Topic: Solved NIC#1328 - 1912 Grand Prix Peugeot L76 at Shelsley Walsh 1924

[nicanary]

What is this car, what is the date and the venue?

[nicanary]

Experts?

[FrontMan]

Peugeot L45?

[nicanary]

Peugeot L45?

That was quick! It's not an L45 but a bit earlier - deserves a LOCK though.

[FrontMan]

Please unlock, as I suspect the racing lads will have the low-down on this one!  However, I'll try Georges Boillot, L76.

[nicanary]

Please unlock, as I suspect the racing lads will have the low-down on this one!  However, I'll try Georges Boillot, L76.

You're getting somewhere, so I'm going to ignore your pleas. It IS an L76 from 1912, however the driver is less well-known and you will realise if you identify the venue. Still locked.

[FrontMan]

I'm not getting much further with this.  Last gasp, Rigal, at Val Suzon ?

[nicanary]

I'm not getting much further with this.  Last gasp, Rigal, at Val Suzon ?

No. Miles away. UNLOCKED.

[FrontMan]

Mont Ventoux?

[nicanary]

Mont Ventoux?

No. This photo was taken 12 years after the car first raced, and had travelled to another country.

[FrontMan]

Now we're talking!  1924 MAC Shelsley Walsh, Mrs. Olive Stewart-Menzies .

[nicanary]

Now we're talking!  1924 MAC Shelsley Walsh, Mrs. Olive Stewart-Menzies .

That was a point well-earned. I didn't think even my clues would solve it.

Goodness knows how this car finished up with an amateur driver at a national event.

[FrontMan]

At the same event, Mrs. Stewart-Menzies is reported as also having driven an Itala 17/50hp.  I cannot find a picture, neither can I find any such model! Though this lady was not a wife of Stewart-Menzies, the MI6 boss, perhaps she was related in some way.  Regarding the fate of the Peugeot, by 1924 it would have been regarded as an old banger of no practical use, and therefore of very little monetary value.

[nicanary]

Yes indeed. Just think how much "now-priceless" machinery has been scrapped and/or cannibalised over the years. Scuderia Ferrari for one! The puzzle photo was taken from an article in a 1949 issue of Motor Sport about the whereabouts of old racing cars. I think there was a series of such articles which ran for some time.