Rolf Wütherich

This article deals with the racing driver Rolf Wütherich. For the footballer Rolf Wüthrich see there.

Ben Pon and co-driver Rolf Wütherich in the Porsche 904 at the start of the 1964 tulip rally

Rudolf Karl "Rolf" Wütherich (born August 5, 1927 in Heilbronn , † July 20, 1981 in Kupferzell ) was a German racing driver in the Porsche racing car department . He received sustained media attention as a passenger in the fatal accident of James Dean , which Wütherich survived seriously injured.

Career

Wütherich survived a number of dangerous accidents. In 1952, his vehicle fell from a bridge. Six months later, he survived an accident in a test car in Heilbronn .

From 1950 Wütherich worked in the USA for what was then Porsche KG. As a co-driver of James Dean, who had a fatal accident while driving together on September 30, 1955, Wütherich sustained serious injuries. He broke his jaw and hip. A longer period of recovery followed. He later moved to Stuttgart . Since the accident he was considered mentally impaired and had to be hospitalized in 1966 after attempting suicide . A year later, he tried to kill himself and his wife. He kept receiving threatening letters from Dean supporters who blamed him for his death.

Wütherich died in 1981 as a result of a traffic accident.

Others

In 2016 the League of Ordinary Gentlemen published a song entitled The whole world is against me (Blues for Rolf Wütherich), which deals with the life of the racing driver after Dean's death and with the refrain “The whole world is against me - me feel like Rolf Wütherich ”is waiting for you.

statistics

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1962	Dieter Glemser	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
									11
1963	Ben Pon Günter Class	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
									DNF					9									DNF
1964	Porsche	Porsche 904	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
																			4th

Web links

Commons : Rolf Wütherich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jürgen Kümmerle: For both of them, the road ends in eternity . In: Heilbronner Voice , from September 30, 2005.
• Rudolf Karl “Rolf” Wütherich at findagrave.com
• Rolf Wütherich at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The League of Ordinary Gentlemen - Shake the cage, the monkeys should do something at Discogs