Stephen Bayley

René Dreyfus: the racing driver detested by the Nazis

When Dreyfus beat the German Silver Arrows to win the Pau Grand Prix in 1938, Hitler ordered all records of the race to be destroyed

René Dreyfus at the Monaco Grand Prix, 1931. Credit: Alamy 
issue 02 May 2020

I have driven a racing car. On television, it looks like a smooth and scientific matter. It is not. A racing car is a fearsome environment of engulfing pyroclastic heat, metaphor-testing noise, vision-blurring vibration and nauseating centrifugal forces. Ninety years ago it was even worse. The cars had tyres with little grip, feeble brakes and no crash protection whatever.

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