Playboy racer with a love for Le Mans: Alain de Cadenet obituary

Obituaries
- Last updated: August 6th 2024

Gentleman driver, team owner and TV presenter, Alain de Cadenet lived a life of adventure, charming many he met along the way

Racing driver Alain De Cadenet with the Duckhams LM1 racing car built for him and his team-mate Chris Craft, UK, 20th June 1973. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

De Cadenet with his Duckhams LM1 car

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Alain de Cadenet 1945-2022

Alain de Cadenet was quite a simply a one-off, a man of intellect, humour and a brilliant communicator. That’s before you get into his cavalier career as a racing driver and later team owner plus achievements which spanned everything from winning World Sportscar Championship for Makes events and finishing third at Le Mans with a car of his own constructor. He was briefly a Formula 1 private entrant. Then add the fact that he flew a Supermarine Spitfire and, along with HM the Queen, owned the finest collection of King George postage stamps. He owned what he would call some “tasty” cars including the Targa Florio-winning Alfa Romeo 8C, but sadly regretted selling his Ferrari 250GTO. He was also probably the most eloquent and amusing story-teller I ever met.

“Decad”, as we usually called him, was born in 1945 the son of Maxime Jacques de Cadenet, a very well connected lieutenant in the French Air Force. His mother Valeria was a “B” movie actress who lived high up in the Hollywood Hills. De Cad took myself and Motor Sport photographer Laurie Morton to meet her once. On the way he said he “came up here once and let myself in – she was in bed with Elvis Presley”.

After attending Framlingham School and learning to ride on a BSA Bantam, he switched to four wheels, passing his driving test in a British School of Motoring Triumph Herald. He started to work in a Merchant Bank but then, as he often recounted, a particularly beautiful model girlfriend he was dating left him for a fashion photographer. So he decided to leave the City and become a photographer and indeed he built a reputation in rock ‘n’ roll and fashion.

Racing driver Alain De Cadenet with the Duckhams LM1 racing car built for him and his team-mate Chris Craft, UK, 20th June 1973. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

De Cadenet was intrigued by motor sport after losing a girlfriend to a racing driver

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

But then another girlfriend ditched him for a racing driver. He knew nothing of the sport but his friend Richard Rossely did some car racing between taking part in the Cresta Run and being a man about town. De Cad figured that if he was going to hold on to the next member of the opposite sex, he had better give it a go and leaned on Richard for support.

So they headed off to Brands Hatch in his AC Ace Bristol on re-treaded tyres and made his debut without actually having a competition licence. The story goes that there was an attractive lady in the race who asked Alain to come to her flat later. He did, only to find Mike Hailwood leaving with a smile on his face! As he said many years later “I went racing for the women but I like the cars.”

The motor sport bug had definitely bitten badly and after very quickly learning the ropes and proving he had a natural talent for the sport, he was able to acquire a Porsche 904. He drove the car to his first major event, the 1967 Martini International at Silverstone, and came home with a trophy and some prize money. This spurred him on and fortunately he had access to family money.

From the archive

The following year he acquired a Ferrari Dino 206 which he ran for a couple of years and then a Porsche 908 and a 2-litre Lola T210.

In 1971 he not only made his first of fourteen appearances at Le Mans but also raced outside Europe finishing 5th in a NART Ferrari 312 at the Daytona 24 Hours. He competed at his first Le Mans in an Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 512M with the Belgian Count Hughes de Fierlant but they retired. That same year he became a F1 entrant, acquiring an ageing Brabham BT33 which under the Ecurie Evergreen banner he entered in the two North American races for his friend Chris Craft to drive. Chris failed to qualify in Canada but made the start at Watkins Glen with the aid of sponsor Bick’s Pickles – who, he alleged, paid in kind in jars of the things. Chris qualified 30th but retired half way through with damaged suspension.

He decided to focus on Le Mans and after failing to buy a Ferrari 312PB from the factory decided to try to beat them with a car of his own construction. To design the first de Cadenet sports car he recruited a young designer at Brabham called Gordon Murray and, working in his spare time, Murray used some components from the F1 car to produce a machine which took them to 12th overall. In 1973 he briefly worked as a team manager for Graham Hill’s new Formula 1 team but by Monaco he had fallen out with his boss.

The next two years saw the car improved but it retired on both occasions. For 1975 he acquired a Lola T380, again with a Cosworth DFV and it is believed to be the first ever racing car constructed at Lola’s then-new Huntingdon factory. It proved to be down on top speed and the Craft/deCad combination could only finish a disappointed 14th.

Duckhams LM car of Chris Craft and Alain de Cadenet in the 1972 Le Mans 24 Hours

With revised LM1 car at Le Mans ’72

DPPI

Highly successful changes were made to the aero package for 1976 where they gloriously finished on the podium, third behind the Porsche 936 of Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep and the Mirage of Francois Migault and Jean-Lous Lafosse. The following year they finished a strong fifth.

Subsequent de Cadenet Le Mans entries included cars designed by Len Baily and built by John Thompson cars. There was a foray into the Can-Am series with the car in 1978 including a fifth place at Trois Riviere with sponsorship from the British Post Office. Alain was pretty adept at finding sponsors which also included Duckhams and Tate and Lyle sugar.

The following year, with Migault replacing Craft there, was a promising second in the Silverstone 6 Hours but disappointing retirement at Le Mans. Interspersed with this were great stories including the early morning 200mph test on a deserted M4 and the time de Cad came into the Le Mans pits to re-fuel to find not a soul and hardly a spanner there.

In 1980 a seventh-place Le Mans finish with Migault was a disappointment in a race which saw the Rondeaus finish first and second. Desire Wilson had crashed the car in practice after a mechanical failure and some rather dubious Le Mans protocol meant she was unable to race the repaired car.

The season had started so well. Alain had taken a a gamble on hiring Des as his co-driver and they started the season with a win at the Monza 1000Kms, some attributing the success to a brilliant strategy call by the team to send her out on slicks as the rain came down – the bald truth was that the team had no wet weather tyres and the South African drove with brilliance to bring it home. A win in the Silverstone 6 Hours followed plus a third in the Brands Hatch 1000Kms – Des remains the only women to have won a round of the World Sportscar/Endurance Championship.

From 1982 onwards Alan raced with other teams at Le Mans including five years with Courage but there was no repeat of the earlier glory days and he finally hung his professional helmet up in 1988 although continued to race in historic events. He also found a natural home as a TV commentator and presenter. His dashing good looks, eloquence, knowledge and upper-crust English accent endeared him to US audiences – although he would have been the perfect presenter for Top Gear. In later life he spent most of his time in Los Angeles while retaining his mews house in Queens Gate Mews, London SW7 and many a racing car was fettled in its ground floor garage.

I worked with him at Le Mans for the Speedvision Channel and there was never a dull moment, assuming that we could find him – I am not sure he ever made one of the interminable American production meetings on time.

His TV career blossomed and he went on to host outstanding series such as Legends of Motorsport, Victory by Design and Renaissance Man. He is also remembered for the famous clip where he talks to camera about the Spitfire and is almost flattened by such a plane taking off. He died in California aged 76 having battled cancer for the last couple of years.

His daughter Amanda followed in his TV footsteps and for several years was the face of high profile programmes such as The Word and Big Breakfast. His son Alexander – sometimes known as Bruiser – is a sculptor, painter and photographer. To them and his wife Alison, Motor Sport sends its sincere condolences.

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