by Unknown
Not for the first time, countless people were left asking, “How does he do it?” Writing in The Motor a week after the race, Rodney Walkerley thought he knew: ‘Cannot let the German Grand Prix fade into memory without a mead (sic) of praise for that magician Nuvolari. Last year there were those who wagged sage heads, saying, “Nuvolari is not what he was, poor chap,” and mentioned his nasty smash in the Allessandria race as a cause. Now 300,000 people flock to the Nurburgring to see Mercedes, or possibly Auto Union, wipe the circuit with the two out-of-date Alfas, and Nuvolari calmly wins the race. ‘How is it done?... The explanation seems to be - corners. Give Nuvolari a corner, and he will hurtle round it quite a good deal faster than anyone else on earth, or so it seems.’
Writing in Motor Sport a few months later, Adrian Conan Doyle revealed that he had raised the matter with the man himself. ‘One of our most interesting experiences in Germany was a little private lunch with Nuvolari. We found him a most pleasant and unaffected man, in sharp contrast to many lesser known drivers. During lunch, he talked at considerable length about physical strength in relation to the modern Grand Prix car. He says that when he first started motor racing, he found that with his slight build, he had not the physical strength to “manhandle” a racing car on bend or corner and therefore he decided to let the machine always enter a corner at a “natural” speed, in other words, let the natural smoothness and balance of the car control the man. He has brought this act to perfection, a superb co-ordination of man and machine.’
The man from Mantua was indeed tiny, only 5 ft 3 ins tall and a stranger to the weighing machine, but already he was known as The Great Little Man, and with good reason, for he was a giant behind the wheel of a racing car. As he revealed, he found it better to let the car do the work and is generally credited with inventing the four-wheel drift. That said, he was always remarkably busy at the wheel and W. F. Bradley likened him to ‘a jockey whipping a tired horse’, contrasting him with Rudi Caracciola, whom he described as ‘making a fast run for the pleasure of the thing.’
The remarkable P3 Alfa was finally replaced towards the end of 1935 with Jano’s new creation, the 8C35, employing the 3.8-litre engine which Nuvolari and Chiron had used in the French and German GPs. In 1936 Jano produced a 12-cylinder, 4.1-litre unit, producing 370 bhp for this chassis, which became the 12C. For some reason Jano eschewed the low lines of the Mercedes and Auto Unions, and the new Alfa was a double-decker bus in comparison, standing very tall. Nevertheless, Nuvolari drove the 8С superbly in the rain at Monaco, leading Caracciola for many laps until his brakes let him down and he had to resign himself to fourth place. Despite his undoubted genius, Nuvolari was undeniably accident-prone, his career being a chapter of accidents punctuated by victories. He crashed heavily during practice for the Tripoli GP, but against medical advice took part in the race - in a plaster cast. He finished seventh. He then uncharacteristically obeyed his doctors and took a month off. Refreshed, he turned up at Barcelona for the Penya Rhin GP and drove the new Alfa 12C to victory, soundly beating the Silver Arrows and setting fastest lap.
With this in mind, he was a hot favourite to repeat his sensational German GP win when the teams assembled at the Ring for the Eifel GP in June. Scuderia Ferrari entered four cars, two 12Cs for Nuvolari and Antonio Brivio and two 8Cs for Nino Farina and Franco Severi.
European Champion Rudolf Caracciola had won for Mercedes at Monaco and Tunis and his popularity, together with that of Nuvolari, brought a huge crowd of around 300,000 people to the Ring. ‘When the first motorcycle race started at 8 am,’ wrote Rodney Walkerley in The Motor, ‘the grandstands and enclosures were already well filled and as the morning wore on they became jammed full and movement was almost impossible. The scene was incredible to English eyes.’
The previous day had been hot and sunny, but by 10 am the clouds had descended on the Eifel and the rain had begun to fall. During the morning a thick fog enveloped the Ring, but by the time the GP began the fog had lifted, but the rain was falling again. Caracciola made a superb start from the third row and revelling in his wet weather skills, led Nuvolari across the line by 4 secs at the end of the opening lap, with Rosemeyer’s Auto Union a further nine seconds back. Two laps later and Tazio had forced his way past the Mercedes between Breidscheid and the Karussell, and Caracciola was now being harried by Rosemeyer. On lap four Bernd electrified the spectators by passing regenmeister Caracciola and leading him across the line by four seconds, but still 18 seconds behind Nuvolari. Next time round (half-distance) and Bernd had reduced the deficit to 9 seconds, but Caracciola pulled into the pits to retire with a broken shock absorber.
