From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Page from 'The Motor' magazine reporting on the 1939 Le Mans race.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27\3\ Scan126 | |
| Date | 20th June 1939 | |
| June 20, 1939. 809 The Motor LE MANS . Contd. CRASH—when car No. 40 (the Breillet-Debille Fiat) spun round, it hit the bank and ricochetted back into the fairway. The driver retrieved his seat cushion while helpers pushed the car away; then the ambulance arrived and swung out into the path of a 100 m.p.h. car (inset) whilst spectators gasped and waited for another crash . . . which happily did not come. 4,500 r.p.m. but still equalling Sommer’s lap times, the Delahaye battle in full swing and the Bugatti hovering in fourth place a lap behind. The Lagondas were tooling round like trains, 11th and 12th, separated by three laps, and the team like three B.M.W.s ran in line ahead, one a lap ahead of the other two. Slowly the light faded, and the pits and stands sprang into light, so that the track was floodlit and the pits took on their famous aspect of a street of shops. The car head lights came on, and the long beams could be seen dipping and waving over the tree tops in the distance. A Battle Intense LE MANS, Sunday. DURING the long night—fortunately fine and star-lit—the battle began to develop. At 9 p.m. the Mazaud Delahaye was a second in the lead from Gerard’s amazing Delage, with the 4½ Darracq of Chinetti and Mathieson on its tail, and the Bugatti, running 1,000 r.p.m. in hand, fourth, watching and waiting. The Lagondas were going steadily, the drivers holding their horses and sparing their brakes for what might be needed later. They were running eighth and eleventh. An hour later Chinetti took the lead by 21 secs. from Mazaud and the Delage was third after refuelling, but at 11 p.m. the Delage was back in the lead, a lap ahead of Chinetti, Mazaud and the Bugatti. At midnight the position was the same except that Mazaud was half a minute ahead of Chinetti. Just over a minute separated first and second—Gerard and Chinetti—and in the next hour the flying Delage gained nearly four minutes on the Darracq, while the Lagondas came up to seventh and eighth, running two laps apart, Dobson ahead. Shortly before 2 o’clock Mazaud caught fire and just got to his pit in time. The flames were put out, but too much damage was done, and after a gallant show, the Delahaye was out. This made the order Gerard, nearly a lap in the lead, Chinetti, the Bugatti, and fourth was Hug, on the second 3-litre Delage. This order remained for the next hour, but the Lagondas moved up again to sixth and seventh places, still two laps apart. The whole point now was whether the Gerard Delage could keep going at this speed, and whether the Bugatti had enough reserve of speed to cope with the situation. At 5 a.m. it was only a lap behind and going well, but a little later it came to rest on the Mulsanne Straight while the driver did some tuning, and the car fell back to third place. The Lagondas were still sixth and seventh, and the three white B.M.W.s, which had gone with astonishing speed right through, were eighth, ninth and eleventh. At 7 a.m. Gerard led by a lap still, but the Bugatti was second again, eight laps ahead of Mathieson, now at the wheel of Chinetti’s Darracq, and lo, Dobson was fourth, Selsdon sixth, the B.M.W.s seventh, tenth and eleventh. Shortly before 8 a.m., Mathieson threw a tread, and on a fast bend coming out on to the Mulsanne Straight, the tyre burst and the Darracq plunged sideways into the bank. Just behind was Hug in the second Delage, and as the Darracq went sideways, the Delage struck it and crashed. Neither of the drivers were really hurt, and Mathieson restarted—only to retire a couple of miles farther on. This left Gerard three laps in the lead, the Bugatti second and—hurray—the Lagondas third and fourth. The B.M.W. team moved up to fifth, eighth and ninth. Trouble Stalks All during the night and the grim early hours of Sunday morning trouble stalked abroad among the cars, so that, by 9 a.m., 19 of 40 starters were out of the race. The Sommer-Bira Alfa, after the change of gasket, went off mightily well, and began to pick up, but then began brake troubles which put it right back. The Wisdom-Scott Singer retired with dirty fuel, water and rust and all sorts of things being therein, and the other Singer suffered the same bother. Bonneau’s M.G. broke its carburetter, the Hichens-Morris Goodall Aston Martin broke a valve spring, which let the valve down until it smacked the piston and bent up. The car carried on with three cylinders to finish its qualifying laps. Massa’s Darracq had similar trouble. Just after daybreak—and it was a lovely morning with bright sun and light clouds sailing on a gentle breeze—the handicap positions showed Gerard in the lead with an index of 1.33, Hug (Delage) and Gordini (1,100 Simca Fiat) equal second with 1.32, Chinetti and Prince Schaumburg-Lippe (B.M.W.) equal third with 1.27, and next up the Bugatti and the other two B.M.W.s, equal sixth with 1.25. The race speed was still very high. WINNER—Unusual angle on the imposing Bugatti—a streamlined 2-seater, with 3.3 litre supercharged engine D18 | ||