Das weltweite Magazin und der Marktplatz für Oldtimer-Enthusiasten – von Enthusiasten.
Das weltweite Magazin und der Marktplatz für Oldtimer-Enthusiasten – von Enthusiasten.
You may remember an article we published in February (click) about a mystery Bugatti competing in a hill climb. At that time we weren't sure who the driver was and where the picture was taken, but now Dick Ploeg from Holland seems to come up with the "definitive" answer. He writes: "I agree with Chris Draper that the car is a type 37A. This can be determined by the steering box position and the relatively narrow radiator front. If the picture indeed was taken at the Nurburgring it may have been at one of the Eifelrennen of the late 1920s (in view of the still modest vegetation). The German Grand Prix were then for sports cars and this T37A lacks the obligatory wings for that category. In contrast the Eifelrennen were for (open wheeled) racing cars and it thus would seem likely that this 37A was photographed competing in this event. As a possibility I offer that it might be Hans Simons (kolumbus.fi), a known German racer and Francophile (hence perhaps the French beret) T37A owner, except that I am not aware of his participation in any of the Eifelrennen." (RB)
Update III again by Richard Armstrong: "Thanks to a friend in Germany who recently came up with an entry list, I can now say with 99.99% certainty that the chap with the jaunty beret is indeed Carl Wagner, competing in the 1932 Eifelrennen. The man is a mystery, though. As is the entrant of the car, one R Stahl."
Update II by Simon Kirkpatrick: “I note that Hans Simons raced as car number 52 in a Bugatti type 37A at the "Prix de Berne" on the Bremgarten circuit on 26th August 1934. This was the first use of the Bremgarten circuit and the 14 lap race was won by Richard Seaman and Hans Simons did not finish the race. Could this photograph indeed be Hans Simons at Bremgarten?”
Update by Richard Armstrong: “I’d concur with Chris Draper's view that it's at the Nürburgring. Of the German T37A Bugattistes at the time, it's definitely not Seibel (his car had a distinctive design on the bonnet sides) and this driver doesn't look like Simons to me. I think this could be the mysterious Carl Wagner, who ran a T37A in the 1500cc class of the 1932 German GP. I have no other record of this driver in voiturette racing, but he might have some other form in a T37A in sports car classes or climbs.”