A lot of you know that my real name is Danny, but I think a lot of you asked them selfs, who is Nuvolari?
Tazio Nuvolari (1892-1953) was an Italian race driver also known a "the flying Mantuan". (Matua is a city in Italy)
With motor racing fans he's know as one of the best race drivers ever.
His logo, strange enough, was a golden tortoise.
He came by this logo winning a race, where the prise was a golden tortoise brogue, where he later had his initials engraved in.
The highpoint of his racing carrier is situated between 1925 right up to the second WW.
In those day what we know now as F1, was called Grand Prix.
The Grand Prix then wasn't as restricted as F1 now, if you brought a faster car to the race no matter what shape it was, you where in.
And that fascinates me so munch about this period, each race was different, this was the pioneering time of race cars.
It's also the period Scudoria Ferrari was founded by Enzo Ferrari, also a former race driver.
At that time Scudoria Ferrari was actually the racing branch for Alfa Romeo.
Although Tazio raced most of his career with Ferrari, but he and Eno where not always best mates, both had big ego's, and often they would clash together.
But Ferrari couldn't miss him as a driver and Nuvolari could not miss Ferrari for that time the best race cars of Alfa Romeo.
This was well portrayed in a film about Enzo's life.
https://youtu.be/8Qwfl4Rg7FETazio started his career as a motorcycle racer, and then moved on to race cars.
A race driver like Nuvolari was an allrounder, he did not only race a GP's, but also endurance rally, hill climbs, street races etc.
And at all disciplines he was the best.
He raced for Bugatti, Alfa Romeo/Ferrari, MG, and Auto Union, now know as Audi.
Funny story is, after a street race in Dublin with a MG, that he won, MG's chief mechanic asked him what he thought of there new breaking system?
He answered "aah the car had breaks, never used them"
great sense of humor this guy had.
But his biggest stunt he pulled of at the Nuremberg ring in 1935.
Due lack of money, Ferrari only could come to the race with an older upgraded type Alfa Romeo P3.
By that time, the nazi's where putting enormous amounts of money into Mercedes and Auto Union, as sort of show off for there master race.
Anyway Tazio was not only a good race driver, but also a good mechanic, and he new the weak points of Mercedes and Auto Union.
The hole race was an orchestrated nazi propaganda, the race was called the "Adolf Hitler GP", there banners every where etc.
As a matter of fact the Nazi where so convinced about there victory, that they only had the record of the German anthem.
But they forgot one thing, the 1m5O Italian was also there, and boy he raced the Nazi's glory to bits.
So when he won, the Nazi's where in great panic, as they had no Italian anthem nor flag for the victory podium.
But there came Tazio, with an Italian Flag and a record of the Italian anthem, he sad "every good Italian has the Italian flag with him and the anthem with him".
And believe it or not here is some footage of this race…
https://youtu.be/Bdc3hBzYF5QI just love that story
He also won the Vanderbilt cup in New York.
The Cup was so big and Tazio so small, that they found a solution for it.
https://youtu.be/_RPa8KCCVkMUnfortunately he died only at the age of 61 due to cancer.
It sad that he developed this cancer due to the petrol fumes he inhaled during his career.
But I just love this man, to me best race driver of all times…
Cheers,
Danny
