François Lecot

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The Citroën Traction 11AL , with which François Lecot made his 400,000 km annual journey, is today in the Musée Henri Malartre in Rochetaillée-sur-Saône

François André Lecot (born April 3, 1878 in Nantua , † August 15, 1959 in Albigny-sur-Saône ) was a French racing car driver , record driver and entrepreneur.

Career

François Lecot was an orphan after the early death of his parents . After training as a mechanic in a locksmith's shop in Lyon , he worked in various companies and served as an infantryman in the French army during the First World War . After the end of the war, he founded a Bugatti agency and a transport company in Lyon . In 1925 he left Lyon and opened a hotel and restaurant in Rochetaillée-sur-Saône , which he had to sell during the Second World War . He died impoverished in a nursing home in Albigny-sur-Saône in 1959 .

Lecot became known and famous for his long-distance rides. In 1924 he achieved his first endurance record when he drove the Lyon- Dijon- Lyon route six times in 24 hours, covering a total distance of 1619 km. Its continuous drive from July 22, 1935 to July 26, 1936 went down in automotive history as 400,000 km en traction . The idea for the annual trip went back to André Citroën , but has been forgotten over the years. Lecot picked it up again and put it into practice in 1935. For a year, he covered 1,170 km a day and consistently traveled the route Rochetaillée-sur-Saône- Paris- Rochetaillée-sur-Saône- Monte-Carlo- Rochetaillée-sur-Saône. Start was on July 22, 1935 at 3:30 in the morning in Rochetaillée-sur-Saône and it arrived around noon at Place de la Concorde in Paris, where the offices of the Automobile Club de France were located. After an hour's break, he returned home, where he arrived at 9 p.m., showered, had dinner in his restaurant, and went to sleep. The next day he started again at 3:30 in the morning, this time via Valence , Avignon and Aix-en-Provence to Monte-Carlo. After taking a photo in front of the Sporting Club, he drove back, slept at home for a few hours and set off for Paris again. This process, once Paris, once Monte-Carlo, was repeated, monitored by eight inspectors who were responsible for compliance with the established rules and speed limits, for 363 days in a row.

Two mechanics took care of the Citroën Traction Avant that night , which, with a few extras, ran 400,134 km without major technical problems. In May 1936, the front end of the car was seriously damaged in an accident with a truck, but the two mechanics were able to repair it after a few hours. At the beginning, many made fun of Lecot and dismissed the trip as a spinning mill that could never lead to success. Over the months the mood changed and Lecot became a driving legend, admired every day by thousands of French people who stood by the sections of the route to see him drive past. This record was only broken in 2003 when Philippe Couesnon drove 500,000 km on French motorways in a Peugeot 607 during the same period.

François Lecot took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race once in his career . In 1925 he drove a Diatto 35 together with Eugène Renaud . The duo was unable to complete the race after a technical defect.

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1925 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Societa Anonima Autocostruzioni Diatto Diatto Tipo 35 Third French RepublicThird French Republic Eugène Renaud failure malfunction

literature

  • RM Clarke: Le Mans - the Bentley & Alfa Years 1923–1939 . Brocklands Books 1999, ISBN 1-85520-4657 .

Web links

Commons : François Lecot  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. 400,000 km en traction (French)