Établissements Cegga

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Établissements Cegga was a Swiss sports car manufacturer based in Aigle in the canton of Vaud , who designed two racing cars for Formula 1 in the 1960s . One of the vehicles was registered for two Formula 1 races in 1962; regular racing in Grand Prix sport, however, could not be realized.

The enterprise

Établissements Cegga was founded in 1960 by the siblings Claude and Georges Gachnang in Aigle. The company name Cegga resulted from the combination of the first letters of C harles E t G eorges G achnang, A igle.

The company emerged from the Gachnang brothers' passion for racing. Georges Gachnang was a hobby racing driver who had participated in numerous races since the 1950s; his brother Claude was primarily responsible for preparing the racing cars used. In 1960, Georges Gachnang started together with André Wicky in the Le Mans 24-hour race . They brought their AC Ace with a Bristol engine, prepared by Claude Gachnang, to the finish line, but with 239 of a possible 314 laps they had covered too little distance to be classified. The Gachnang brothers later took over a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (chassis number 0742TR) manufactured in 1958 and converted it to the 1961 specification. The vehicle was then called the Cegga-Ferrari 3000S . Georges Gachnang drove the car in hill climbs in 1961 and 1962. He finished the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1962 with this vehicle in 17th place in the overall standings; a result that also corresponded to third place in the class for sports cars up to 3-liter displacement.

In 1960 the Gachnang brothers founded a garage in Aigle, where they began to build their own sports cars. The experience gained through the revision and manufacture of sports cars resulted in a Formula 1 car that the Gachnang brothers developed and built in 1961. A few years later, another Formula 1 car was created that did not get beyond the test phase.

Cegga existed until 1970. The Gachnang family, however, continued to work in the automotive industry with the car garage founded by Georges Gachnang in 1972.

The Cegga Maserati

Cegga's first Formula 1 car rested on a tubular frame, mostly described as "uncomplicated", which was similar to the constructions that had already been used in previous Cegga sports cars. All bikes were hung individually. The drive was a 1.5 liter four-cylinder engine that was obtained from the Italian sports car manufacturer Maserati ; from there came the five-speed gearbox.

The Établissements Cegga reported the vehicle for the first time for the Grand Prix de Pau, a non-Formula 1 world championship race that was held in April 1962. The driver was the Swiss Maurice Caillet . Caillet took part in the training, but could not qualify. A month later, the company went to the Gran Premio di Napoli on the Posillipo circuit; here too Caillet missed the qualification. After that, the Gachnang brothers stopped their Formula 1 efforts.

Georges Gachnang later reported that Maserati was interested in further developing the Formula 1 project and offered factory support for future assignments. However, the idea could not be realized because of family problems. Instead, the Cegga-Maserati was sold. The car was primarily used in hill climbs in the following years; One of the drivers here was Albino Fontana.

The Cegga Ferrari

In 1966, Cegga built another car for Formula 1, which was equipped with a twelve-cylinder Ferrari engine. The vehicle was similar to the Lotus 24 . Georges Gachnang tested the car on the Monza circuit . A factory race in Formula 1, however, could not be financed.

Instead, the car was used in hill climbs in Switzerland and France from 1967. The driver was initially Georges Gachnang. Philippe Panis, the father of Formula 1 driver Olivier Panis , later took over the car.

Trivia

Georges Gachnang is the grandfather of the Swiss Formula 1 driver Sébastien Buemi and the racing driver Natacha Gachnang .

literature

  • David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1993 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
  • Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-65 . Motor Racing Publications (London) 1998. ISBN 1-899-87039-3

Individual evidence

  1. Entry on the website www.finecars.cc (accessed November 30, 2010).
  2. a b Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-65, p. 62.
  3. Entry of the trademark on the website www.swisscarregister.ch ( memo of December 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on November 30, 2010).
  4. Statistics of the Gran Premio di Napoli 1962 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on December 1, 2010).
  5. a b Sébastien Buemi - the star of a motorsport clan: Brief history of Cegga on the website www.inside-racing.de (accessed on November 30, 2010).
  6. Image of the Cegga Ferrari from 1967 with Georges Gachnang at the wheel on the website forums.autosport.com (accessed November 30, 2010).
  7. Photographs by Natacha and Georges Gachnang on the website natacha.blog.24heures.ch  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (accessed November 30, 2010).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / natacha.blog.24heures.ch