Notorious Rides

[Bezor]

Credit "CAR" website for this very interesting article:

The film star Ava Gardner who, by her own admission, was a terrible driver and often 'over-refreshed', famously crashed her Gullwing Mercedes in Spain. She lost it on a curve, mounted an embankment and rolled it twice before it came to rest on its roof. She was pulled from the wreck by farm workers, who had to take her out through the smashed windscreen - the doors wouldn't open because the SL was inverted. Many owners subsequently carried hammers just in case they did the same thing. Ava paid tribute to the car's 'solid steel framework' in her autobiography. She was in good company when it came to having 'moments' in a Gullwing. Even Stirling Moss was wary of its handling and its propensity for unsettling lift-off oversteer thanks to the unruly camber changes of its high pivot swing axles. He crashed one into an Italian army truck laden with explosives while on a training mission for the 1955 Mille Miglia.

This specially modified - by coachbuilder Hess and Eisenhardt - Lincoln Continental toured the world with President Kennedy. Sadly it was also the car in which he was shot in Dallas in 1963. It was a major piece of evidence in the Warren Commission's investigation - its cracked windscreen still sits in the American National archives - but amazingly it was put back into service after a complete re-fit which included extensive bulletproofing that added a ton to its weight. Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford used the car until it was finally taken out of service and returned to its owner, Ford, in 1977 (Ford rented it to the White House for $500 a year). You can see it in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

The Algerian writer and philosopher Albert Camus was killed when the Facel Vega Coupe in which he was travelling hit a tree in January 1960. Camus, the front-seat passenger, died instantly when he was thrown through the rear screen. His publisher, Michel Gallimard, was driving the car and was blamed for the crash, although it seems likely that there was a mechanical fault. The unfinished manuscript of Camus' last book, Premier Homme, was in his bag in the car, but would not be published for another 35 years.

Driving his Cadillac to Los Angeles in November 1954, the entertainer Sammy Davis crashed the huge convertible into oncoming traffic in an attempt to avoid a car that was making a U-turn directly in front of him. In the ensuing collision, his head hit the steering wheel and he lost his left eye on a piece of ornamental chrome that was sticking out of the centre of it.

On 13 September 1982, Princess Grace and her daughter Princess Stephanie were involved in an accident when their Rover 3500 P4 careered off one of the winding roads leading to Monaco. Princess Stephanie was able to get out of the car when it finally stopped rolling, suffering only a few injuries. Princess Grace wasn't so lucky. Unfortunately, the 52-year-old former Hollywood film star had suffered a very mild stroke which caused her to lose control of her vehicle. After the Rover had stopped rolling down the cliff, Grace was found unconscious. She died in hospital the next day.

Montgomery Clift was a sensitive young heartthrob in the James Dean mould, and by the age of 30 he was one of the most sought-after talents in Hollywood. He counted Elizabeth Taylor among his best friends. It was when returning from a dinner party at Taylor's house, driving down a steep, twisty decent towards Sunset Boulevard, that he lost control of his Chevrolet on a dangerous curve and hit a telegraph pole. Clift was found slumped under the steering wheel, his face hideously lacerated, his jaw broken. And he was choking on his two front teeth, which had been knocked down his throat: Elizabeth Taylor saved his life by pulling them out. The doctors did what they could with his battered features but the left side of his face was frozen. Already an unstable and moody man, his career, and his health, went into decline in an avalanche of pills and booze. He would make only a handful more films before his death in 1966.

On 22 August 1962, terrorists of the OAS - the Secret Army Organisation - made an attempt on the life of the French leader President Charles de Gaulle. They believed de Gaulle had betrayed France by yielding Algeria to the Algerian Nationalists. As dusk fell, de Gaulle's black Citroen DS was speeding down the Avenue de la Liberation in Paris at 70 mph when 12 OAS men opened fire on the car. However, because they saw the open-fire signal too late, most of their bullets hit the Citroen from behind, bursting its tyres and causing it to go into a front-wheel skid. Some shattered the rear window as chauffeur Marroux wrestled with the wheel and accelerated out of the skid, but deGaulle and his wife emerged unscathed by keeping their heads down. Thanks to its hydropneumatic suspension, the DS was able to limp safely to Villacoublay where a helicopter was waiting to take the de Gaulles to their country retreat. These events were the basis for Frederick Forsyth's book (and subsequent film starring Edward Fox) The Day of the Jackal.

