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Unfortunately this book is available only in french but for me a good and motivating occasion to refresh my four years of french lessons at school. However: A Must-Have for every Swiss Race Enthusiast!
The book is not chronologically going through the years at Le Mans but rather focuses on key Swiss engagements of drivers, teams and other racing related people.
The book is actually delivered in two parts (Tome 1 and 2) and comes in really great quality (paper, print, photos): Over 600 pages and many many rare photos (over 1400 in total!). The picture on the cover of “Tome 1″ shows Jo ‘Seppi’ Siffert at Le Mans 1969 photographed by his sister Adélaïde Siffert.
Content:
- Preface by Peter Sauber
- 4 page summary of the Swiss at Le Mans (1923-2007)
- The 14 circuit variations of Le Mans
- Main part: 150 pages about Swiss drivers at Le Mans: Tome 1 describes all those who started at Le Mans at least 4 times (Claude Haldi started 22 times!!) whereas Tome 2 concentrates on the rest of the total number of 123 different Swiss drivers.
- 40 pages about Swiss constructors (e.g. Peter Sauber)
- The rest of the book is about the most famous Team Managers and also highlights some “small appearances”.
The book has been written by these Swiss authors:
- Jean-Marie Wyder (if you order this book, you’ll get in contact with him automatically! ;-)
- Christian Borel
- Adriano Cimarosti
- Mario Luini
- Gérard Vallat
- Benoît Wyder
Since 2007, the authors published a yearly book about the Swiss at le Mans… I would do anything to contribute to the book so that it would be a bilingual book (French and German)… So Jean-Marie Wyder: if you are reading this, contact me! :-)
Front Left-Right: Jean-Marie Wyder, Mario Luini, Jean-Rodolphe Piccard
Back Left-Right: Adriano Cimarosti, Christian Borel, Benoît Wyder et Gérard Vallat
Some snapshots of the book I took with my camera
Jo ‘Seppi’ Siffert and Swiss Formula One driver Clay Regazzoni in 1970 where Jo started in a Porsche 917K and Clay in a Ferrari 512S… both in the list of “Did Not Finish”:
Jo ‘Seppi’ Siffert in 1965 driving the Maserati Tipo 154 #8 (to the left) and
Siffert with Huschke von Hainstein in 1966 (to the right bottom), the chief racing manager of Porsche:
Jo ‘Seppi’ Siffert in the brand new Porsche 917 #20 at Le Mans 1969 driving for the team “Hart Ski Racing”:
The best Swiss result ever at Le Mans up to 1966: overall 4th… achieved by Jo ‘Seppi’ Siffert in 1966 in a Porsche 906.
The picture is showing Siffert to the 2nd right on the podium….
Scuderia Filipinetti appears quite often in the book…
Jo ‘Seppi’ Siffert helps German race driver Hans Hermann to empty that bottle of Champagne in 1967 where they finished with overall 5th place in a Porsche 907:
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