THE GARAGISTES THAT CHALLENGED FACTORY MIGHT
DE CADENET
The old-school garagiste
Alain de Cadenet was a throwback to a bygone age, a plucky privateer who stood out from the crowd even in the more carefree days of the 1970s when he started out on his quest to win Le Mans. The Brit with a French father once towed one of the specials he created with that aim all the way to France behind his 1928 Bentley Speed Six. The starting point was the tiny mews garage in central London that the team called home. De Cadenet took the term garagiste to a new extreme.
Yet de Cadenet and his small team were genuine contenders in multiple seasons in the 1970s and into the 1980s. He made it onto the podium in 1976 with a Lola, but more to the point went to the 1980 event as one of the pre-race favourites after a pair of wins with his own open-top Group 6 prototype ahead of the 24 Hours.
De Cadenet’s big chance in a year when there were no genuine manufacturer entries in the prototype ranks turned into the team’s annus horribilis. Desire Wilson, who had starred in the Cosworth-engined De Cadenet Lola LM78 in wins at Monza and Silverstone rounds of the World Championship for Makes, crashed the car during qualifying on Thursday. Not only was the De Cad heavily damaged, but the organisers claimed that Wilson had not achieved the minimum qualifying time. She wouldn’t be allowed to start the race, leaving driving duties to de Cadenet
