Builders and Drivers of Sports Cars

By Charles Lam Markmann and Mark Sherwin

Biographical sketches of the most famous Grand Prix and sports car racing builders:
Sydney Allard, W. O. Bentley, A. C. Bertelli, Marc Birkigt, Ettore Bugatti, Colin Chapman, Louis Coatalen, Briggs Cunningham, Albert De Dion, Fred And August Duesenberg, Enzo Ferrari, Amédée Gordini, J. A. Grégoire, Donald Healey, Ernest Henry, Antoine Lago, Vincenzo Lancia, Albert Lory, The Maserati Brothers, Wilhelm Maybach, Laurence H. Pomeroy, Ferdinand Porsche, Georges Roesch, Harry C. Stutz, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, Gabriel Voisin.
… and of the most famous drivers:
The Bentley Boys, The Bugatti Drivers, The Women ( Camille Du Gast, Gwenda Hawkes, Elisabeth Juneck, Dorothy Levitt, Denise Mccluggage Evelyn Mull, Kay Petre, Dorothy Turner, Sheila Van Damm, Elsie Wisdom)
Ascari, Behra, Biondetti, Bira, Boillot, Bonetto, Bracco, Von Brauchitsch, Brilli-Peri, Caracciola, Castellotti, Chiron, Collins, Dreyfus, Jarrott, Eyston, Fagioli, Fangio, Farina, Fitch, Gonzales, Gregory, Von Hanstein, Hawthorn, Hill, Lang, Lautenschlager, Marimon, Moss, Musso, Nazzaro, Neubauer, Nuvolari, Parnell, De Portago, Resta, Rosemeyer, Schell, Seaman, Sommer, Taruffi, Trintignant, Varzi,Villoresi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edizioni Savine
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9788896365489

Book preview

BUILDERS AND DRIVERS

OF SPORTS CARS

by Charles Lam Markmann - Mark Sherwin

New digital edition of:

Builders and Drivers of Sports Cars

(The Book of Sports Cars)

by Charles Lam Markmann - Mark Sherwin

© 1959 by Charles Lam Markmann and Mark Sherwin

Copyright © 2014 Edizioni Savine

All Rights Reserved

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Source text and images taken from the Public Domain

