Editorial Reflections, August 1936

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Editorial Reflections

The month has been a sad one for many of us. Marcel Lehoux had been racing for so many years, and with, such great regularity, that the thought never entered one’s head that he might be involved in a fatal accident. Fortunately—if one can apply the word to such a tragic affair—his death must have been instantaneous.

Lehoux will be remembered as one of the most pleasant personalities the racing-game has produced. He had his heart and soul in motor-racing—at least so much as could be spared from, his business, which took a great deal of his time. He was one of those men who simply could not keep away from racing.

He was probably at his best when the 2.3-litre Bugatti was in its prime, and he handled that car like a master. When he joined the Scuderia Ferrari he never had any “breaks,” but was placed in several races.

Following a period of free-lancing, with a Maserati, Lehoux was invited to join the official E.R.A. team, and it was while making what would have been his best performance on the British car that the tragedy occurred. Yes, we shall miss Marcel Lehoux, with his cheerful smile and modest demean

our. A grand little sportsman has passed away.

Recent events have brought into prominence, once more, the old question of “when is a sports-car not a sports-car ? ” In the heated discussions which have been waged on the relative merits of sportscars and racing-cars, the advocates of the former type, particularly in France, have always stressed the value of racing with stock cars, and the interest shown by spectators in seeing cars “the

same as you can buy ” performing in competition.

If the experts in question are sincere in this argument, and are not just using it as a weapon against real racing-cars, it is only fair to demand that they take steps to see that the sports-cars in races are genuine production models. It is our own opinion that a car cannot be called a stock car unless at least 20 identical cars have been constructed before the race, and that it is possible in actual fact to purchase a car similar to those in the race.

So far as sports-car racing in Great Britain is concerned, our R.A.C. has shown itself in the past to be alive to the dangers of disguised racing-cars running in the Tourist Trophy race. We can therefore rest assured that the rules defining the eligibility of sportscars for this race will be rigidly adhered to. Foreign competitors who are used to the accommodatin g interpretation of rules by their own race organisers, can be warned in advance that they can expect no such leniency in Great Britain. A lesson to be learned from the German Grand Prix last month is that a new Prix last month is that a new generation of young drivers is at last giving a definite challenge to the “old brigade.” It was a stirring sight indeed to see Berndt Rosemeyer and Herman Lang, the youngest drivers of the AutoUnion and Mercedes-Benz team, out in the front, waging battle which thrilled a glorious

every one of the 350,000 spectators round the course. It looks as though only Nuvolari, that evergreen genius, will be able to resist the challenge of youth, thereby earning for himself, without qualification, the position of the greatest driver in the history of motor-racing.