Léonce Girardot

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Léonce Girardot

Léonce Girardot ( April 30, 1864 - September 7, 1922 ) was a French automobile racing driver .

Career

Girardot was considered to be one of the best drivers of the turn of the century, but went down in racing annals as an "eternal runner-up". He rode on Panhard & Levassor , the leading brand of the era and his strongest competitors were his teammates Fernand Charron and René de Knyff .

Girardot's “series” began with second place in the Paris – Amsterdam – Paris race in 1898 and continued with the same result in the Tour de France for automobiles in 1899 (at Paris – Bordeaux in 1899 he was third for a change) up to Paris – Lyon in 1900 . In 1901 he was finally able to celebrate a victory at the Gordon Bennet Trophy in 1901 ; this victory casts a shadow over the fact that he was the only one who crossed the finish line.

In 1901 he founded the racing car company CGV with his teammates Fernand Charron and Carl Voigt , but these cars were too unreliable. Only in the Ardennes race in 1903 did he finish, again in second place.

After barely surviving an accident in 1905, he ended his racing career. After resigning from the CGV project, he switched to GEM as a designer in 1907 , became an importer for vehicles for the Daimler Motor Company in 1912 and manufactured his own vehicles in his Girardot company in Puteaux .

Leonce Girardot died in 1922.

Web links

Commons : Léonce Girardot  - collection of images, videos and audio files