Quiz Archive

About Quiz # 208 René Thomas (UPDATE: not Sprint II?)

When we made this quiz we already had a slight suspicion that it would be a difficult one. And so it proved! Apart from jury members Mark Dawber and Dick Trenk we received a total of six solutions, all correct in identifying “the man with the bandoleon” as famous racing driver René Thomas. All answers included a lot of interesting details (see Read More) and we really found it difficult to award the prize this time, because all answers were so very close. In the end we decided that the T-shirt must go to Nicolas Boissier from France, who not only supplied a lot of personal details about René Thomas, but also identified the picture in which René Thomas is seen holding the cylinder bloc of Sprint II inside the Delage factory courtyard. Congratulations Nicolas with your second win!

UPDATE: Both Robert Dick and Sébastien Simon question that René Thomas is holding a block of Sprint II. As Sébastien puts it: “René Thomas was a strong man, to be able to drive those huge racing cars. However, his size and hands are not those of a giant! He would be one if he could really hold the Delage Sprint II cylinders and head between his hands, as you assume in your published answer. The bore of the sprint II car is 85 mm, and it is a pushrod OHV design, not a DOHC as clearly visible on the photo. I would think that that cylinder block with head would weight something like 80 kgs, and its length would be around 700 mm. In my opinion it is a 2 LCV cylinder bank (half a 12 cylinder), with a cylinder bore of 51.3 mm, integral cylinder head, with DOHC. Its weight would be a more handy 20 to 30 kgs. It cannot be the later 1.5l car, as this one had 8 cylinders.” Correct answers came in from Jean-Marie Guivarc’h; Richard Armstrong; Nicolas Boissier; Sébastien Simon; Ian Seymour-Smith and Marc Fellman. All stated that René Thomas won the Indy 500 in 1914 (with a Delage type Y, together with his mechanic Robert Laly, who must have had a hell of a time sitting next to the enormous exhaust (indianapolismotorspeedway.com). On Christmas Eve 1918 René Thomas signed a contract with French engine-builder Ernest Ballot to become a racing driver for him. After participating in (and winning) many other races with amongst others Sunbeam and Talbot, on July 6, 1924 he set a world land speed record at Arpajon in France again with a Delage at a speed of 143.312 mph or 230.64 km/h.
More details from Nicolas Boissier:
René Alfred Thomas « trompes la mort » born 7 3 1886 in Perigueux died 22 9 1975 in Colombes where still exist "villa Indianapolis" and his grave. Known French driver from 1904 to 1926 with motorcycles, cars, and airplanes.
_ Magali and Alcyon for motorcycles
_Heanriod, Lacoste ,Prima, Delage, Le Gui,Peugeot,Theo Schneider ,Barre,Ballot, Sunbeam,Talbot,for cars
_Wright and Levasseur Antoinette for airplanes
first:_ Indianapolis 500 1914 Delage type Y with Robert Laly
_Gallion 1920 Sunbeam 450 cv
_Le Mans 1921 voiturette Talbot 1500
_Km lance 1922 Delage sprint Lyon 192km h
_Km lancé Gen?ve 1923 Delage sprint 169 km h
_16 time winner 1923 hill climbs Delage sprint
_Km lance Gen?ve 1924 Delage sprint 203km
_Km lance Arpajon Delage sprint world record 230.6
second:_500 miles 1920 Ballot 8 cyl 3 L
third_:_Boulogne 1911 Delage 3L type X
_St Sebastien GP Spain Delage 2LCV
Create 1925 "amicale des coureurs automobiles de france”, patented 1924 steering wheel fr 584553, René Thomas is seen holding the cylinder bloc of Sprint II inside Delage factory courtyard.
For 1919 he signs a contract with Ernest Ballot and Ernest Henry.
It seems that a similar Delage car as the one he drove 5 th at Dieppe 1908 is visible at Cognac in a Delage show actually

Friday, 03 August 2007