André Moynet

The the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans by Christine Dacremont , Michèle Mouton and Marianne Hoepfner to the 21st place overall driven Moynet LM75

The Moynet Jupiter, named after André Moynet and developed by Matra

André Rémy Moynet (born July 19, 1921 in Saint-Mandé , † May 2, 1993 in Nice ) was a French pilot , war hero in World War II , politician, racing driver and racing car designer.

World War II aviator and test pilot

André Moynet was the son of a French industrialist and attended high school in Paris in the 1930s . Almost four months after the outbreak of World War II and the French declaration of war on September 3, 1939 against the German Reich , he joined the French Army as a volunteer on December 26 at the age of 18 .

At the beginning of 1940 he received training as an army pilot in the flight schools of Tarbes and Dax . After the attack by the Wehrmacht in 1940 and the collapse of the Allied forces in France, he fled on June 24 with parts of a Polish unit on the British troop transport Ettrick from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Plymouth , where he landed on July 1.

In England he joined the Free French Army and fought as a fighter pilot in Africa and later over mainland Europe. In 1943, meanwhile promoted to lieutenant , he went to the Eastern Front with the Normandy-Nyemen and fought there with the Red Army against the Axis powers until December 1944 . The war ended as a captain in Normandy. 12 kills in 115 air missions have been confirmed.

After the end of the war he was accepted into the new regular army and flew 76 sorties as a reservist in the Algerian war in 1956 . As a test pilot for the Air Force, he was also involved in the development of civil aircraft such as the Sud Aviation Caravelle . The at Matra built Moynet Jupiter was named after him. He achieved his highest rank in the Air Force as a colonel in 1968.

Moynet received many military awards, including the Silver Star , the Order of the Red Banner, and high honors from the Free French Armed Forces and the Red Army. He was also a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor .

Politician

Moynet entered politics in 1946 and held various offices until the late 1960s. From 1946 to 1967 he was an independent member of the National Assembly for 21 years . During the time of the Prime Ministery of Pierre Mendès France and his successor Edgar Faure , he was Minister for Youth and Sport from November 12, 1954 to February 1, 1956. Between 1962 and 1967 he was chairman of the National Defense Commission of the National Assembly. His last political office was that of the mayor of Biot .

Racing driver in sports car racing

In the 1950s and 1960s he competed in selected sports car races as a men 's driver. It had its first start at the Sebring 12-hour race in 1953 on a DB HBR . After a mistake at the pit stop, he and his partner Hobart Cook were disqualified. He finished the 12-hour race in Hyères in 1953 in seventh (partner Élie Bayol ) and in the same year the 24-hour race at Le Mans in 17th overall (partner René Bonnet ).

After another race at Le Mans in 1954 , he did not drive again until 1961. After a 38th place in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring and a tenth place in the final at the Grand Prix of Rouen , he ended his active career in the 24 Hours of Le Mans .

Designer and team leader

At the end of the 1960s, Moynet wanted to compete in Le Mans with its own sports car prototype. The first development was the XS , which had a 1.2-liter 4-cylinder in- line engine . The car was driven by Max Jean and René Ligonnet, who had to end the race after six laps because of a defective oil pump. At the following 1000 km race in Paris there was a finish and 18th place. In 1970 there was another message with the racing car, this time called LM68. The ACO officials did not allow the vehicle to take part in the race.

Another attempt followed in 1975 , this time successfully. The Moynet LM75 was a further development of the XS. The vehicle had a tubular steel frame with a fiberglass body mounted on top of it. The JRD Straight 4 engine was a modified version of a 2-liter racing engine from Simca with two Weber carburetors . The power was 142 kW at 7,200 revolutions per minute. Since Moynet was closely connected to the French aircraft industry and was able to use resources there, the Moynet LM75 had very good aerodynamics.

Esso was won as a sponsor , which financed the entire mission. With Christine Dacremont , Marianne Hoepfner and Michèle Mouton, Moynet signed three drivers and thus also attracted a lot of media attention for the sponsor. In addition, Lella Lombardi and Marie-Claude Charmasson, Lella Lombardi and Marie-Claude Charmasson in the Alpine A441, entered another women's team among the direct competitors for victory in the sports car class up to 2-liter displacement . Although the trio suffered from a few problems, all the fittings failed during the night and the women had to listen to their ears, which was a complete surprise to secure the class victory.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1953	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	DB HBR	René Bonnet	Rank 17
1954	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T15S	Charles de Clareur	failure	Ignition damage
1961	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	DB HBR5 Coupé	Jean-Claude Vidilles	Rank 19

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1953	Hobart Cook	DB HBR	Hobart Cook	Disqualified

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Hobart Cook German & Bonnet	DB HBR	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
			DNF		17th
1954	Gordini	Gordini Type 15S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						DNF
1961	René Bonnet German & Bonnet	DB HBR5	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
					38	19th

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Information about the driver Moynet (French)
• Reports on the use of the XS and LM75 in Le Mans
• Results as a driver
• Moynet LM75

Individual evidence

1. ↑ André Moynet in the Second World War ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ André Moynet after the Second World War ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Sebring 12-hour race in 1953
4. ↑ 1953 Hyères 12-hour race
5. ↑ 1961 Rouen Grand Prix
6. ^ The Moynet XS 1968 in Le Mans