History Auto racing 1894-1942

"A wrecked automobile, which crashed during the 1912 Milwaukee Grand Prize Race (later called the American Grand Prix); possibly car #35, in which driver Ralph DePalma was seriously injured." I wish I could recall where I found this, but cannot. Does anyone have anything on this?

 

I wasn't aware that Napier were into race cars - but maybe Royalty punted their cars around their country estates out of view of the plebs.

However, could someone enlighten me on this particular item please...

 

It looks like a warning device - a siren?

 

A hand crank Klaxon horn

Some sort of horn required for English road registration.


Herb Kephart

 

Good call Herb, someone needs to "parlez en français à René Panhard et Émile Levassor".

 

where I come from, we call this a "teaser"

 

Ralph DePalma's Mercedes. Lucky to survive.

 

So, does the driver really look like Mr.Gabriel?

 

was granted an impromptu chance to shoot a few Helck pieces, thought you guys might appreciate this one:

(i will post 'em big, so you can enjoy the detail)

and if you know about the piece, no comments please about it where abouts.

 

this was an improptu, so the lighting is not perfect, and I was in a rush as not to delay the owner. all of this was shot on my Rolleiflex 2.8f

 

when i was a kid, this piece did it for me. getting to see it again, brought back all those great feelings and dreams you have at that age.

 

this picture may have more truth than I thought, in terms of how the race looked that "day".

 

Nice photos furb.

Perhaps someone should have a shot at creating something from this photo.

 

thanks. it was loads fun to do. Peter Helck really did it right. My two choice pieces would be something by Helck, personally it would be some of his charcoal studies and a Walter Gotschke. (Then a nice selection of Gamy-Monteaux's.)

 

Good choices.

Stanley Wanless works are also some of the finest.
Jeff Decker is another that caught my eye a few years ago.
www.jeffdeckerstudio.com/

 

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They're kidding, right?

I expected to see Dick Van Dyke in the cockpit.

 

I have seen the same photo before if I remember correctly on the Florida State Historical Society website. They attribute it to a gentleman from Daytona Beach.

It looks to me that the chassis under Rocket mans car appears to be foreign.

 

This picture was allegedly taken at Daytona Beach, but the car is French and never actually left its homeland. It was powered by two Bristol Jupiter aero engines, which would have developed about 600bhp. Built by René Stapp between 1930 and 1932 it caught fire while being tested on the beach at La Baule. Stapp broke his leg during this incident and the car was destroyed.

I presume the picture came from a French press agency and was sent to Daytona in advance. Until just now - when I did a Google News search - I knew of only one other picture of it, in Eyston and Lyndon's Motor Racing and Record Breaking, which shows it running on a public road in France. On pavé, which must have been a bit uncomfortable!

If you do a Google News advanced search using Stapp and Daytona as keywords and specifying 1932 as the date, you'll find another (very poor) picture in the Ottawa Citizen. And some very wrong information!

 

Apparently this ambitious record breaker was fitted with four engines. The chassis is reported to have come from a Voisin as was the engine that sat in front and acted as a starter motor for the three radial engines in the rear. These were converted to turbines by removing the pistons.
Another feature that was built into the car was a periscope. Again..

I'd like to know why Monsieur Stapp mounted a spare to the car. Was he really expecting to make a return run?

 

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Having dug into some French papers this morning, I find you're right - it did have three driving engines, not two. On March 31st 1932 Le Figaro reported that Stapp was ready to test the car at La Baule, on the stretch of beach between Pornichet and Pouliguen.

On April 26th, at about 4pm, the car rolled slowly onto the sands, driven by Stapp and a riding mechanic. Two hundred metres into the run, smoke was seen coming from the car, at which point Stapp ordered the mechanic to bail out while attempting to do the same himself. He seems to have been caught in the cockpit, his legs being trapped. Meanwhile the car had run over the mechanic's foot before coming to a stop. The now unconscious M Stapp was extracted from the car with severe leg injuries and taken to the clinic of a Dr Dubois.

Although only the smoke is mentioned in the report, the headline says the car was "destroyed by fire". Stapp apparently claimed he would make another attempt once he had recovered, as he had another car toute prête. Perhaps that explains the prominent number 2 painted on it? Maybe even the discrepancy as to whether it had two or three engines and by extension the confusion over reported power outputs which vary from 600hp to 1800hp? Jupiter engines - and I suspect he'd have used licence-built Gnome-Rhône versions rather than Bristols - developed anything between 400 and 580bhp.

As for the periscope, I think the cockpit was totally enclosed with no forward vision. The picture I mentioned earlier seems to show M Stapp standing up and leaning out while driving it on the road!

As to the spare wheel: just a guess, but maybe French construction and use regulations required it? The thing is road-registered!

edit: Found a better report in l'Ouest-Éclair, which seems to confirm there was another chassis! The destroyed car is referred to as "Number 2", with the hope expressed that he'd be back with an improved "Number 3".

 

With 600-1800 HP and no forward view except a periscope Stapp deserves the Big Balls and No Brains award.