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Driving the Gordini Sports Part 2, Chassis History

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1950 Gordini

Chassis 19GCS made its first racing appearance at the 1950 Le Mans as a 1.5-liter car, driven by Andre Simon (here) and the boss's son, Aldo. They retired after 6 hours.

Ed McDonough continues with the history of chassis 19GCS
Color Photos by Mike Jiggle
Historical photos from the collection of Eddie McGuire

The car you see here, chassis19GCS made its first public appearance on the Gordini stand at the 1949 Paris Motor Show. It was originally intended that all the new cars would appear at the 1949 Le Mans race, but single-seater events had taken priority. Maurice Trintignant and Robert Manzon drove 18GCS but retired, and 19GCS made a gentle entry at the Paris Show with its ohv 1.5 engine, a four-speed gearbox, and the light alloy body helped it to weigh in at only 650 kgs. The engine was known as the T15.

1950
Though it had an easy start in the racing world, 19GCS would have a reasonably hard…and long…life. It ran at Le Mans for the first time on 25-26 June, 1950 with Andre Simon and Gordini’s son Aldo driving with car number 34, but it was forced to retire. Andre Simon joined the Gordini team at the beginning of the year. The car was quick at Le Mans but the gearbox broke after six hours. It then was raced, still in 1.5-liter format, three times in July at the Mont Ventoux Hillclimb, the 12 Hours of Paris and the Rouen Sports Car Grand Prix, driven by the various members of the Gordini team. At the end of August it appeared in the rather obscure Coupe Rhineland. It must be remembered that there were an unusually large number of monoposto races going on in this period and the Gordini resources were stretched to the limit.

The 1951 Le Mans Simca-Gordini team; Pictured is #37, chassis 19GCS, driven by Pierre Veyron and Georges Monneret. It retired with engine failure.

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Help Find Denise McCLuggage’s Race Cars

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The OSCA Formula Junior was provided by Briggs Cunningham. The Fiat powered OSCA Jr. was too late and too slow, but arguably the most beautiful Jr. every made. Here Denise is at the wheel of the OSCA at Watkins Glen in 1960. McCluggage first met Cunningham while covering the regattas on Long Island Sound in 1955 for the New York Herald Tribune. Cunningham also owned the Porsche RS550 co driven at Caracas 1957 by Denise and her famous rival Ruth Levy. The team brought the Porsche to a fourth in class. The Levy-McCluggage rivalry garnered a lot of press, but Levy realized that McCluggage was the better driver. Photo courtesy Denise McCluggage.

Hey, Denise McCluggage Fans – (and we KNOW there are MANY)!

Mark Reinwald is working with the Santa Fe Concorso’s “Tribute to Denise McCluggage” on September 27-29 to create a celebration of Denise McCluggage and the cars she raced.
As you probably know, Denise began with the classic MG and continued her racing career throughout a good part of her life. She drove everything in sight, and she drove everything well. She had some great competitors, but in general McCluggage is regarded as the best in class throughout the 1950s and 60s.
[Read more…] about Help Find Denise McCLuggage’s Race Cars

Ed McDonough Drives a Classic Gordini Part 1

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1949 GORDINI 23S – CHASSIS 19GCS
Photo by Mike Jiggle, European Editor, VINTAGE RACECAR


By Ed McDonough

Anyone who has ever listened to Peter Ustinov’s fabulous motor racing spoof of the 1950s, the Grand Prix of Gibraltar, knows about Amédée Gordini. Ustinov’s parody of the Franco-Italian, Monsieur Orgini, and ‘eez funny leetle blue Orgini cars’ was not only hysterical but drew strongly on Ustinov’s knowledge of the then GP scene. The Orgini team was penniless, inclined to give up in existential despair and sit around smoking Gauloise, even while fueling the cars. Because they had no money for oil, they used a gift of sponsor’s cognac in the car instead! They couldn’t compete with the Teutonic efficiency of Herr Altbauer’s Schnorcedes team, or the drivers like Girling Foss and Bill Dill in the American Wildfowl.

According to Wikipedia, Ustinov was “a car enthusiast since the age of four, he owned a succession of interesting machines ranging from a Fiat Topolino, several Lancias, a Hispano-Suiza, a Delage and a Jowett Jupiter.”

While Ustinov’s portrayal of the French racing car constructor captured the frenetic way the team operated with very limited funding, it perhaps left a generation thinking that the real Gordini was not a serious player in the motor racing world, and that would be entirely wrong.

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Peugeot Returns to Pikes Peak In English and Italian

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By Roberto Motta
Photos courtesy of Peugeot Sport

On 30 June, nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb and a fantastic new Peugeot 208 T16 will start in the most famous hillclimb race in the world: Pikes Peak.

The event marks the return of the French team at the traditional hillclimb after the memorable one-two wins on the same mountain in 1988 and 1989.

[Read more…] about Peugeot Returns to Pikes Peak In English and Italian

Coming up in June: Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano

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By Staff

There’s still time for a few more cars on the legendary Le Mitiche to be held 21-23 of June, but you must sign up now. Mitiche Website For questions contact Dino Brunori at (dbrunori@gmail.com).

