Tag Archives: Chiron

GP Winning Record Breaker – Delage 15 S8

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In 1925 the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), an international association of motor clubs founded in 1904, organised the first World Manufacturers’ Championship with four qualifying events, the Indianapolis 500, Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, French Grand Prix at Montlhéry and Italian Grand Prix run at Monza.

For the 1925 season Delage were running 2LCV V12 2 litre / 122 cui powered cars designed by Charles Planchon who after the cars initial failure in 1923 was replaced by Albert Lory who added twin superchargers and developed sufficiently for Robert Benoist and Louis Wagner to finish first and second in the 1925 French Grand Prix.

Delage 15 S8, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The inaugural World Manufacturers’ Championship was claimed by Alfa Romeo with wins for Antonio Ascari and Gastone Brilli-Peri in Belgium and Italy respectively, both driving Alfa Romeo P2’s.

For 1926 the rules for the second World Manufacturers’ Championship mandated a down size to 1500 cc / 91.5 cui engine’s for which Albert Lory designed the 170hp twin supercharged 15 S8 with a straight 8 engine and five speed gearbox.

Delage 15 S8, Brooklands Double Twelve

Bugatti won the 1926 championship, Jules Goux winning the French Grand Prix and Spanish Grand Prix with Louis Charavel also driving a Type 39A to victory in Italy.

A Delage 15 S8 driven by Robert Sénéchal shared with Louis Chiron won the first Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix run at Brooklands in 1926.

Delage 15 S8, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For 1927 Delage entered their 15 S8 models modified to run with a single super charger in all four European rounds of the World Manufacturers’ Championship.

Delage won all four races to secure what turned out to be the last World Manufacturers’ Championship to be awarded by the AIACR.

Delage 15 S8, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Remarkably Robert Benoist was at the wheel of the winning car in France, Spain, Italy and finally at Brooklands, where he drove today’s featured chassis No.2 to victory lane.

By the end of 1927 Delage was virtually bankrupt and the company had to re focus it’s attention on building road cars and abandon racing in a works capacity.

Delage 15 S8, Brooklands Double Twelve

In 1936 a young Richard Seaman made a name for himslef driving a carefully rebuilt 10 year old 15 D8 to numerous victories over new models from ERA and Maserati.

Chassis No.2 seen here was bought by Malcolm Campbell in 1929 who sold it on to W B ‘Bummer’ Scott who set Class F 24 Hour World Record and 200 Mile World Records respectively at Montlhéry in 1931 and Brooklands in 1933.

Delage 15 S8, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Prince Chula of Siam, cousin and entrant of “B Bira” was the next owner of the car from 1936 to 1939, hoping to emulate the fortunes of Richard Seaman the White Mouse Racing attempted an ultimately unsuccessful modernisation.

Alan V Burnard acquired No.2 in 1964 and was responsible for restoring it to it’s current condition having temporarily fitted an ERA engine and ENV pre selector gearbox.

After sourcing and rebuilding a correct type 15 S8 the ERA engine was replaced but the ENV gearbox remained, Alan Burnard generously bequeathed No.2 to the Brooklands Museum, where the car is seen in the 2nd and 5th photographs, upon his death in 2012.

Thanks for joining me on this “GP Winning Record Breaking” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Definitely Not A Lambretta – Bugatti Type 51R #BC 132

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The first of of an eventual forty Bugatti Type 51’s appeared in 1931 with a twin cam straight eight replacing the single cam straight eight of it’s Type 35 predecessor. Externally the two types are almost identical with the newer model being equipped with a larger radiator, single piece alloy wheels, and as a consequence of the twin cam head, a lower pop off valve blow whole for the supercharger in the bonnet / hood.

Bugatti T51A R, Howard-Orchard, VSCC Prescott

There were three European Championship Grand Prix in 1931 and Bugatti won the second and third. Louis Chiron and Achille Varzi sharing the win in a T51 on the 12 km track at Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in France and William Grover-Williams & Caberto Conelli the win at Spa, these races were over distance of around 800 miles taking a minimum of ten hours to complete, unlike the modern maximum 2 hour Grand Prix requiring only one driver.

Bugatti T51A R, Howard-Orchard, VSCC Prescott

The following season Bugatti were outclassed by ALFA Romeo in the three European Championship races which were run over ‘just’ five hours, but their cars still won twelve of the thirty less well supported non championship races.

