08-02-2019, 09:48 PM
Assisted by getting a French O level half a century ago, and talking to a couple of pals who own our big brothers, Austin 20s, a little more has been unearthed about April 1934.
Cesar Marchand was born in 1897, and apprenticed to Sizaire Naudin. He went to work for Antione Voisin, initially I think as a test driver, but becoming part of the record breaking team and so getting well used to Monthlery. In July 1928 Marchand had a very bad accident, a burst tyre causing him to go over the top of the banking, and ended up with serious injuries. Voisin was a brilliant and imaginative designer and engineer but no business man. When his company went bust, the recovered Marchand opened a garage business, and a major customer was the petrol company Yacco, for whom Marchand had a fleet maintenance contract. This must have given him the contacts which generated a number of record breaking attempts for a variety of marques, supported by Yacco. Marchand died in 1966, having a heart attack whilst digging his Cortina GT out of a snow blocked garage.
The Austin 20 is a puzzle. One or two Austin 20s were well known at Brooklands, notably driven by Felix Scriven. Our own Austin Harris has several photos of them on his web site, which he might kindly display. These however were the four cylinder 20s, whereas the car in the picture recorded as having taken records over twelve days at Monthlery was the later six cylinder 20, as far as I can tell, unknown at Brooklands. So, a bit of a challenge for the detectives amongst us. Who decided to go to France for record breaking with a six cylinder 20, or was there a major French dealer of Austins, rather than Rosengarts wanting to attract attention?
Cesar Marchand was born in 1897, and apprenticed to Sizaire Naudin. He went to work for Antione Voisin, initially I think as a test driver, but becoming part of the record breaking team and so getting well used to Monthlery. In July 1928 Marchand had a very bad accident, a burst tyre causing him to go over the top of the banking, and ended up with serious injuries. Voisin was a brilliant and imaginative designer and engineer but no business man. When his company went bust, the recovered Marchand opened a garage business, and a major customer was the petrol company Yacco, for whom Marchand had a fleet maintenance contract. This must have given him the contacts which generated a number of record breaking attempts for a variety of marques, supported by Yacco. Marchand died in 1966, having a heart attack whilst digging his Cortina GT out of a snow blocked garage.
The Austin 20 is a puzzle. One or two Austin 20s were well known at Brooklands, notably driven by Felix Scriven. Our own Austin Harris has several photos of them on his web site, which he might kindly display. These however were the four cylinder 20s, whereas the car in the picture recorded as having taken records over twelve days at Monthlery was the later six cylinder 20, as far as I can tell, unknown at Brooklands. So, a bit of a challenge for the detectives amongst us. Who decided to go to France for record breaking with a six cylinder 20, or was there a major French dealer of Austins, rather than Rosengarts wanting to attract attention?