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zwenterprises · 4 months

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🇨🇵 24 Hours of Le Mans 1980 Z+W Enterprises 🇺🇸 Mazda GTU RX7 LM 1980 🇻🇪 Ernesto Soto 🇺🇸 Mark Hutchins 🇺🇸 Pierre Honegger

#lemans24h #24 hours of le mans #zwenterprises #ernestosoto #mazdarx7 #mazdaspeed #mazdamotorsports #12a #imsa #mazda #goldeneraofracing #endurance racing #jdm #jdmcars #retrojdm #Mazda Racing

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redmanuelmuseum · 1 year

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Mariette Hélène Delangle, or "Helle Nice", the charming racecar driver.

Helle Nice on her Bugatti Type 35C

The photo portrays one of the interesting figures of motoring in the 1930s. Helle Nice worked as a nude model and dancer. With modest compensation, she manages to lead a modest life, between yachts, luxury villas and parties. After a brief accident, she decides to abandon that world, and to give her passion: racing cars. So what does she do? She buys a car, and in 1929, at the Linas-Montlhèry racetrack, driving an Omega-Six, she wins the women's category grand prix. And in December of the same year she repeats the victory aboard a Bugatti Type 35 C, and, listen what, setting the new world speed record of her category! If it's not racing stuff, I don't know what to say. My goodness! The following year she moves to America, where she wins races, and upon her return, during an afternoon in a cafe on the Champs-Elysees, she learns about her love of her life, which she then shares with him same passion for engines. A certain Philippe de Rothschild, who introduces him to the famous constructor Ettore Bugatti, owner of the homonymous brand, who recognizes the woman's talent on the track by giving her a car. Added to a purely male starting grid, Nice conquered a third place at the Bugatti Gran Prix and participated, in 1931, in five races including the French, Italian and Monza Grands Prix. 'Mouth slightly open for concentration and blue car': this is Hellé's trademark on the track. The crowd, when she saw her racing, cheered her as they cheer for today's riders. And although she never won a race, behind the wheel of Bugattis or Alfa Romeos, she often turned into an annoying foe for many of the top male drivers, including Nuvolari, Chiron and Fagioli. She then has an accident, where she hits a bale of hay, her car overturns, and she loses consciousness. So… All finished? NO! After just three days in a coma and two months of recovery, she leaves the hospital and gets back behind her wheel. She runs like a madwoman, beating TEN RECORDS unbeaten so far in an endurance race reserved for women at the Montlhéry racetrack! I will stop here now, because in the post-war period, anyone who knows history knows that it was not merciful to her. The fact that she was singled out by Chiron as a Gestapo spy landed her in a round of poverty and ignominy until the end of her days. So, I want to remember her like this, like in that photo. Smiling in front of the camera, and mad at the wheel.

Red. Manuel

Photo restored by me.

#bugatti #bugattitype35c #hellenice #gp #1931 #ettorebugatti #goldeneraofracing #gondenage #goldenageofracing #oval #dirt track racing

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zwenterprises · 4 months

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