NOTES

ISBN 978-88-96365-48-9

CONTENTS

BUILDERS AND DRIVERS OF SPORTS CARS

colophon

Foreword

In the Beginning They Were All Sports Cars

BUILDERS

SYDNEY ALLARD

W. O. BENTLEY

A. C. BERTELLI

MARC BIRKIGT

ETTORE BUGATTI

COLIN CHAPMAN

LOUIS COATALEN

BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM

ALBERT de DION

FRED AND AUGUST DUESENBERG

ENZO FERRARI

AMÉDÉE GORDINI

J. A. GRÉGOIRE

DONALD HEALEY

ERNEST HENRY

ANTOINE LAGO

VINCENZO LANCIA

ALBERT LORY

THE MASERATI BROTHERS

WILHELM MAYBACH

LAURENCE H. POMEROY

FERDINAND PORSCHE

GEORGES ROESCH

HARRY C. STUTZ

RUDOLF UHLENHAUT

GABRIEL VOISIN

DRIVERS

THE BENTLEY BOYS

WOOLF BARNATO

DR. J. DUDLEY BENJAFIELD

SIR HENRY R. S. BIRKIN

S. C. H. DAVIS

BERNARD RUBIN

GLEN KIDSTON

THE BUGATTI DRIVERS

ROBERT BENOIST

MEO COSTANTINI

WILLIAMS

JEAN-PIERRE WIMILLE

ANTONIO AND ALBERTO ASCARI

JEAN BEHRA

CLEMENTE BIONDETTI

PRINCE BIRA

GEORGES AND ANDRÉ BOILLOT

FELICE BONETTO

GIOVANNI BRACCO

MANFRED VON BRAUCHITSCH

GASTONE BRILLI-PERI

RUDOLF CARACCIOLA

EUGENIO CASTELLOTTI

LOUIS CHIRON

PETER COLLINS

RENÉ DREYFUS

SELWYN F. EDGE CHARLES JARROTT

GEORGE E. T. EYSTON

LUIGI FAGIOLI

JUAN FANGIO

GIUSEPPE FARINA

JOHN FITCH

FROILAN GONZALES

MASTEN GREGORY

FRITZ VON HANSTEIN

MIKE HAWTHORN

PHIL HILL

HERMANN LANG

CHRISTIAN LAUTENSCHLAGER

ONOFRE MARIMON

STIRLING MOSS

LUIGI MUSSO

FELICE NAZZARO

ALFRED NEUBAUER

TAZIO NUVOLARI

REGINALD PARNELL

ALFONSO DE PORTAGO

DARIO RESTA

BERND ROSEMEYER

HARRY SCHELL

DICK SEAMAN

RAYMOND SOMMER

PIERO TARUFFI

MAURICE TRINTIGNANT

ACHILLE VARZI

LUIGI VILLORESI

THE WOMEN

CAMILLE DU GAST

GWENDA HAWKES

ELISABETH JUNECK

DOROTHY LEVITT

DENISE McCLUGGAGE

EVELYN MULL

KAY PETRE

DOROTHY TURNER

SHEILA VAN DAMM

ELSIE WISDOM

Foreword

This is a book for which lovers of the automobile have waited a long time: the most comprehensive text-and-picture history of the dual-purpose car since it came to life more than sixty years ago.

As the authors of The Book of Sports Cars point out, in the beginning they were all sports cars. The automobile began its active life, whatever the intentions of its creators, as a new instrument of sport. Because the increasing demands of this sport imposed an ever-growing burden of technical development, the sports car and its achievements have never stopped forwarding the improvement of the everyday automobile. Here at last, evolved from years of painstaking research, is a record of what the world’s motorists owe to the dreams and the daring of the men and women of motor sport.

It was, for example, the Grands Prix of the early years of this century that begot the demountable rim — an invention that was necessitated by the incalculable time losses when clincher tires blew out in races. The races and rallies and trials of those early days also made inevitable the rapid development of the pneumatic tire from the frail, brittle casing no stronger than a bicycle tire to the magnificent, durable shoes that every car can wear today as a matter of course.

So, too, we can trace virtually every advance in automobile design and construction to the demands and ambitions of the builders and drivers: the vast improvements in ignition systems, in fuel and carburetion, in steering and suspension, in solving the problems of weight distribution and of power/weight ratios, in engine economy and efficiency, in braking — one has only to remember that the first four-wheel brakes were developed by Isotta-Fraschini in 1910 to meet the emergencies of fierce competition — and in coachwork, both aerodynamically and esthetically.

In arranging the history of the outstanding marques by countries of origin, the authors have made it plain how first one nation, then another took the lead in developing the automobile as a sporting instrument and hence inevitably as a thing of greater common use and benefit. First Germany led the world, then France, then Great Britain and Italy and the United States. Not the least of the services rendered by The Book of Sports Cars is to point up the valuable contributions of other, smaller countries that might easily be overlooked in the grand sweeping picture — the Netherlands, for instance, which gave birth to the first four-wheel drive, four-brake car just after the turn of the century; or Belgium, which produced such impressive marques as Métallurgique and Minerva and Excelsior; or Austria, the home of Austro-Daimler and Steyr.

The Book of Sports Cars is a magnificent tribute to the glorious past and the exciting present, a fascinating record of the history that points to the challenging future. A book to be read for pleasure and profit, it will be an invaluable addition to the library of every enthusiast of motoring history.

BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM (Wikipedia)

In the Beginning They Were All Sports Cars

The automobile did not come into being as a utilitarian vehicle for the transport of men and goods. It began as an instrument of pleasure: a working model of a spring-driven vehicle was one of the amusements of Leonardo da Vinci. When the internal-combustion engine became a practical reality, its first application to transportation — and indeed its major application for a long time thereafter — was the provision of pleasure.

But perhaps we should do well to define a sports car before we go farther. A precise and dogmatic definition cannot be drawn for any category whose components are so highly individual and particularized, so we must of necessity start with a general principle. A sports car, then, is an automobile designed for the enthusiast to whom pleasure is its paramount potential: pleasure in its performance and pleasure in its design. The sports car is a dual-purpose car: it is equally at home in city traffic and in all-out competition, and it requires no essential modification to convert from the one use to the other. It is, in short, a car that is meant to be driven to a race, in the race and back home from the race — and to make any kind of driving exciting.

All the early cars fell into this category. Their designers and builders raced them as soon as they were sure they would run; their buyers, in the main, never thought seriously of doing much else with them (except, perhaps, dazzling the neighbors). One bought an automobile, in the early years of this century, as one bought a hunter: pour le sport seulement. If the vehicle turned out to be really useful in conveying oneself and one’s friends or one’s chattels from place to place, that was a bonus: but it did not really matter. What did matter was that here was a new form of sport.

