Word: prix
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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There were two things that every good race driver in the world knew about the 24-hour Grand Prix of Endurance at Le Mans. France. First, it was still the supreme test of driving skill and sports-car durability. And second, it was growing increasingly risky because of the conglomeration of big cars, e.g., Mercedes, Ferrari, Jaguar, and little cars, e.g., Gordini, MG, Porsche, racing side by side on a strip that in some places is little wider than an old-fashioned two-lane U.S. highway. During the trials, the Mercedes team's Pierre Levegh, a 49-year...
...Perched on papa's knee, little Alberto navigated the back roads of Milan, Italy, and the graceful curves of the old race track at Monza. By the time Alberto was seven, the elder Ascari was dead, killed in a crash at Montlhéry in the French Grand Prix. But the youngster was already determined to devote his life to racing autos...
...Alberto had to sit still for a while. While he did, Enzo Ferrari, who manufactured some of the fastest cars in competition, caught up with him and hired him as a driver. After that, there was no holding Alberto Ascari. Every year, in his Ferraris, he scored more Grand Prix points, and every year he sped closer to death. In The Netherlands Grand Prix in 1949, he lost a wheel while doing 120 m.p.h. Somehow, he survived the wreck. In 1953, at Monza, after winning the Grand Prix championship for the second year in a row, he spun...
...competitors actually drove their cars to the race. But the quaint tradition that a sports car is a practical vehicle, designed for everyday use, seemed as antiquated as the Stanley Steamer or the solid-rubber tire. Well-heeled pros who turned up for the Florida International Twelve-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance last week brought their cars by rail or trailer, by plane or ship-any way but under their own power. The 5.2-mile course on Sebring's abandoned airfield was enough to tear the guts out of the finest engine. Mechanics needed every available minute...
Even in his restaurant, René has never been far from the track. Drivers are forever dropping by for advice, old friends come to reminisce about the races in which he made his reputation: Le Mans, the Grand Prix of Monaco, Indianapolis, Targa Florio in Sicily, the "Million-Franc Race" at Montlhery. When Chicago Industrialist S. H. ("Wacky") Arnolt decided to enter three of his Arnolt-Bristol sports cars in this year's Grand Prix at Sebring, it was not surprising that he turned to René Dreyfus when he needed a team captain. And it was not surprising...