Bugatti T51A R, Howard-Orchard, VSCC Prescott

For 1933 the European Championship was suspended, eventually for two years, but there were five Grandes Épreuves run over distances of 200 miles, Monaco, to just over 400 miles or Spain, requiring just the one driver. Archilli Varzi won the opening race at Monaco aboard a T51 with the remainder going to Maserati and Alfa Romeo equally.

Bugatti T51A R, Howard-Orchard, VSCC Prescott

According to a Bugatti Owners site, today’s T51 recreation was assembled from many original parts and a “Hoskins” frame by Christopher F. Warman in Wales with help from Tim and Ivan Dutton in the late 1980’s. The car was registered for road use by 2006 when it competed at a variety of events, but in 2007 the registration number was transferred to a Lambretta Motor Scooter which according to the DVLA website is not currently on the road.

Bugatti T51A R, Howard-Orchard, VSCC Prescott

More recently the car was said to have been offered for sale at around £500,000 and it is seen driven in these photographs, taken at last years VSCC Prescott meeting, by Derek Howard – Orchard, who has been the owner since at least 2010.

Thanks for joining me on this “It’s Not A Lambretta” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some European cars that took the start of the Classic Run in Chipping Sodbury. Don’t forget to come back now !

23/07/14 Thanks to Tim Murray for clarifying that the Type 51 ran twin cam motors and the minimum times for the European Championship Grand Prix in 1931 and 1932.

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Polska Kronika Filmowa ? – Talbot T150 / T26 #82935 / 90202

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Today’s blog tells the story of how I came to wonder if today’s Talbot T26C 90202 seen a couple of months ago at the VSCC Spring Start meeting featured in a 1948 edition of Polska Kronika Filmowa a Polish weekly newsreel.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

So far as I have been able to discern this vehicle was originally built in 1937 as a T150 chassis number #82935 and fitted with a 4 litre / 244 cui 6 cylinder motor and registered for road use with the French licence plate 439W1.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Albert Divo raced the car on at least 3 occasions with a best finish of 2nd in the 1937 Marne Grand Prix. In September 1937 Raymond Sommer driving #82935 now bearing the French licence plate 4397RL2 retired from the Tourist Trophy with engine problems. #82935 is shown by one source to have been intended to be part of a two car Talbot-Lago team at the 1937 Le Mans 24 hours that did not show up.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

In 1938 René Carrière and Anthony Hannoyer drove the works entered #82935 to a fifth place finish on the Mille Miglia, two months later René shared the now Luigi Chinetti entered car with René Le Bègue at Le Mans, but retired after completing 101 laps.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Two weeks later the mudguards came off and René Carrière drove #82935, entered once again by the Talbot factory and carrying the #4, seen at 1:03 in this linked clip, to a gallant 4th place finish, first non Mercedes and only 10 laps down, on the French Grand Prix winning Mercedes Benz W154 of winner Manfred von Brauchitsch.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

For it’s final two known appearances in 1938 #82935 was fitted with a 4.5 litre / 274 cui straight six and given a T26 identity with the chassis number #90202, it was not the only T150 to become a T26. René Carrière won pole position driving the car, with it mudguards refitted for the Tourist Trophy, but could only finish 4th. Philippe Etancelin joined René Carrière to drive the upgraded car in the 1938 Paris 12 Hours from which it was retired after an accident.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

The renumbered chassis #90202 made only two known appearances in 1939 the first at Le Mans where entered by Chinetti and driven by Luigi Chinetti and T.A.S O. Mathieson the car suffered another accident and retired on lap 154. T.A.S.O. Mathieson is credited with entering #90202 in the Grand Prix du Comminges run at St. Gaudens for Luigi Chinetti to drive, but once again the car retired. Chinetti entered himself to drive #90202 in the Liege Grand Prix on the 26th August 1939 a week before WW2 hostilities broke out on 1st September, but the race was cancelled.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

After the war Lord Selsdon, who coincidentally raced against #90202 in a Lagonda V12 at Le Mans in 1939, became the owner of #90202 by 1946, a time when almost anything that could move was thrown in to race at almost every available opportunity. Louis Chiron drove #90202 entered by Lord Selsdon at an event run at Bois de la Cambre in June 1946 but retired with a fuel pump ‘issue’.

