René de Knyff

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René de Knyff (1912)
René de Knyff during the first Tour de France for automobiles

Chevalier René de Knyff (born December 10, 1865 in Antwerp , Belgium , † 1954 ) was a French racing driver and chairman of the motor sports association Commission Sportive Internationale .

Career

The weighty beard bearer de Knyff is considered one of the doyen of automobile sport and one of the great racing drivers of the first epoch.

De Knyff always competed in his car races with Panhard & Levassor cars , for which he also held a managerial position. He was also involved in the founding of the French automobile club ACF .

His racing career began in the 1897 Marseille – La Turbie race with fourth place. De Knyff celebrated his first victory at Paris – Bordeaux in 1898 . Further successes were a victory in the Tour de France for automobiles in 1899 , third place in Paris – Berlin in 1901 and second place in the Gordon Bennet Trophy in 1903 ; when this race was held last year ( Paris – Innsbruck ) he retired, leading by a large margin, just 40 km from the finish.

After 1903, de Knyff retired from active racing. He became chairman of the racing department of the French automobile club and was chairman of the international motorsport organization Commission Sportive Internationale from 1922 to 1946 .

René de Knyff died in 1954 at the age of 90.

literature

  • Halwart Schrader (Ed.): Motor Men: People, myths and engines of automobile history. 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-613-03202-6 .
  • Thomas Ulrich: Paris-Madrid: The greatest race of all time. 2nd Edition. Monsenstein & Vannerdat, 2013, ISBN 978-3-942153-14-0 .
  • B. von Lengerke: Automobile races and competitions (1894–1907). Verlag Richard Carl Schmidt & Co., Berlin 1908. (Facsimile: Fachbuchverlag-Dresden, 2014, ISBN 978-3-95692-272-5 )

Web links

Commons : René de Knyff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lengerke: Automobile races and competitions (1894–1907), facsimile of a work from 1908, p. 26.
personal data
SURNAME Knyff, René de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French racing driver and chairman of the CSI motorsport association
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH 1954