This sport enjoyed a number of virtually simultaneous sires in widely separated places: in Austria it was fathered by Siegfried Marcus; in Germany, by Karl Benz and Gottfried Daimler; in France by Panhard and Levassor, the Marquis de Dion, Louis Renault and others; in Great Britain by F. R. Simms, Percy Riley, the Hon. C. S. Rolls, S. F. Edge and many more; in Italy by Senator Giovanni Agnelli, the Ceirano brothers, Vincenzo Lancia; in the United States by the Duryea brothers, Elwood Haynes, Henry Ford — the list of pioneers is limitless. All these men, whether the cars they made were large or small, were producing (whatever their ultimate dreams) essentially a luxury item whose price made it available only to a few. And most of those few bought it to have fun with it; when there was serious traveling to be done, they relied on the horse-drawn carriage or on the railway.

It was principally in the United States, in the years immediately preceding the First World War, that the initial concerted effort was made to transform the automobile from a sporting luxury to an everyday adjunct of living. After that war, Great Britain, too, saw the motor car become a tool as well as a toy; but in Europe it remained for the most part the monopoly of the sporting rich. True, some small economy or family cars were made and marketed on the Continent; but they were always relatively few and even the least expensive were well beyond the reach of the majority of the population.

Sports motoring developed variously according to geography and economics in the first half of the century. In the beginning, the road race was as common in America as in Europe and ultimately, through special Acts of Parliament, got a foothold in some parts of the British Isles; indeed, there was at first no other racing. Manufacturers — and in some cases private owner-drivers — sent their German Benzes, their British Napiers, their French Panhards, their Italian FIATS to compete on American highways, and the American Locomobiles and Thomases and Simplexes were shipped over the ocean to return the compliment. But the mushrooming of the utility or family car in the United States soon clogged its roads, and its makers no longer produced automobiles that could race as well as relax; competition became, in the United States, the monopoly of cars specially built for racing under extremely limited artificial conditions: the circular or oval track, which bore no resemblance to actual road work. Today only one round-the-houses course exists in the United States, and it was created less than 10 years ago: Put-In Bay, an island on Lake Erie where once each year the Cleveland Sport Car Club and the Northeast Ohio Region of the Sports Car Club of America stage a day of racing on the narrow farm roads and village streets of a resort community, whose terrain makes it necessary to limit entries to cars of under two-liters capacity.

The same situation developed in the British Isles. The famed Tourist Trophy, which for almost 50 years was run on public roads, first in the Isle of Man and later in Northern Ireland, is now held on a closed circuit. But in Europe the public highways have remained the race courses, and the cars that compete on them have remained (except for grand-prix racing) substantially the same as those offered for sale to such Europeans — or Americans — as have the money to buy them. Even today there are few closed courses in Europe, though apprehensions for spectator safety are beginning to bear ominously on such renowned highway racing circuits as those of Le Mans, Monaco and the Mille Miglia.

American automobile designers were the first to stop building competition characteristics into their general products. This was not a sudden unanimous change: into the 1930’s models of several American production vehicles fully merited the classification of sports cars: the Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg, for example, or the Marmon or the Kissel, or the du Ponts, Chryslers and Stutzes that ran at Le Mans. But, as the opposition to road racing increased, manufacturers who wanted racing products began to build them for the only type of racing that the country would countenance: on an enclosed track. Such cars, because they were designed exclusively for this one purpose, had and have little or nothing in common with road cars of any kind: they are generally single-seaters, they lack lights and tops and fenders, they have no starters or fans and at most two forward gears, their braking, steering and suspension are adapted exclusively to a flat course on which the only turn is left. In sum, they are single-purpose cars fully as much as the family sedan or convertible is a single-purpose car of quite another type.

In Europe, however, road racing has never been threatened with extinction. A manufacturer who wishes to enter his cars in competition there knows that they will have to race on exactly the same kinds of highways that he drives daily between home and office; he knows that they will have to race at night, that they may have to stop — and start again — many miles from the pits with their service crews; he knows that they will encounter every possible type of corner; and he knows, too, that a large number of his customers, while they may want to race their cars, must also depend on them for other uses.

What he also recognizes, unlike his American counterpart, is that a substantial proportion of the motoring public, while it may never enter a formal race on any kind of course, wants a thoroughbred. Perhaps these people drive only to get from A to B: but to them the process of getting there is as much — perhaps even more — to be enjoyed as the arrival. Hence the sports car has always formed a much higher percentage of British and Continental than of American production; and hence the American who drives for the fun of driving has found increasingly that he must import his fun. It can be categorically stated as of the time of publication that only one American manufacturer has seriously sought to challenge foreign supremacy in the field. That is General Motors’ Chevrolet division, which, after some false starts and foredoomed compromises, is beginning to approach fulfillment of all the criteria of a sports car with its Corvette.