Talbot T26, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Chiron then appears to have played a part in ensuring that French patron of the Ecurie France team Paul Vallée rented or at least borrowed #90202 from Lord Selsdon for part of the 1947 season when the car was to be driven by Chiron, so far as I know he never did, but Yves Giraud-Cabantous may have driven the car referred to a ‘26SS‘ in 1947, though in which events I have not been able to ascertain.

Lord Selsdon had the car back by the 1948 British Grand Prix which was featured on the Polska Kronika Filmowa newsreel I mentioned on the top of this thread, but #90202 took no part in that event as Lord Selsdon had only been given a reserve entry.

The last mention I have found for #90202 in Lord Selsdon’s ownership is in 1949 the Jersey Road Race where Frank Le Gallais retired with a gearbox problem.

Peter Waring is known to have finished at least three races driving #90202 in 1953 recording a best 3rd at Silverstone. It was left to Dick Fitzwilliam to record the chassis last known in period win in a National Handicap event at Goodwood in 1954 nearly twenty years after the versatile chassis which had raced Mercedes Benz as an open wheeler, completed a Mille Miglia and competed in two Le Mans 24 hour races.

The Talbot #90202 seen here at the VSCC Spring Start at Silverstone earlier this year is raced by Richard Pilkington with and without mud guards and road lights.

Thanks for joining me on this “Polska Kronika Filmowa ?” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for a car that is often incorrectly given the wrap for the blanket 70 mph restriction on Britain’s motorway network. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Weight Distirbution – Lancia Ferrari D50 Replicas

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Keen to project a successful image through participation in Formula one with it’s new 2.5 litre / 152 cui engine regulations Lancia commissioned Vitorrio Jano to design a new challenger in 1953.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Over the development period of the car several different noses were used above is the original short nose.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Jano paid a lot of attention to how the weight was to be distributed in his new design which led to the D50’s most distinctive the pannier tanks between the wheels that did away with the need for a rear fuel tank which was de rigueur for contemporary formula one cars.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Jano selected a compact 90° V8 motor configuration that was offset 12° from front right to rear left. The motor featured twin plugs per cylinder produced around 260 hp. Unusually for the time the motor also functioned as an integral stressed member of the space frame chassis.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

The car also featured a gearbox that was transversely mounted into the rear axle. The cooler for the transmission unit is seen just ahead of the rear axle between the panier tank and the rest of the chassis.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

1952 and 1953 double World Champion Alberto Ascari and Italy Luigi Villoresi drove the D50’s on their first appearance in the World Championship in the last race of the 1954 season at the Spanish Grand Prix held on the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona. After qualifying 1st Ascari led for three laps before retiring with clutch problems on lap 10, Villoresi started 5th and retired after two laps with brake issues.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Lancia entered three cars in the 1955 Argentinian Grand Prix for Ascari who started from second and retired after an accident on lap 22, Villoresi qualified 11th and again only lasted for two laps before his car retired with a fuel leak. Villoresi replaced Eugenio Castellotti who had started 12th only to be involved in an accident on lap 35 from which the 3rd Lancia did not recover.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

At Monaco Ascari again qualified 2nd but his car famously ended up in the harbour on the 81st lap which he survived, only to die the following week testing a Ferrari. Castellotti qualified 4th and finished 2nd, to Maurice Trintignant in the Ferrari 625A I looked at last week, while Villoresi qualified 7th and finished 5th one lap down. Monaqasque Louis Chiron drove a forth D50 Lancia from 19th on the grid to 6th 5 laps down.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Castellotti started on pole in Belgian Grand Prix but retired on lap 16 with gearbox problems on the Scuderia Lancia teams final appearance. At this point Lancia ran into financial difficulties and the company ended up in the hands of the Pesenti family while Gianni Lancia handed over the racing cars to Enzo Ferrari who was not having a lot of joy against the might of Mercedes Benz with his Squalo and Super Squalo models.

de, Cadenet, Lancia Ferrari D50 Replica, Goodwood Revival

The D50’s next appeared at the 1955 Italian Grand Prix where they were entered by Ferrari for Giuseppe Farina who qualified 5th and Villoresi who qualified 8th. However Farina crashed on the Monza banking when a tyre failed and Enzo chose to withdraw the D50’s. Over the off season Ferrari developed the cars for his new signing reigning world champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Fangio won first time out in the D50 at the 1956 Argentinian Grand Prix, but only after his car retired and he took over the car that started with Luigi Musso at the wheel, at Monaco Fangio finished 2nd again after retiring his own car and jumping in his team mate Peter Collins car.

