Continental Notes and News, May 1936

Confirmenta._ Notes and. Newa

Carratsch “Gets the Bird A or so before the Monaco Grand

A week or so before the Monaco Grand Prix the Mercedes-Benz team went down to Monza for a final tune-up. The chief incident nearly resulted in an accident. Caracciola was travelling very fast on a back stretch of the course when a huge pheasant flew out of the trees right in his path. The bird struck the radiator and then the windscreen, which was fortunately strong enough to withstand the shock. The radiator, which bore the full force of the blow, was dented. Caracciola was quite unperturbed.

Chiron put in a lot of practice, and it was a great pity he could not make use of it at Monaco.

Now for Tripoli His first real run should be at

His first real run should be at Tripoli, on May 10th. The “race of ” ought to be a good show, and will give the Alfas a chance to show off their real speed. According to last year’s announcements the new 12-cylinder engines were to be used for fast circuits like Tripoli.

Four Auto-Unions have been entered, to be driven by Stuck, Varzi, Rosemeyer and Von Delius. Whether the last-named will be given another chance after wrecking a machine at Monaco remains to be seen. His place may be taken by Prince Zu Leiningen.

And then Tunis

A week later the Seventh Tunis Grand Prix is due to be held. The circuit of Carthage, which measures 2 kills. 714, is normally very fast, but this year two chicanes will materially decrease the lap speeds. The cars will have to cover 30 laps, or 381 km. 420 in all. The prize money totals 100,000 francs. Marcel Lehoux had originally entered a 2-litre E.R.A. for the Tunis race, but he has had to scratch. His place has been taken by J. P. Wimille, who will drive-the only Bugatti, in the race. The rest of the field, which is limited to a dozen cars, is made up as follows :Stuck, Varzi and Roseineyer on AutoUnions ; Chiron and Caracciola on

By OUR CONTINENTAL CORRESPONDENT

Mercedes-Benz; Etanceliu on a Maserati ; Nuvolari, Brivio, Farina, de Villapadierna and Sommer on Alfa-Romeos.

Those Chicanes

A visitor to Monaco was M. Huber, organiser of the Swiss Grand Prix. M. Huber came with a set purpose, and that was to sound the opinions of well-known drivers on the proposed inclusion of Chicanes on the circuit of Bremgarten,

at Berne. As you probably know, Bremgarten is a fast and tricky course, with a lot of extremely rapid curves. Geyer piled up there badly last year, and so did Chiron. It seems to be one of the few places where the use of chicanes can be justified.

Anyway it was a common-sense move on the part of the Swiss people to consult the drivers first. After all, they have to deal with the chicanes.

It has not yet been decided, by the way, whether to run the Swiss Grand Prix as one race, Or in heats and a final.

No Race at Geneva

This heading does not refer to a decision of the “Committee of a Hundred and One,” or a similar League of Nations

mancru vre. The matter is far more Serious than that, no less than the cancellation of the Geneva Grand Prix, for the second year in succession. The organisers have . been beset with difficulties right from the start. They were running a sweepstake in conjunction with the race, and I was under the impression that tickets had been on sale for some time. The proposed circuit was not a very good one, and what with one thing and another, the job seems to have been doomed. 30,

30, Braillard’s Come-Back

Talking of Switzerland reminds me that Brainard intdnds to race again this year. Readers will probably remember

this young driver in Continental events a couple of seasons ago. He has been laid up for some time, convalescing after a nasty spill in the Saint-Lo hill-climb. He damaged his shoulder rather badly.

Brainard has been busy converting his Maserati with a special back axle, giving 8 forward speeds. His racing this season will probably be confined to Swiss national events. He used to race under French colours, with a French licence, owing to the fact that the French calendar used to have lots of .small races only open to national drivers.

Bourlier Passes Away

Poor Edmond Bourlier has gone at last, after a long and cruel illness. He was thirty-nine. There always seems to be something peculiarly distressing about a racing driver, a man of rapid action, dying a lingering death. Bourlier was one of that brilliant group of French drivers who graduated from being racing mechanics. His first chance to race was with the 1,500 c.c. Talbot team, but he changed over later to Delage, racing in company with Benoist and Divo. Brookland habitues will probably remember that Bourlier was one of the leading figures in the 1928

British Grand Prix. Throughout the whole race he was in the first three, and in the end he finished second to Benoist.

The funeral in Paris took place in driving rain, but a big crowd of wellknown motoring people attended, among them Louis Delage, Robert Senechal, Rene Thomas, Louis Wagner, A. Dural’, Louis Chiron, Rene Dreyfus, Andre Morel, Robert Benoist, Albert Divo, R. Letorey, Albert Perrot, Henri Stoeffel and Albert Guyot.

Sports Cars at Spa

Presumably encouraged by the big entry received for Le Mans and the ” French Grand Prix,” the R.A.C. de Belgique has decided to revive their 24 Hours Sports Car Race on the Spa

Francorchamps circuit. The date -announced is July 11-12th, but as the Belgian Grand Prix is due to take place on the 12th there seems to be a little confusion somewhere.

The authorities have decided to define a “sports car ” as a car that qualifies for 14e Mans or Montlhery.

Ferrari to Roll to Rio ? hear that the between

hear that the negotiations between Ferrari and the organisers of the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix are still in progress. The race is to be held on J tine 7th, so a decision will have to be arrived at soon. This will be the fourth anniversary of the event, which is run on the circuit of Gavea (so named after the Avenue de Gavea, through which the cars race). The circuit measures 11 km. 160, and the 25 laps of the race bring the total distance up to 279 km. The only restriction on the competing Cara is a minimum weight

limit of 500 kgs. The prize money is tempting.

Stuck’s Magnificent Records

The attitude of modern , Germany towards motoring and motor racing was never more strikingly demonstrated than by the remarkable series of records established by Hans Stuck last month.

With the 16-cylinder Auto-Union, itself an achievement of which Germany may be proud, Stuck broke five world’s records and three International Class B records on the new Frankfurt-Heidelberg Autobahn, a wonderful highway far superior to any thing that has been visualised by the torpid road authorities in this country. The record attempts took place on two consecutive days, on both of which conditions were far from ideal, with rain

and poor visability. However, 8 kilometres were covered at a mean speed of 194 m.p.h. so that the results were good enough. The rest of the records are given below.

It is not generally realised that Stuck made the long distance records -by taking a hairpin bend at certain intervals and returning from whence he had come on the parallel road of the dual carriageway. fhis accounts for his speed being a good deal slower. Here is the full list of records :

International Class B Records

179.42 m.p.h. (Jenkins 140.72 m.p.h.. }

180.94 m.p.h. (Jenkins, 140.95 m.p.h. . ‘ 194,12 m.p.h. (Jenkins 141.56 m.p.h. .

10 kms. Smiles. 5 kma.

. World’s Records

178.02 m.p.h. (Eyston, 167.10 m.p.h.). 165.21 m.p.h. (Eyston, 158.52 m.p.h. .

1 107.38 m.p.h. (Eyston, 160.39 m.p.h. . 163.40 m.p.h. (Eyston, 161.13 m.p.h. . 166.04 m.p.h. (Eyston, 159.60 m.p.h..

10 miles. 50 laps. 50 miles. 100 kms. 100 miles.