Belated happy 100th Birthday

[Steven Roy]

As a result of PitLane going down I had nowhere to post this at the time a few weeks ago.

Elly Rosemeyer widow of the late great Bernd Rosemeyer recently celebrated her 100th birthday.  She was a pioneering aviator amongst other things.

Bernd Rosemeyer died in a pointless end of season speed record attempt on an autobahn in 1937.

For anyone who wants to start understanding the history of the sport the late 30s are a facinating time to start as the Nazis sponsored both Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union so you have racing, politics and history.  There were a whole host of interesting drivers including Tazio Nuvolari, Rudolf Carriciola, Manfred vonBrauchitsch, Herman Lang as well as characters like Alfred Neubauer who ran the Mercedes team and Rudi Uhlenhaut who designed the Mercs and reputedly was as fast as any of the works drivers.  If none of them were available he would take one of his new designs on to the Nurburgring and test it himself.  I am sure Adrian Newey would love the same opportunity.

[Dare]

a article on Elly Rosemeyer

http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/elly100.htm

[f1box]

Leif Snellman's site is an absolute gem of a site.
If you have even the remotest of interest in motoracing from the 1930's then it should appear in your favourites/bookmarked folder.
I use it extensively when researching photographs of the era.
(I'm also a very minor, credited, contributor - but that doesn't colour my judgement! lol)

David

[Steven Roy]

Thankks for the link.  I had never heard of Leif Snellman before.  I have only a surface knowledge of the history of that period so I guess I am going to have to read his entire website and get a bit more clued up.

For some reason I always found Bernd Rosemeyer facinating despite never having seen any film of him until a couple of weeks ago.  There is a short clip on youtube.  Strange how you can develop an interest in a driver without ever seeing him drive.

[f1box]

Strange how you can develop an interest in a driver without ever seeing him drive.

Quirky but true!

My interest in the history of motorsport was sparked by buying a couple of second hand books from a junk shop (for about 50 pence each). Up until then I'd followed F1 but as a fan of the then current scene (and vague childhood memories of news reports etc.)

The two particular books were  'Bits and Pieces' being a self penned account of some of the racing exploits of B. Bira (Prince Birabongse - the Thai prince - another driver under an altered/assumed name!) and 'On the Starting Grid' by Paul Frère (the Belgian Journalist, Grand Prix driver and Le Mans winner).

Both absolutely captivated me and lead me to discover more and more about the subject.

So indirectly the chance purchase of a couple raggedy old books lead me to do what I now do for a living!

Despite having quite an extensive motorsports library and dealing in second hand motorsport books - I have never upgraded those particular two books to more pristine copies!

David

[Steven Roy]

Elly Rosemeyer's story is incredible.  Imagine a complete novice getting into one of those cars.  It is inconceivable.

If I knew any film producers I would send them the link.  A woman like that married to a racing driver with the Nazis thrown in.  What more do you need?

No doubt in the film she would be American.