Nuvolari managed to hold off Rosemeyer until the beginning of lap seven, when the extra power of the Auto Union told and it overtook the Alfa Romeo as they passed the stands, the roar of the cars’ 28 cylinders being drowned out by the cheers of the delirious spectators. Then, as Rodney Walkerley reported, ‘the fog rode up the valleys and blotted out the NurburgRing. I have never seen a more amazing thing. In the grandstands it was impossible to see across the track to read the scoreboard. Drivers passed, cutting-in and out, straining their eyes into the swirling fog.’
And that was the beginning of Bernd Rosemeyer’s astonishing ‘blind drive’ to victory (See Ringmeister 3 - Bernd Rosemeyer) and there was nothing that Nuvolari could do about it. He was happy to finish second, more than two minutes behind the Auto Union. And it was Rosemeyer who dominated the German GP a few weeks later, beating team-mate Hans Stuck to the flag by over four minutes. Nuvolari and Rene Dreyfus had 12C Alfas, with 8Cs for Brivio and Severi. Manfred von Brauchitsch led for the first lap, pursued by Rosemeyer, Hermann Lang (Mercedes), Caracciola, Stuck, Nuvolari, Fagioli (Auto Union) and Louis Chiron, who had joined his great friend Caracciola at Mercedes for 1936, but was none too happy in the final version of the W25 (but then nor was anyone else).
On lap two von Brauchitsch hit the bank. He signed with Scuderia Ferrari again for 1937, and in March Alfa Romeo signalled their intent of returning to racing by acquiring 80% of the shares in Scuderia Ferrari. Tazio’s first race of the year was to be in Turin in April, but he did not take part as he rolled the Alfa in practice, suffering concussion and a broken rib. He raced in Tripoli on May 9, but retired. Later that month Professor Ferdinand Porsche contacted Tazio personally to see if he might be interested in joining Auto Union. Achille Varzi had left the team, his life tragically spiralling out of control due to his addiction to morphia, and Bernd Rosemeyer had positively welcomed the idea of being joined by the little Italian, whom he admired enormously. Tazio was tempted, but decided to honour his contract with Ferrari (this time!).
Two 12Cs were entered by the Scuderia in the Eifel GP, for Nuvolari and Farina. The latter retired with engine trouble after only a few laps, but Nuvolari completed the race, although he was never in contention, Rodney Walkerley noting that ‘he was outpaced on speed and acceleration, but the crowd cheered him to the echo - the grand spectacle of the master driver keeping up with the faster cars by dint of sheer brilliance of driving - seventh after two laps, he gradually picked up places until he ran fifth.’ And that was where he finished. Although he won the Milan GP a week later, that would be his only victory of the season. And his private life was in turmoil, for first of all his father died and then, when he was on his way by sea to America for the Vanderbilt Cup, he received the news that his oldest son, Giorgio, had succumbed to the heart problems that had plagued him for all of his brief life. Nuvolari tried to bury his sorrow in his racing, and turned up for the German GP on July 25.
The Auto Unions, with Bernd Rosemeyer in his pomp, were hot favourites, while the Alfas were no longer competitive against the latest, 6-litre version of the C-type and the new Mercedes-Benz W125. In The Motor, Rodney Walkerley opined that the 12C Alfas ‘were perhaps the most stable cars racing, but they are admittedly out-matched in acceleration and speed on fast circuits. On the Nurburg-Ring they stand more chance, especially with Nuvolari at the whe
el, for that truly master driver can, by sheer skill and indomitable courage, get his car through the 130-odd curves at such astonishing speed that he can keep up with the faster German cars.’
