history of 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.