Cadillac at Le Mans: A Monster on the Track

Cadillac's first car was born in the Detroit factory on October 17, 1902. Five years later, on January 19, 1907, the Cunningham family welcomed a new member. And it wasn't just any family.

The grandfather had been involved in river and maritime transport, later founding a lucrative meat packing firm with his son, Briggs Swift Cunningham Senior.

This demonstrated his business acumen by founding and directing the Citizen's Nationals Bank and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Thus, the son, Briggs Swift Cunningham II, was born on January 19, 1907, into a true cradle of gold. But in 1912, he lost his father, who, incidentally, left a significant inheritance with the clause that his son could not access it until he turned 40.

From a young age, he developed a passion for cars thanks to his uncle, who drove a Dodge fitted with a Hispano Suiza aircraft engine. As soon as he had the chance, he got behind the wheel of some of the family cars, such as a beautiful Pierce-Arrow. He also became fond of maritime sports, in which he would become a prominent figure.

In 1927, he entered the prestigious Yale University. Mechanics sparked a great interest in the young student, who befriended Charles Chayne, future chief engineer of Buick, and American racing idol, driver Ralph de Palma. On October 2, 1929, he married Lucie Bedford, daughter of one of the founders of the Standard Oil company. During their long honeymoon, they toured Europe, where he met drivers like Rudolf Caracciola and attended the 1930 Monaco Grand Prix.

After World War II, with his father's inheritance finally in his hands, he decided to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time, encouraged by his friend, driver Luigi Chinetti. Chinetti was a regular at the French event, participating consecutively in all editions held between 1932 and 1953, winning three times, twice with Alfa Romeo and once with Ferrari, the latter of which he would become the importer for in the USA.

Briggs Cunningham, who had successfully raced several seasons in the United States, partnered with Bill Frick, a brilliant preparer, to enter two cars in Le Mans in 1949. Frick installed Cadillac V8 engines with a single overhead camshaft in Ford chassis. These "Fordillacs," after technical inspections, were rejected by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) for not representing a true car brand.

Undeterred, Cunningham planned to return the following year, in the 1950 edition, with two more cars, both Cadillacs. The first was a Type 61 Coupé de Ville, practically stock, to which Frank Burrell had added a dual carburetor, additional air intakes for the brake drums (which suffered greatly due to the car's weight), and an extra fuel tank. The brothers Miles and Sam Collier would drive this car.

But Cunningham entered a second Cadillac, heavily modified, which he would share with Phil Walters. The truly atypical bodywork was an idea of Briggs himself (a passionate aviation enthusiast) shaped with the help of an aeronautical engineer friend named Howard Weinman, using a wind tunnel, something uncommon at the time. The wide and low body, inspired by crop-dusting planes, was made with aluminum panels that could be easily removed for quick access to mechanical components, crucial in a race like Le Mans.

The design generated much ink (nicknamed "Le Monstre" or "The Monster") upon its arrival at the La Sarthe circuit. It faced issues during technical inspections as ACO officials were convinced the chassis was not original. After hours of analysis, they saw that, despite a tubular structure supporting the body and engine (the 5.4-liter V8 with increased compression, five carburetors, and 160/170 HP) shifted to one side, beneath "all that" was the chassis of the Cadillac Type 61 Coupé de Ville, and "Le Monstre" was authorized to start.

During practice, Briggs Cunningham's gamble seemed to pay off, as on the Les Hunaudieres straight, it reached 209 km/h, 21 km/h faster than the enormous Cadillac Coupé, humorously nicknamed "Petit Pataud" ("The Little Clumsy") by the French public.

But an incident nearly ended Briggs' car adventure. His partner Walters, seemingly eager to please the ACO people, took his secretary Raymond Acat for a spin in "Le Monstre," and in Arnage, they collided with a small cart. With the front damaged, English technicians specializing in aluminum were flown in to repair the bodywork.

Thus, on Saturday at 4 p.m., the two Cadillacs, painted in their white and navy blue colors, were ready.

At the start, Briggs Cunningham faced the first problem: after sprinting across the track, he found the door wouldn't open... Remember, from the third edition of this race in 1925 until 1969, drivers stood on one side of the track and cars on the other, opposite them. When the flag dropped, they ran, jumped into their cars, and started.

Finally, he got going, but on the second lap, Cunningham went off at Mulsanne (the soft suspensions made it unstable in corners) and got stuck. He had to find a way to free his car without external help to avoid disqualification, cursing not having brought a shovel like other drivers, as Miles Collier had suggested.

After losing twenty minutes, the car returned to the track and began a comeback from the 36th position, interrupted by an unexpected stop to avoid a stray dog and several jerks in the gearbox. On Sunday, only the third and final gear of the manual transmission (the stock automatic had been replaced) worked, but thanks to the enormous torque of the Cadillac V8 engine, they managed to finish in eleventh place, eight kilometers behind the other Cadillac. This first attempt was followed by others, but that's another story.