Not this time. After two laps Rosemeyer was in the lead and Nuvolari was way down in 10th place. After five laps he was up to eighth and after 10 he was third. Rosemeyer had lost a hub cap on lap four and the rear wheel soon flew apart, causing him to make a pit stop of 2 mins 26 secs. Caracciola now moved into the lead, which he would hold until the end. Rosemeyer charged back into the race, now in 10th place. A sensational drive saw him up to fifth on lap 13 and chasing Nuvolari. Two laps later he caught him at the Karussell, as Rodney Walkerley recorded: ‘They entered the banking there one behind the other, and Rosemeyer passed the Italian car into fourth place on acceleration up the slope beyond. The duel between these two was simply staggering. Both men were doing all they knew, both sliding their corners and shaving the edges of the road. Nuvolari was pitting all his skill and experience against the superior speed and acceleration of the German car, but losing about 15 seconds per lap.’ Caracciola duly won the German GP - for the fifth time - ahead of Manfred von Brauchitsch (Mercedes), Rosemeyer and Nuvolari.
Three weeks later Tazio turned up at Pescara to drive Vittorio Jano’s latest version of the 12C Alfa in the Coppa Acerbo. Alfa Romeo were now back in racing as Alfa Corse, and Scuderia Ferrari had been disbanded, although Enzo Ferrari was still in charge. The new Alfa was useless and Nuvolari put up with it for just four laps before handing it over to Nino Farina in disgust. The race was won by Bernd Rosemeyer in the Auto Union and a week later, in the Swiss Grand Prix, Nuvolari was his team-mate! Elly Beinhorn Rosemeyer explained the situation in Rosemeyer!: ‘The big news story at Bern was that Nuvolari was going to drive an Auto Union. He had been having a very unhappy time with Alfa Romeo, whose cars were completely outclassed by the German machines and so Tazio, (who had been kept out of the Auto Union team in 1935 by Stuck and Varzi) was invited to join us - by Professor Porsche himself - for this one race. ‘Bernd loved the idea of having him in the team. (Later, when he learned that Auto Union were looking for new talent for 1938, he suggested that they sign Nuvolari). He liked and admired the Italian tremendously and knew that he would always be a scrupulously fair team-mate. He also knew that he was now the faster driver and while he had no doubt that Tazio would be very quick in time - there was no question of him turning in lap records in this race, for the Auto Union would take even Nuvolari some time to get used to.’
In the event Tazio only did six laps, for on lap two a locked brake sent Rosemeyer into a field. He stalled the engine and was pushed back onto the track by some spectators. This meant disqualification, so he drove to the pits and retired, but he was not finished with the Swiss Grand Prix, as Elly recorded: ‘”Bring Nuvolari in so I can take over his car. I can drive it faster than him. He’ll understand. Come on, quick!” That was all I heard from him at that moment. ‘Nuvolari came rolling into the pits on the next lap and with a cheerful laugh, handed over to Bernd. «‘If I had known exactly what was the matter, I would have stopped and given it to Bernd on the way,» he explained to me, in French.’
In November, Bernd Rosemeyer Junior was born and Bernd and Elly invited Tazio and his wife, Carolina, to be his Godparents. They happily agreed and travelled to Berlin for the Christening on the day before New Year’s Eve. The two couples then welcomed the arrival of 1938 at the Esplanade Hotel. However, it was to be anything but a Happy New Year for the Rosemeyers, as on January 28 Bernd was killed during a record attempt on the Frankfurt-Darmstadt autobahn and motor racing was deprived of one of its greatest and most charismatic stars.
As was Auto Union, which was now in some disarray, for Professor Porsche’s contract had expired and they had fired Hans Stuck for alleged breach of contract. Luckily, the design and development of the cars for the new, 3-litre supercharged Formula for 1938 was in the very capable hands of Professor Robert Eberan von Eberhorst, but on the driver front the team was left with the inexperienced Rudolf Hasse and H.P.Muller. In February, Auto Union’s Italian representative, Ugo Ricordi, tried to persuade Nuvolari to join the team, but he was under considerable pressure from the Italian press and public to stay with Alfa Romeo. He had a run in the new Auto Union, with its 3-litre V12 engine and de Dion rear suspension, at AVUS, which not only gave him an indication of the car’s performance, but let Enzo Ferrari and Alfa Romeo know where he would be going if the new Alfa 308 was no good. It was no good.
