Leon Duray in 1925:
http://memory.loc.go...4900/14989v.jpg

Wonderful, Robert!

This is the first picture I've seen of the 'works' wide-frame Miller 122 that Duray drove after leaving the Hartz team! I believe this car to have become the 1926 "Elcar Special", but that'll need some further input to be sure.

Interesting that the car appears to sport "Century Cord" tyres!!?

[Marc Ceulemans]

Richard
(Arthur) Duray is definitely born in Brussels and not in NY

He took the french nationality in 33 34

Robert

Our source are the book Le Grand Prix des Frontières à Chimay by André Biaumet + the Belgian newspaper Les Sports

[Buildy]

I still don`t understand how some of you are finding photos At Lib of Congress like the one of Duray!

I have found a Lot of racing photos on there,but I found that there are some great ones on here that weren`t shown in my searches.

[robert dick]

The LoC search engine cannot find "Duray" since the photo description is "Dureay" - for some reason.

Solution: Part of the research has to be done "by foot".

[Bordino]

i am sorry to resurrect a so old thread, but the title perfectly fits what I am looking for :

I would like to know if there is somewhere a good biography of Leon Duray or even an interview of Duray in his old days.

I have read some pieces by Borgeson, in Sports Car Illustrated and also "The Golden Age of the American racing Car" , and he says about the recovery of the Millers in France that he had met Duray in the 50’s but I can’t find an interview anywhere.

I am looking for more details about his two trips to Europe in 1929 and 1932. Was he looking for money, glory, or maybe a mix of the two ?

It seems there are a number of tales about Leon Duray, about some of his habits and manners, notably about drinking and women, none of them being really confirmed. He seemed a very colourful character.

 

Maybe am I not looking in the right places ?

 

Thanks for your help

 

[Michael Ferner]

I have read several 'soundbite-type' interviews in newspapers or other sources over the years, but don't recall any lengthy pieces, so I am on a bit of shaky ground here. But my impression is that Duray was a professional racer, pure and simple - the rest was fabricated image. His first trip to Europe is easily explained: he had an expensive stable of three racing cars which were going to be next to useless because of the incoming 'junk formula', so he was trying to make a bit of money with the record runs and Monza starts before  'unloading' the cars in the old world. The second trip is much more difficult to explain, since he was foregoing weekly earning possibilities at Ascot Speedway during the time. Maybe he'd made contacts at Monza three years earlier, and they made an offer he couldn't refuse? On the other hand, he wasn't doing particularly well at Ascot, so maybe he was looking for a change of scenery to induce a change of luck? The truth is, I really don't know, and I fear most of the true history of that time is lost between all the legends and tall tales, now that the protagonists are dead.

[Bordino]

Thank you Michael for your quick answer.

I tried to PM you but it did not work, so I put this message.

I feared that kind of answer but as you say, there are no survivors, so the tales will remain.

I found your chassis list on OldRacingcars very useful, by the way.

For 1929 I found on Gallica an article from Miroir des Sports which confirms a speed above 230 km/h on the flying kilometer at Arpajon. There is a (very blurry) picture of a FWD car.

For 1932 there are some pages on Wilbur Shaw’s biography that I find a bit « too good to be true » about the trip to Europe and the road between France and Italy, also a piece on « Johnny Bugatti » …

Anyway, despite the rumours and the legend, Leon Duray is a very interesting character, also involved in the conception of road cars for Cord, so probably not only a reckless driver with an appetite for money.

He could be a real good hero for a novel or a film, as I see him.

 

[Michael Ferner]

Yes, my private messaging is disabled because I'm considered a 'bad boy' in these quarters 

 

You can reach me by email, firstnamelastname without a dot, at gmail dot com 

[Bordino]

Thanks a lot, Michael, I just sent you a rather long mail

[Sterzo]

Bordino, an obvious question perhaps, but have you read W.F. Bradley's "Motor Racing Memories 1903 - 21"? It tells some stories about Leon Duray's early appearances. I don't think anyone's likely to view the book as a totally reliable source, but Bradley was an entertaining storyteller.

[Bordino]

Thanks a lot, Sterzo, no I did not read that book. I will try to source it if money permits. Entertaining storytelling can also qualify Wilbur Shaw's book.

[robert dick]

Duray at Montlhéry, July and August 1929 (photos collection Rol, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris):

 

 

 

(with Moriceau and Sénéchal)

 

 

 

 

Edited by robert dick, 25 November 2023 - 15:48.

[ReWind]

What a youthful-looking 35-year-old.

[bradbury west]

What excellent photographs these are, Robert. Such excellent character studies, I feel, especially with the elegance of Duran’s whole appearance,  with, no doubt,  his well tailored coat and with the  personalised  LD  lettering embroidered on, and the stylish shirts and ties, a far cry from the usual grubby white boiler suits/ loose coverall suits.  I suppose that is what the well dressed Miller driver would wear….  
Many thanks for troubling to find and post them. They tell such a story of the time.

Roger Lund

[Jim Thurman]

It seems there are a number of tales about Leon Duray, about some of his habits and manners, notably about drinking and women, none of them being really confirmed. He seemed a very colourful character.

There are stories out there that the latter of the two might have contributed to his demise, but without seeing a death certificate, I cannot say. And it shouldn't really taint or cause judgement, as it could have happened to just about anyone in the era before Penicillin was in wide usage ("One Night (of Sin)" as Smiley Lewis sang). There shouldn't be a stigma about it, even though it was definitely the cause of death for another early racer. The social stigma led the family and news to proclaim it was from the long, lingering effects of a racing accident injury, which simply wasn't true.

Edited by Jim Thurman, 25 November 2023 - 22:05.