What are these criteria? We have said that first of all the sports car must satisfy the need for pleasure in motoring performance and design and that it must be able at a moment’s notice to switch from carting groceries to capturing trophies — and back again. Now let us try to be specific, to isolate and identify the qualities that make for this ideal dual personality.

Primarily, of course, the sports car must be capable of any kind of normal use. It must be licensable, able to endure all the irritations of traffic and suitable for normal needs: that is, for bad weather, for darkness, for all kinds of roads, for carrying one or more passengers and for sustained driving. It must be immediately responsive: to a tap on the accelerator, a ten-degree flick of the steering wheel, a toe on the brake pedal. It must be matched in its components: steering, brakes, suspension, weight, ignition, gearing and power plant must be designed each in terms of all the others. One does not find, for example, 60-mile-an-hour brakes or undulant springing on a 130-mile-an-hour sports car: every part is designed with every other part — and the ultimate function of the whole — in mind, and all superfluity, whether of bulk or of weight or of gadgets, is outlawed. Hence the true sports car is the most roadable and the safest of automobiles: it is built not only to stay on the road whatever the road may be but also to stay on course — with one big if. The sports car demands to be driven: it will not take you out and do the thinking for you.

It represents, whatever its size, the maximum performance that can be wrested from that particular combination of volume, weight and thrust. Hence it is devoid of non-functional addenda that sap horsepower (and the driver’s attention to his business), and it is rich in all those safety features that are, in reality, functions of performance: maximum road-holding, maximum deceleration as well as acceleration, the greatest controllability with the least fatigue. The last is achieved not through the piling on of costly, delicate, power-wasting delegations of the driver’s functions but through the tightening of the steering ratio — expressed in greater proportion of road-wheel turn to steering-wheel rotation — and the retention of driver control of road speed by virtue of individual selection of gear ratios to fit changing driving conditions.

The sports car, too, has another trait: it knows superbly what to do and is magnificently capable of doing it — but it requires a master who also knows its qualities and is capable of making it show them. The man who has a sports car, and knows it as intimately as the passionate equestrian knows his horse, rides Pegasus every day.

And now let us see what forms and evolutions this 20th-century Pegasus has presented to the nations and the generations that have learned to mount him.

BUILDERS

SYDNEY ALLARD

The accelerated progress of Sydney Herbert Allard from motorcycle enthusiast to builder of an important sports car was based on the principle of one step at a time. It began with a family trait, his brothers, Leslie and Dennis, and his sister, Mary, having an abiding affection for powered transport. They became eager members of the Streatham Motor Cycle Club, which was distinguished for the abrupt endings of quiet meetings resulting from quick decisions to dash off to Box Hill, the last man there buying the beer. It is not unlikely that these young people contributed to the official decision to create a 30-m.p.h. speed limit, especially after some extra-legal races through the quiet lanes of Surrey.

Sydney, who with Dennis was a member of the committee, decided that more power was required and a Super Sports Morgan was obtained. Sydney drove it in his first race, a three-lap novice handicap at Brooklands. He won the first time and won again the following year. Meanwhile, back at Putney, his father had taken over a small garage and decided to place Sydney in charge. The young man worked according to regulations by day and experimented with special building at night. Hearing of a Talbot for sale in the Midlands, Sydney and his friends dashed north in an old truck, carrying tools and a hacksaw. When the sale was completed, the astonished seller saw the young men cut the chassis frame in half, load it on the truck and rush away.

Back at Putney, the chassis was shortened some more and, after a lot of work, there appeared a sort of special. The results were not too satisfying, but something had been learned. A 14-h.p. Ford tourer was stripped of trimmings, fitted with a 24-h.p. engine and sent out for some trials that fell short of success. Another Ford that had run in the Tourist Trophy was acquired and, with some changes, was run by Sydney Allard at Brighton in 1935, achieving the fastest time for an unblown sports car.

The next step was an idea for a V-8 special designed for mud trials; then came the purchase of a crash-damaged V-8 saloon and the first Allard special came into being. It was a Bugatti-tailed 2-seater that won an award in its first run at Taunton and continued to make impressive showings at trials. Orders for copies came in and Allard began to build to order. In 1937, Allard took the car to the Ben Nevis Hill-Climb; the car turned over, rolling backward. It was stopped from a long drop by some friendly rocks and Allard escaped unhurt. It might have been this mishap that turned him toward speed cars. In any event, he built a lighter, more modern model that brought him success in sprints and hill-climbs and in 1939 won the Prescott sports-car record.

SYDNEY ALLARD (Courtesy of the Allard Motor Car Co., Ltd.)