During practice for its first race, at Pau, it caught fire. Nuvolari leapt out, suffering minor burns to his legs and he was furious when he learned that the fuel tank had ruptured due to the flexing of the chassis. He swore that he would never again drive an Alfa Romeo and soon afterwards announced his retirement. He and Carolina went on a long trip to America, but on his return he was once again invited to join Auto Union, which he did, in time for the German Grand Prix. He had little time to familiarise himself with the mid-engined D-type, which produced 485 bhp, as opposed to the 520 of the C-type he had driven so briefly in the Swiss GP. The starting grid was now decided by practice times and his best lap of 10 mins 03.3 secs put him on the second row, beside Rudolf Caracciola, who was just two-tenths faster in his Mercedes W154.
Tazio received a tremendous ovation as he walked to his car, and Korpsfuhrer Huhnlein shook his hand and wished him luck. He didn’t get it, for although he made a superb start and was in second place behind Hermann Lang (Mercedes) as the cars came out of the South Curve, he was quickly overtaken by the Mercedes of the eventual winner, Dick Seaman. He held third place as far as Wippermann, where he spun and slid backwards off the road and into the ditch. The Italian press, ever-ready to defend their hero’s reputation, reported that this was because he was ‘suddenly blinded by oil spraying from the car in front’, but this was nonsense as the only cars in front of him were the two Mercedes, which were not noted for losing oil. The most likely reason for the incident is Tazio’s unfamiliarity with the mid-engined Auto Union. Be that as it may, film in the Mercedes archive shows a number of spectators jumping down into the ditch and pushing the Auto Union back onto the track, for which he should have been disqualified. However, he rejoined the race in lastbut-one position, completed one more lap and then retired with damaged rear suspension. At the end of the eleventh lap H.P.Muller stopped for more fuel and new rear tyres and Nuvolari took over the Auto Union from him, to cheers from the grandstand. After the fire in the pits that delayed race leader Manfred von Brauchitsch, Tazio moved up to third place, behind the Mercedes of Seaman and Lang. However, with one lap to go he stopped for new spark plugs, ceding his third place to team-mate Hans Stuck.
The Eifel GP had not been run in 1938, but it was back for ‘39 and both Auto Union and Mercedes entered five cars. Rodney Walkerley was there for The Motor. ‘This is the first day of serious practicing,’ he wrote, ‘although they do say old Nuvolari has been at work here for the past 10 days, which suggests he is taking this race with great earnestness. After all, he won the last two races in which he drove - the 1938 Italian and Donington Grands Prix - and wants to add a third. He looks just the same as ever, grey haired, of course, but doesn’t seem to have aged in the least for the past four or five years. The only thing I have noticed is that I haven’t yet seen him smoking, whereas he usually has a cigarette dangling from one corner of his mouth.’
By now Nuvolari was well acquainted with the Auto Union and was second fastest in practice with a time of 9 mins 57.2 secs, which put him in the middle of the front row of the grid between the Mercedes of Lang (9’ 55.2”) and Caracciola (9’ 57.4”). Manfred von Brauchitsch made the fine start from the second row and led initially, but as they rocketed past the pits at the end of the lap it was Lang who led von Brauchitsch by 13 seconds, with Caracciola a further six seconds back. Fourth and fifth were the Auto Unions of Muller and Nuvolari.
In his report of the previous year’s Eifel meeting, Rodney Walkerley had des
cribed the end of the first lap: ‘Then up the straight they came, leaping the humpback clear of the ground at over 170 mph, one after the other.’ Now he noted that, ‘The cars no longer leave the ground over the very hump-backed bridges on the finishing straight, but cling to the road like leeches, and the drivers no longer cut-out for the bridges as they used to, probably owing to a combination of better suspension, heavier cars and less powerful engines than in the old days of the 5.5 and 6-litre engines.’ All this was proved by Hermann Lang, who covered his seventh lap in 9 mins 52.2 secs to set a new lap record with the 3-litre Mercedes, beating by 1.2 secs the time Rosemeyer had set in 1937 with the 6-litre Auto Union.
Even so, by the eighth lap Nuvolari was only 8 secs behind Lang and 20 secs ahead of Caracciola. ‘How that little Italian drove was a marvel!’ exclaimed Rodney Walkerley. ‘His cornering on the course frightened everyone but himself and the car was never travelling in a straight line. He let the back wheels slip a yard outward on the corners, and even down the straight it was snaking slightly as he tore along at over 170 mph. On the ninth lap the Auto Union pit rose as one man and gave Nuvolari every known sign to open right up and catch the Mercedes.’
