American road racing pioneer John von Neumann died on Christmas night, 2003. Born December 16, 1921, he had just turned 82.
Von Neumann was one of the most significant figures of the American early post-war sports car era. Along with two others, he founded the California Sports Car Club in 1947. He raced and won a lot of events and provided rides for some of America’s best road racers, including Phil Hill, Ken Miles and Richie Ginther. Von Neumann helped bring Ferraris and Porsches to racing prominence, while his company, Competition Motors, distributed Porsches and VWs to 144 dealerships in the west.
Von Neumann was born in Vienna, Austria where his father was a world-renowned surgeon. When Hitler “anschulshed” Austria, the family fled to Paris. Then, when the war started, they emigrated to New York. John attended New York University and romanced a beautiful Ziegfeld dancer, Elinor, whom he later married.
When the U.S. entered the war, John joined the Army. Because of his language skills, von Neumann was assigned to intelligence and joined a combat unit in 1944.
After discharge from the Army, John moved to California, where he worked as a salesman for Roger Barlow’s International Motors in Hollywood. Later he opened his own speed shop specializing in selling and servicing MGs. The shop was next door to another owned by motorcycle racer Kenny Weems, whom Von Neumann teamed up with to stage races for “foreign cars” at a nearby half-mile oval, Carrell Speedway.
Photo: Art Evans
Von Neumann went on to organize the first California Sports Car Club event, a time trial—unsanctioned by the authorities—in the hills of Palos Verdes overlooking the Pacific. Eventually, the first post-war road race in Southern California was held in Palm Springs on April 16, 1950, and was organized by von Neumann, along with Basil Panzer, Roger Barlow, Stan Mullin and Vilem Haan. During a trip to Europe, John met Dr. Ferdinand Porsche. Von Neumann bought one of the first 356 coupes, brought it home and raced it. He chopped off the top, dubbed it the 356SL, and won the under-1500 cc main event at Torrey Pines on December 14, 1952. Later, Dr. Porsche agreed to allow John to import and sell Porsches as long as he would agree to take on the onerous task of distributing VWs in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.
In 1956, British racer Ken Miles started racing Porsches for von Neumann. Their first event together was the January 14–15 Torrey Pines, where Ken flipped the car during practice, totaling it! However, during the two years of the association, Miles scored 41 podium finishes; he was 1st 24 times, 2nd 12 and 3rd 5. With Ken on board, John stopped racing Porsches and drove a succession of Ferraris in main events. Although von Neumann scored a number of wins, he was a conservative driver and never got into trouble. Along the way, he became friends with Enzo Ferrari and became a Ferrari importer and dealer. In the late 1950s, John and Elinor were divorced and Elinor got the Ferrari dealership in the settlement.
After the ’50s, John retired from entering cars or racing himself. As the result of the VW factory’s decision to acquire his distributorship, von Neumann joined the ranks of the super rich. At his death, he had a large estate near Geneva, Switzerland and a “boat” harbored in Monaco.
John was, I think, one of the fortunate few who always lived the life he wanted. He was one of that fast-diminishing group Tom Brokaw called America’s greatest generation.
Submited by Art Evans
