The last pre-war drivers alive?

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Londoner
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The last pre-war drivers alive?

Post by Londoner »

If Driver Database is accurate, there is one remaining driver from the pre-war era still alive. Heinz Brendel, who became a centenarian last Friday (the 16th), who participated in a race for Mercedes in 1939.

Long live Heinz Brendel. 100 not out, and hopefully he'll add a few more to his innings.

EDIT: Or possibly, RIP Heinz Brendel 1915-1989.
Last edited by Londoner on 20 Jan 2015, 18:40, edited 1 time in total.
Fetzie on Ferrari wrote:How does a driver hurtling around a race track while they're sous-viding in their overalls have a better understanding of the race than a team of strategy engineers in an air-conditioned room?l
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Bobby Doorknobs
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Re: The last pre-war driver alive

Post by Bobby Doorknobs »

Brendel may be the last of the Silver Arrow drivers, but Manoel de Oliveira, the oldest living film director (and still active!) won the International Estoril Race in 1937. He's 106.

EDIT: Well this is awkward. According to the German Wikipedia Brendel died in 1989.
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Londoner
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Re: The last pre-war driver alive

Post by Londoner »

Simtek wrote:EDIT: Well this is awkward. According to the German Wikipedia Brendel died in 1989.


I was just made aware of this in the chat. Yet, apparently Autosport mentioned that he was alive and well a little under three years ago in their Paul Pietsch obituary (scroll down to post #24 in that thread).

I guess, with information on the lesser-successful pre-war drivers being rather sketchy and incomplete, we won't ever find out.
Fetzie on Ferrari wrote:How does a driver hurtling around a race track while they're sous-viding in their overalls have a better understanding of the race than a team of strategy engineers in an air-conditioned room?l
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Re: The last pre-war drivers alive?

Post by CoopsII »

East Londoner wrote:If Driver Database is accurate, there is one remaining driver from the pre-war era still alive. Heinz Brendel, who became a centenarian last Friday (the 16th), who participated in a race for Mercedes in 1939.

Long live Heinz Brendel. 100 not out, and hopefully he'll add a few more to his innings.

Image
East Londoner wrote:EDIT: Or possibly, RIP Heinz Brendel 1915-1989.

Image
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simonracer
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Re: The last pre-war drivers alive?

Post by simonracer »

I was just having a look at this yesterday.

I found a guy called Lou Volk, an American. He was a successful midget racer in the pre-war years, who later went on to run 2 NASCAR races in its first three seasons. He was born in 1910, but apparently is still alive. I say apparently, because when Lloyd Moore died in 2008, he was reported as the oldest NASCAR driver (he was born in 1912.) If Volk is still alive, he is most definitely the oldest NASCAR driver alive, if not racing driver in general. That said, for all we know he could have died in the 70s or something. In a lot of cases birth dates/death dates aren't even known for NASCAR drivers in that era.
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Re: The last pre-war drivers alive?

Post by RLeb »

I believe Manoel de Oliveira is the oldest living Grand Prix driver (of pre/post war eras) at 106 years old, born December 11th 1908.

He never ran a "championship" event (the vast majority were non-championship races) but he won the Non-Championship 1937 Estoril Circuit race.

He is also still an active movie director, and the oldest man in the world known to be still working.

Impressive stuff!! :mrgreen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manoel_de_Oliveira
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RLeb
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Re: The last pre-war drivers alive?

Post by RLeb »

Just a few months after I posted the above, Manoel de Oliveira has passed away :(

I believe that might be the last pre-WW2 driver that was still alive.
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Re: The last pre-war drivers alive?

Post by girry »

RLeb wrote:Just a few months after I posted the above, Manoel de Oliveira has passed away :(

I believe that might be the last pre-WW2 driver that was still alive.


Hold your horses! Just came across this guy called Graf Maria Josef Ernst "Ernõ" Festetics von Tolna.

I had thought that Manoel had been the last man to take part in a GP race and standing, too. But the guy behind the link raced his private Maserati 8CM six times in the year 1937, even taking part in one Grande Epreuve, the German GP and finishing tenth, four laps down. And even despite furiously googling the entire internet and trying to use the might of Google Translate, I am unable find a single source that suggests about his death. Thereby, we must conclude that he is alive.

Graf Festetics is currently 102 years old, but let's not let that fool us: given that he hails from Hungary and thus is likely to possess some of HWNSBNM's superpowers, we might well be in for a long wait til the last pre-war GP driver finally goes down. :glasses:
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