In a wet and windy day in January 1959, world champion racing driver Mike Hawthorn crashed his Jaguar in a fatal accident that has never been fully explained. Driving his modified 3.4 saloon along the infamous A3 Hoggs Back near Guildford, Hawthorn encountered his friend Rob Walker driving his 300SL, registered ROB 2. An impromptu race ensued as the cars accelerated down the rain-soaked hill together at up to 100 mph. Hawthorn overtook the Mercedes in a left-hand curve as they passed John Coombes' garage and then, going into the right-hander that followed, the Jaguar suddenly started to slide, spun, and then careered backwards across the carriageway, disappearing from Walker's view. It then clipped a traffic island and a truck before coming to rest wrapped around a tree as it disappeared in a cloud of mud and water. The car was almost split in two and Hawthorn died after a couple of minutes as a result of a fractured skull.

http://www.channel4.com/4car/ft/feature/top+ten/1737/

[Ultra]

If racing cars and their drivers are included this could get to be a very long thread. Nice stuff Bez.  Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Bezor]

The Mike Hawthorn crash reminded me of one (    )  my wrecks racing my wife home from an autocross.  Cept, obviously my wife wasn't the famous Rob Walker, ehehehe.  And I'm not dead.

I loved the Facel Vega story.  Doing some research on that lovely ride got me to this story.

[@re]

I've got a book in which quite a lot of stories like these are told. I'll share some when I have the time.

[Paul Jaray]

A little bit macabre, but I enjoyed the reading...and what about that actress on an open Bugatti and her scarf....

[Bezor]

A little bit macabre, but I enjoyed the reading...and what about that actress on an open Bugatti and her scarf....

maybe @re has it in his book?

[@re]

I don't - but you can read the story on Bugatti's own web pages!

http://www.bugatti.com/en/tradition/history/bugatti-stories/death-of-a-dancer.html

[Paul Jaray]

That's it, thank you...what a story!

[Bezor]

That's it, thank you...what a story!

very interesting storys.  Wonder how many more we can dig up?

[Allemano]

I found some more in a recent issue of a German car mag:

James Dean profession: acteur; car: Porsche 550 Spyder; date: Septemper 30th 1955; location: Cholame/California

Mary Jo Kopechne profession: secretary of Ted Kennedy; car: Oldsmobile Delmont 88; date July 18th 1969: location: Island of Chappaquiddick

Marc Bolan profession pop singer; car: Mini 1275 GT; date: September 16th 1977; location: Gypsy Lane/London

Porfirio Rubirosa profession: professional playboy; car: Ferrari 250GT; date: July 6th 1965; location Paris/Bois de Boulogne

Jayne Mansfield profession: actress; car: Buick Electra 225; date September 29th 1967; location: Highway 90/New Orleans

Lady Diana profession: Princess of Wales; car: Mercedes-Benz 280 S; date: August 31st 1997; location: Alma Tunnel/Paris


Excuse, but haven't got sufficiant time to write down the whole stories.

[Bezor]

I found some more in a recent issue of a German car mag:

James Dean profession: acteur; car: Porsche 550 Spyder; location: Cholame/California

Mary Jo Kopechne profession: secretary of Ted Kennedy; car: Oldsmobile Delmont 88; date July 18th 1969: location: Island of Chappaquiddick

Marc Bolan profession pop singer; car: Mini 1275 GT; date: September 16th 1977; location: Gypsy Lane/London

Porfirio Rubirosa profession: professional playboy; car: Ferrari 250GT; date: July 6th 1965; location Paris/Bois de Boulogne

Jayne Mansfield profession: actress; car: Buick Electra 225; date September 29th 1967; location: Highway 90/New Orleans

Lady Diana profession: Princess of Wales; car: Mercedes-Benz 280 S; date: August 31st 1997; location: Alma Tunnel/Paris


Excuse, but haven't got sufficiant time to write down the whole stories.

That's a good start tho.  Quite the contribution.

I can add this bit about James Dean, as it's not too far from where we live:

My wife and I had a silver Miata, and she would call me, not the car, "Little Bastard".  And I think James Dean was a better driver than I. 

We drove down to the coast and took an unusual route for us which brought use to the wreck site of James Dean.  This is what it looks like today, http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.734546,-120.28408&z=17&t=h&hl=en which is a modern, and  confusing intersection.  However, back in the day of James Dean,  IIRC, this intersection was a simple three- way stop, a T intersection with one road ending at the major roadway. This monument to James Dean, is some bit down the road from the actual crash site. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.723365,-120.29702&z=17&t=h&hl=en The area is desolate, hot and dry during the summer.  I can imagine James Dean being very tired after getting the car prepped for Monterey  and driven up from So Cal that morning.  No wind protection from little racing screen on the Porsche, buffed about in a probably twitchy car, were all things I recall when we stopped at the monument.  I could easily see how sun glare played into the events that ultimately resulted in him being hit  by a car twice the height ashis.  The fact that there was even another car out there, at that stop sign at the same instant, is stunning.