Jean-Pierre Wimille

Jean-Pierre Wimille Biography

Jean-Pierre Wimille was born in Paris, in 1908. His father, Auguste Wimille, was motoring correspondent for the Petit Parisien newspaper and later the Paris edition of the New York Herald under James Gordon Bennett. It would not be an exaggeration that Wimille grew up steeped in the history of turn of the century motorsports.

Surprisingly he did not get his first car, a three-wheeled Morgan derivative until he reached the age of 20. After duly wrecking his first car it was replaced by a 1500cc Bugatti. He made his Grand Prix debut in 1930, at the French Grand Prix in Pau but mechanical trouble forced him to retire. His appetite now wetted he resolved to continue racing and the next year saw him finish 2nd in the monte Carlo Rally. Except for 2 victories in 1932, Oran and Lorraine, and the GP of Algeria in 1934 he was handicapped by the growing lack of a competitive Bugatti Grand Prix car.

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Jean-Pierre Wimille