Divo's number one at Le Mans, 1923

The year 2023 sees the centenary of the Le Mans 24-hours race, and there’s no doubt that it will be celebrated not only on the Circuit de la Sarthe itself, but also at racing tracks, museums, exhibition halls and concours d’élégance lawns elsewhere.

This picture was captioned as being taken at Le Mans in 1923 and for a moment we thought that, with number ‘1’ painted proudly on its side, this little Talbot had to be the very first car ever to have started in what may well be the world’s most famous motor race.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. From what we can tell, it is Albert Eugène Divo on his way to win the other major race at Le Mans, the Coupe des Voiturettes. The again, could it be at the Grand Prix de Penya-Rhin in October 1923? He supposedly drove the Talbot there. It might possibly even have been taken at the Argenteuil hill climb, held near Paris that same year.

As you may expect, the first 24-hour race at Le Mans, held on May 26th and 27th, was a very French affair. With the cars all painted in their national racing colours, there was a predominance of French blue on the track. The only exceptions were a single green Bentley Three-Litre works car from Britain and two 5.3-litre six-cylinder Excelsiors from Belgium in the national racing yellow. Remarkably, the Excelsiors wore the numbers ‘1’ and ‘2’, but this was because cars were numbered in order of engine size, with the largest first. They came home respectively 9th and 4th overall. It would be nice to learn what happened to these cars - wouldn’t it be great to see them in action a century after they were raced at Le Mans?

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: French National archives

Pubblicato:

lunedì febbraio 13th, 2023

David Grimstead

14 Febbraio 2023, 17:07

Not Le Mans, it’s your second option: Divo winning the Grand Prix de Penya-Rhin at the Villafranca circuit, Spain, on 21st October 1923, driving a 1500 c.c. Talbot-Darracq. Count Zborowski was second in an Aston Martin and Dario Resta third in another Talbot. The French racing arm of Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq chose to race there instead of taking part in the 1.5-litre class of the Brooklands Junior Car Club 200-mile race held the previous weekend because, they said, they couldn’t do both, but some said they feared losing to FIAT. They would almost certainly have won the 200 as the FIATs failed to finish and C. M. Harvey’s Alvis won.

There is a picture of Divo in this winning No.1 car on Wikimedia Commons:
h**ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert_Divo_vainqueur_du_Grand_Prix_de_Penya-Rhin_en_1923,_sur_Talbot.jpg

Divo’s first good placing in a Talbot-Darracq was second in the 1922, 1500 c.c. I-o-M, T.T. He drove a 2.0-litre Sunbeam to second place in the French Grand Prix de Vitesse at Tours in July 1923. He had engine failure when he drove a Talbot-Darracq in the 1500 c.c class of the Light Car and Cyclecar Race at the August 1923 Boulogne Week. Three Talbot-Sunbeams were entered in the Club l’Ouest voiturette race at Le Mans, which Divo won on 24th September 1923.

It seems to be a feature of later 1923, 1.5-litre, Talbot-Darracqs that what looks like a brake lever exits the bodywork via a curved slot – the lever is external on the 2.0-litre Sunbeams. There is also a press photo of Divo, on the Gallica.bnf.fr. website, said to be published 1926, sitting in a No.20 car, which shows this and other 1.5-litre bodywork features. Divo was still driving Talbots in the later 1930s.

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Divo's number one at Le Mans, 1923

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