A conversation about the Stapp Record car and it’s demise.
Dear Dale,
Nice article and nice photo, a well-known one. I fully agree with the conclusion of the article. I attach here a period color art of the Stapp’s accident published by the Italian popular magazine La Tribuna Illustrata, May 8, 1932.
I can add something taken from 1932 Daytona Beach dailies (unfortunately, no date was written on the clippings). The accident at La Baule is reported as having destroyed the car and caused a fractured knee to Mr Andre Stapp when jumping out of the cockpit. The riding mechanic is said to have been badly bruised. Stapp is defined as: “a noted French engineer” and said to have another car ready for the sands of Daytona Beach. He was officially invited by Mayor Armstrong to show up in the 1933 LSR trials in Daytona Beach.
A picture of the car (not illustrated here) from the rear shows a cone shaped rear end, same diameter of the body, sporting two circular rows of 12 and 6 exhausts. The left gun-like side attachment is closed by the license plate at the end. The tail fin looks as being covered in fabric.
The car is said to have been named “Mademoiselle France” (French girl).
Aldo Zana
Dear Aldo,
Thanks for the additional information. As to Daytona, Wikipedia used this same photograph (below) to illustrate the car and Mr. Stapp, and they say it was taken in Daytona. So much for trusting the Internet! I am sure they (whoever “they” are) were confused by the Standard service station sign. The back of my photograph has a news release on it from a well-known agency stating that it was taken on St. Germain Road on the way to Paris. I even found a Florida website that uses the photo saying that it was taken at Daytona Beach so they got caught trusting the web too!
Dale LaFollette
France or Daytona?
Dear Dale, Aldo
Great stuff! Yes, this amazing device even rated a color rendering in the Cyril Posthumus book. [“Land Speed Record”, by Cyril Posthumus and David Tremayne: Osprey Publishing Limited, London 1985.] I immediately went to my patent search engine but could find no patents that would provide a clue to the internals of this vehicle.
Karl Ludvigsen
Dear Karl,
Hi Karl, Yes, when I discovered the foot plate on the tool box in the photo, I then went to the book to see if it was in the painting, it is! The vehicle would look most at home in a Russian military parade. While most will agree that Stapp had no chance at any sort of a record even with his magical turbine engines but you can understand his national pride being wounded by the land speed battle at Daytona in the 1920s and 30s being fought only by the English and the Americans.
Dale LaFollette
[We tried to obtain rights to publish the painting of the Stapp car as it appeared in the Posthumus book, but in vain. Ed.]