Chrysler et Les Vingt Quatre Heure du Mans

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Responding to Michael Smith's "The irony is that Chrysler used to build great
road cars!", Doug Sedon wrote "chrysler used to build great motor cars?  not
since i've been alive!  ;~)", adding that he is "no youngster...  at least not
as far as age goes...  :>)"

Within my lifetime (barely, by about five months) Chrysler took respectable
third and fourth places at Le Mans in 1928, behind the winning Bentley and
second-place Stutz, both of which had larger engines than the Chryslers. Also
of possible interest to contrarians is that a front-wheel-drive car (an Alvis)
took sixth, and that all four of the fwd cars entered finished. (Two Tractas
along with two Alvis, the Alvis being a road version of their fwd GP car.) The
best Italian finisher that year was an Itala, in eighth. The Stutz was no
slouch, with an OHC 8, hydraulic brakes, an unusually low and stiff chassis
and a Weymann fabric body, the patent system which Touring's Anderloni, a
licensee, later developed into the Superleggera construction. Le Mans, in
those days, was still a race for genuine road cars, four seaters running with
full road equipment; as late as 1925 (when Chrysler had taken sixth) the
famous Le Mans start (sprinting across the road and cranking the engine) still
included putting up the top before leaving the diagonal parking places to
jostle for space on a narrow road.

The following year the American contingent included three Stutz, two Chryslers
and a Dupont, with Stutz and Chrysler finishing fifth and sixth behind four
Bentleys, the Chrysler again with the smallest displacement of the six.
Anyhow, I think Chrysler's record at Le Mans in the late twenties -
respectable finishes in the three years they entered - was fair enough to
support Michael's opinion.

The year after that, 1930, the Wall Street crash had winnowed the American
participation down to a pair of DV 32 Stutz, both of which were taken out in
accidents, and an Alfa Romeo finished fifth, behind two Bentleys and two
Talbots.

Also possibly worth mentioning is the 1928 Mille Miglia, when a LaSalle and
two Chryslers took first, second and third in their class, admittedly well
behind the four Alfas, three Lancias, two O.M. and one Bugatti which filled
the first ten slots, but a couple of hours ahead of the first Fiat which was
also a class winner.

I'm not too familiar with the later records, but Martin Swig, the noted
California Alfa dealer and collector (and impresssario of the California
Mille, I believe) showed up at the St.Louis Alfa convention a few years ago in
a fifties-vintage Chrysler 300 which he greatly enjoyed as a road car, so at
least one respectable Alfa person saw some merit in some Chryslers beyond the
halcyon twenties. Personally, I've never paid much attention to them, but on
their record the company did build some fair cars.

John H.
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