There are events, and there are EVENTS. VeloceToday covers the gamut, from the huge such as Concorso Italiano, Retro, Mille Miglia and Goodwood, to obscure, smaller affairs like Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano, which every year caters to barchettas particularly of the etceterini kind. It has got to be one of the most delightful affairs of all; a warm, friendly gathering of truly knowledgeable car enthusiasts who are just as happy with an OSCA as an Ortolani. [Read more…] about Coming up in June: Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano

The Pilette Racing Dynasty

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Last week we introduced Theodore Pilette, the Belgian racing driver who finished 5th in the 1913 Indy 500, exactly one hundred years ago this week. This century old family affair will be celebrated by his grandson and race driver Teddy Pilette at Indianapolis this Sunday.

By Graham Gauld

When Theodore Pilette was killed in his Mercedes in 1921 his son, Andre Pilette, was just three years of age. But Andre would also become a racing driver after World War II.

Andre Pilette

Andre Pilette at the wheel of one of the factory Gordini sports cars at Silverstone in the 1950s. (Graham Gauld photo).

Andre continued the car dealership business and raced anything that was around in the Pilette garage, which included an Alfa Romeo 2300, a Veritas and an HRG. For the 1948 24 hours of Spa race, he was approached by Englishman Tony Rolt to share his Aston Martin DB2. When it came to the race Rolt drove until it began to get dark and then handed over to Pilette.

Theodore's son Andre with the Alfa 2300, sometime after WWII. Photo courtesy Pilette family.

Rolt then went back to his hotel, had dinner, went to bed and did not return to the track until 9.00 am to take over from the exhausted Pilette who had driven all through the night! A year later and Andre was back at Spa for the 24 hour race this time in a factory HRG winning the 1500cc class.

Three of the four Oldsmobiles at Spa. Photo courtesy Pilette family.

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Lambo Party, More of the Mostest

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Dramatic is an understatement, but that's Lamborghini's new Sesto.

By Mario Marchesini

Last week for a variety of reasons, we didn’t deliver all of the great Lambo party photos taken by correspondent Mario Marchesini. Since we don’t do much on Lamborghini, (a feature on a weekend tune up for a Miura would be fun though) we figured it was well worth running the missing images, even though the party is quite over, though moving, we hear, to California later this year.

So enjoy, without further or much comment, the running of the Bulls in Bologna.

[Read more…] about Lambo Party, More of the Mostest

One Family, 100 years of Racing

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Theodore Pilette at the wheel of his Gregoire at the Gaillon event in 1906

By Graham Gauld
Photos courtesy Pilette Family

This year’s Indianapolis 500 will be something special for Belgian ex-racing driver Teddy Pilette, for it will mark the 100th anniversary of his grandfather Theodore Pilette’s remarkable 5th place in the 1913 Indy 500. Remarkably, Teddy himself had three attempts at Indy back in 1979,’81 and’82 but did not manage to qualify. In between, Teddy’s father, Theodore’s son Andre, was a successful Belgain race driver in the 1950s, driving for Gordini and Ferrari. Finally, Teddy’s son John is now racing SEAT sedans!

But it all began with Grandfather Pilette, whose performance at Indy back then was of particular significance because his Mercedes-Knight was the smallest car in the race at just over 4 liters and he even averaged 20 mpg on fuel. So who was Theodore Pilette?
Born in 1883, he was a teenager when the automobile hit town and clearly he was impressed and went into the auto trade as soon as he could and became a dealer for Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (Mercedes).

The Pilette Garage in Brussels: note the dealerships.

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Concept Cars and Aerodynamics Part 4: Airflow

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Inspiring stylists around the world - the Chrysler Airflow.

Learning from the Americans:Planned Obsolescence and Airflow influence

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

In 1920, Alfred Sloan was appointed to save the ailing General Motors. As we have seen in part 3, Sloan had learned from contacts with dealers and client surveys that styling sold better than advanced engineering. This was one of the reasons why he engaged Harley Earl to set up an Art and Color department at GM, the first professional in-house styling studio in the world.

Alfred P. Sloan, 1875-1966.

To increase the output of GM’s factories, Sloan and Earl introduced annual model changes. The idea was to seduce the public to buy a new model, long before it was economically or technically necessary to trade in their present car. This strategy became known as ‘Planned Obsolescence’.

(If you would like to know more about its effect on car design and marketing, read “My Years with General Motors” by Alfred P. Sloan. It was first published in 1963 but second-hand copies are still available from Amazon and AbeBooks.)

The great depression that followed in the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 had grave consequences for the societies in many countries, and thus for the car manufacturers in the USA and – with some delay – of those in Europe. A great number of smaller companies did not survive the economic downturn while many workers became jobless. In Germany and Italy poverty and social insecurity would lead to the rise to power of National socialist and Fascist governments. [Read more…] about Concept Cars and Aerodynamics Part 4: Airflow

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