A roaring twenties jewel

• 
• 
• 

There is something fascinating about the everyday cars professional race drivers choose to drive. Clark famously owned a Lotus Elan because he liked it, and not "Because I have to". James Hunt's A35 van was always a great talking point - he didn't see the point of driving fast on the road. Fangio probably chose his humble Renault 4cv for the same reason.
Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Siam was a team manager rather than a professional driver himself, but his singular and refined choice of road car deserves inclusion here: A Voisin C7 Lumeneuse, one of Gabriel Voisin's truly great cars. This was the car in which Chula's cousin, Prince Bira, first learned the art of controlling a powerful car. The two Princes can be seen in this wonderful photograph from 1935 with their combined stable of cars - quite the line-up, I'm sure you'll agree.
These days the car has a rather more gentle life, and is more likely to attract the attentions of a beautiful model than a privateer grand prix team owner. Charles Pither, custodian of the car for almost 40 years, has written about it's history in the October issue of The Automobile, which is out now.
(compliments by the editor to photographer Nick Clements for the Tamara de Lempicka inspired photo )   

Aggiunga un commento...