When the war broke out, Allard was put in charge of a large army repair depot at Fulham. Mrs. Allard looked after the canteen and the social life of 250 workers. When the fighting was over, Allard completed a body and chassis for his first appearance at the Bristol Club speed trials. In 1946, the Allard Motor Co. was formed. The next step was to refine all the experience and knowledge into a constantly improved car. Instead of remaining at a desk, Allard revived the old prototype with changes and improvements; then came one modern version after another. The steps are still being taken as the Allard firm makes progress. It seems a long distance from the days of illegal racing in Surrey and impromptu conclusions of meetings, but Sydney Allard and his men have wrought so that the distance is shortened by a speedy Allard sports car.

W. O. BENTLEY

When W. O. Bentley was asked to enter a car in the first race at Le Mans he said: I think the whole thing’s crazy. Nobody’ll finish. Cars aren’t designed to stand that sort of strain for 24 hours. But, when he was told that no British manufacturer was supporting this event, he permitted his patriotism, just this once, to outweigh more mundane considerations. He sent a 3-liter tourer with no intention of attending the race himself. At the final moment, however, curiosity won, and he went.

W. O. BENTLEY (Courtesy of the Bentley Drivers' Club)

After a few hours in the pit I decided that this wasn’t at all stupid, he recalled. It was in fact very exciting. Before darkness fell and the acetylene arc lamps at the corners were turned on, Le Mans was getting into my blood. By midnight, with the cars pounding past the stands with their lights on — my first sight of racing in the dark — I was quite certain that this was the best race I had ever seen.

The Bentley came in fourth on that 27th of May in 1923 and recorded the fastest lap. By the time that decade was over, W. O. Bentley’s cars had won five times — the final four in succession. There were other races and other records during the 12-year life of Bentley Motors and, despite the prosaic distractions of business and finance, the serene and precise W. O., engineer and impresario, put glamour and excitement into the British green.

He was born of Yorkshire background on Sept. 16, 1888, was christened Walter and showed an early inclination toward the mechanical. His best remembered toy was a stationary steam engine; his first fierce love was for the great locomotives that thundered past his home. After prep school and a reluctantly discarded ambition to become a great cricket player, W. O., or The Bun, as he was called by his eight brothers and sisters, served a long apprenticeship in a locomotive works. During that time he discovered the joys of motorcycling, winning among other awards a gold medal in the six-day trials over the hills of Wales.

When his student days were over, W. O. surveyed railroading as a career and found it sadly wanting. There seemed little promise of swift promotion and, besides, the gasoline engine seemed more enticing. The transition from motorcycles to four wheels was simple. He got his first job in automobiles as assistant to the second in command of the National Motor Cab Co. of London. Here W. O. found himself in his true element, doctoring motors and outwitting wily cab drivers. When the time came for him to invest £ 2000 for the London agency of three French cars, Buchet, La Licorne, and Doriet, Flandrin et Parent, he was ready. In March, 1912, with his brother, H. M., he started the firm of Bentley & Bentley in New Street Mews off Upper Baker St. Seven years later, W. O. Bentley recalled, in this same coach house, the first 3-liter Bentley engine, Ex-1, roared into life to the alarm of the local inhabitants.

It was at this time that W. O. formed the philosophy that was to guide his future. His favorite of the three cars he was selling was the Doriet, Flandrin et Parent — the DFP. Capital being too scarce to allow for any extensive advertising, W. O. decided that the quickest and most effective publicity came from racing. He won his first major effort — the Aston Hill-Climb. Bentley continued to drive the DFP in races and trials, scoring a respectable number of wins. Victories piled up and sales increased when suddenly war intervened. Bentley joined the Navy and made important contributions to the rotary engines that powered British planes over Germany.

When the war ended, W. O. decided to build a car of his own and in 1919 the Ex-1 3-liter was born. The Autocar published the first road test by Sammy Davis, who praised the speed, brakes and handling. He graciously forgave the noise from the oil pump drive as inseparable from the first chassis of a new design.

Within a short time the Bentleys were making a name for themselves in road tests and races. W. O. explained the company’s policy: First, we never entered for a race unless we thought we would win and, if we won, we liked to do so at the lowest possible speed in order to preserve our cars and keep our true maximum performance from our competitors. We are in racing not for the glory and heroics but strictly for business.

Bentley vetoed all racing on winding or narrow roads where the small-car cornering showed his cars to a disadvantage. His uncompromising desire for the Bentley to perform outstandingly in all races made him set this unalterable formula: Sound, painstakingly meticulous preparation — fast efficient pit-work.

The awesome success of the Bentley cars at Le Mans and in other major and minor competition admittedly sprang from the rules set by W. O. and the fine engineering and construction, but another grand ingredient contributed to the total.