Collins then won in Belgium and France with Fangio winning in Britain and Germany to give him an eight point lead over Collins going into the final race of the season at Monza. Fangio qualified on pole but a steering arm on his D50 broke, his team mate Musso refused to hand over his car and on learning this team mate Peter Collins did not hesitate to hand over his car, thus giving up the opportunity to win the championship which Fangio won after finishing second. Collins finished the ’56 Championship third in points behind Stirling Moss who drove for Maserati.

The following season Fangio went to Maserati with whom he won his fifth and final championship. Ferrari entered no fewer than seven D50’s for the first race of the 1957 season in Argentina which were lined up against seven Maserati 250F’s. Fangio won in his 250F the best D50 shared by Alfonso de Portago and José Froilán González which finished 5th and two laps down.

Mike Hawthorn was the last person to drive a D50 in a Championship race in the ’57 Monaco Grand Prix where 5th but retired after an accident on lap 5. Ferrari swithched it’s efforts to the Lancia V8 powered 801 for the remainder of the 1957 season.

All but two of the original D50’s were broken up, the cars seen here are both, so far as I know replica’s using some of the left over parts from the broken up cars. Six replica’s are known to have been built by Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd.

Thanks for joining me on this “Weight Distribution” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Bugs In Malta – Mtahleb Hillclimb & Mdina Grand Prix

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A couple of weeks ago Barry Boor found himself at the Mtahleb Hillclimb & Mdina Grand Prix, in between his marshaling duties he managed to take a few photographs of the Bugatti’s which visited Malta to take part in the events and has kindly agreed to share them with us.

Bugatti T35B R, Mtahleb Hill Climb, Malta

Genuine Bugatti Type 35’s are extremely hard to come by, even Nick Mason’s example is a bitza made up from an assortment of parts from various cars into a complete vehicle, so it is no surprise to find that according to the best information I have available all the cars captured by Barry are replica’s like Gregory Ramouna’s Type 35B R, seen here on the Mtahleb hillclimb, which appears to have been built in 1998.

Bugatti T35 R, Mtahleb Hillclimb, Malta

Type 35’s were first seen at the Grand Prix of Lyon in August 1924 powered by a 2 litre / 122 cui straight 8 motor. Novel features of the car included the alloy spoked wheels and hollow front axle which all saved unsprung weight to the benefit of the cars handling. Above is a Type 35 R with a 2 litre motor unlike the type 35B which has a 2.3 litre / 140 cui supercharged motor.

Bugatti T51 R, Mtahleb Hillclimb, Malta

The Type 35’s were very successful allegedly clocking up to 14 wins a week with the Likes of “Williams” and Louis Chiron leading the way in major Grand Prix. The Type 35’s were replaced by the Type 51’s in 1931 but with only 160 hp from their supercharged motors the Type 51’s were soon to be overpowered by the government sponsored Auto Union and Mercedes Team’s. Above is the Type 51 R of Phillipe Brebant.

Bugatti T35B R, Mdina Grand Prix, Malta

Type 35’s and 51’s are very difficult to tell apart externally and even the experts can disagree, to show how difficult this is the Mdina Grand Prix entry list tells us that JM Laffonts car above is a 1931 Type 35B while the Bugatti builder site tells us that his car carrying the same registration is a Type 51 from the now defunct Blaydon Engineering, further more the car is listed on yet another Bugatti Builders post as a Type 35B R. If the truth on the identity of this car were to be decided by popular vote Type 35B R would win with two votes. Though in my humble opinion the car we are looking at is either a Type 35 or 35B because if it was a Type 51 it ought to have an easily discernible  second fuel filler behind the passenger seat what ever the vintage.

Bugatti Type 35 R, Mdina Grand Prix, Malta

One rough and ready way to tell a Type 35 from a Type 51 is to look at the rear fuel filler behind the seats, if there is one it’s most likely a Type 35.

Bugatti T35 R, Mdina Grand Prix, Malta

Barry was told the reason many of these vehicles, like this 2007 replica Type 35B about to head on up the hill towards the walled citadel of Mdina, appear with so much patina is to keep the value down in the eyes of the taxman.

My thanks to Barry for sharing this fascinating in sight into Maltese Motorsport.

Thanks for joining me on this “Bugs in Malta” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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