Grand Prix Dioramas: French Grand Prix

Story and photos by Clyde Berryman

This installment of the Clyde Berryman Grand Prix Dioramas deals with the French Grand Prix. Above, a scene from the 1957 French GP (Rouen les Essarts) – A Commissaire and his dog survey the action at Nouveau Monde hairpin.

1953 French GP – Reims-Gueux (Scale: 1-160 or N-Scale)

1953 was the second year in succession that the World Driving Championship was run to Formula Two (F.2) specifications due to a shortage of manufacturers being able to produce a varied grid of F.1 cars. The Ferrari 500 F.2 and Alberto Ascari had dominated in 1952 and would win the title again in 1953 but Juan-Manuel Fangio in the Maserati was now much more competitive.

The 1953 French GP, however, was the race in which Englishman Mike Hawthorn established himself as a new front-runner when he won in his Ferrari 500 after a major race-end slipstreaming duel with Fangio. That is the scene depicted in this diorama with the two of them going around Thillois corner with Ascari trailing in third place. The small building in the background, a modified N-scale plastic kit, is the ‘Auberge de la Garenne’, an iconic restaurant and inn which still stands in the same place to this day.

1957 French GP – Rouen-les-Essarts (Scale: 1-43)

I chose to do this diorama mainly because I had several Lancia-Ferrari 801 diecast models on hand and this race, near the midpoint in the 1957 season, was another Juan-Manuel Fangio win in his Maserati 250F on his way to securing his fifth and final World Championship title. This would be one of the last seasons in which the front-engine roadsters would not be threatened by the nimble, rear-engine Coopers that were beginning to make their appearance felt. The scene here is Nouveau Monde (‘New World’) at the Southern extremity of the circuit, which follows a long set of sweeping acrobatic curves going downhill before the cars have to brake for the hairpin, with the added challenge of a cobblestone apex which can play havoc with tire grip. There are steep, forest-covered embankments on either side of this curve which provide natural vantage points for spectators, so this too had to be a part of the diorama. Here, Juan-Manuel Fangio has already rounded the corner and is in full acceleration followed by Luigi Musso (Lancia-Ferrari 801), Jean Behra (Maserati 250F), Peter Collins (Lancia-Ferrari 801) and Harry Schell (Maserati 250F). Mike Hawthorn (Lancia-Ferrari 801) is struggling to keep pace with the leaders while Stuart Lewis-Evans (Vanwall) has been lapped.

1958 French GP – Reims-Gueux (Scale: 1-43

The ‘Circuit Routier de Reims-Gueux’ consisted of long fast straights of public road coursing through agricultural fields (and at one time, the streets of the village of Gueux) just outside the city of Reims, the champagne capital of France. It had initially been home to the Marne Grand Prix in the mid-late 1920’s before the Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France (ACF) became its premier event. I had the opportunity of visiting the deteriorating structures of this once-great circuit in the early-2000’s and it was sad to see the dilapidated state of the buildings, its grandstands covered in graffiti and tall grass growing in the pit boxes. Real-estate developers were eyeing this valuable land so close to Reims and there was no reason to expect this monument to French motor racing history would not get bulldozed soon, as had happened shortly before with the circuit buildings at Rouen-les-Essarts. When a group of volunteer enthusiasts (‘Les Amis du Circuit de Gueux’) began restoring the control tower, pits and grandstands to pristine condition, everything changed. No one had the heart to destroy their work and the venue is used to this day for periodic events – mostly automotive in nature as one could expect.

I was moved by this turnaround of events and decided to build my own large diorama. I chose the 1958 French GP because almost the entire starting grid of F.1 car manufacturers / models were available in 1-43 die cast scale. The race was won brilliantly by Mike Hawthorn (Ferrari-Dino 246) on his way to the 1958 World Championship title but it tragically also witnessed the fatal accident of his Italian teammate, Luigi Musso. It also ended up being Juan-Manuel Fangio’s last F.1 Grand Prix race in a Maserati 250F.

I used mostly wood, cardboard, paper, styrene plastic, and nails for the main control tower structure. I generally make significant use of the internet in researching period advertisements as seen on photographs, and re-size these or make new ones from scratch with the computer, subsequently painted and ‘aged’ before they are applied to billboards or buildings. The scene depicted here is right after the race start has taken place. Harry Schell (BRM P25) has gotten a terrific but short-lived lead over the Ferraris. I used stretched-cotton with glue and paint to create the wheel spin ‘smoke’ behind the tires of the cars accelerating away from the starting grid. The starting grid circuit markings show that Reims was also used at this time for sports-car endurance racing with a ‘Le Mans’ style start requiring the drivers to run from the opposite side of the track and leap into their parked cars.

Previous stories:
Grand Prix Dioramas, Introduction
Grand Prix Dioramas, Tripoli

Next in the Diorama series: Monaco!