Marcel Michelot

Marcel Michelot (born October 8, 1892 in Paris , † July 13, 1927 in Le Mans ) was a French entrepreneur and racing car driver .

Entrepreneur

In 1910, Marcel Michelot and Marcel Gendron founded Gendron et Compagnie , a company that manufactured transmissions , rear axles and steering columns for automobiles . Vehicles were also built from 1924. Michelot was the commercial director and also took care of vehicle sales. In 1928, one year after Michelot's death, business operations ended.

Career

In order to know personally about the performance of the vehicles produced, Michelot competed in several long-distance races . In 1925 , he and Adrien Drancé drove a GM GC2 in the Le Mans 24-hour race, taking 15th place overall. He was also registered for this 24-hour race in 1927 . A week before the race, the Gendron et Compagnie team had gathered for dinner in the famous Auberge des Hunaudières when Michelot decided to do a few more laps in the dark. It was the night from Sunday to Monday and the track was closed for test drives. Marcel Gendron was the timekeeper when Michelot got off the track after three hours of driving in the Arnage bend and crashed into a tree. He suffered such severe head injuries that he died at the scene of the accident. Marcel Gendron then withdrew the second works car from the race.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1925	Gendron et Compagnie	GM GC2	Adrien Drancé	Rank 15

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 .
• RM Clarke: Le Mans. The Bentley & Alfa Years 1923-1939. Brooklands Books, Cobham 1998, ISBN 1-85520-465-7 .

Web links

• Marcel Michelot at Racing Sports Cars
• Marcel Michelot at 24h en piste
• Marcel Michelot at Motorsport Memorial

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pictures and text about the accident by Marcel Michelot