1929 Grand Prix de Monaco

The very first Grand Prix de Monaco took place on April 14th, 1929.

It was created as to bring international prestige to the Principality.

Sixteen drivers participated in that inaugural race, including Rudolf Caracciola, René Dreyfus, Philippe Étancelin and William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams.

That first race was won by Grover-Williams racing a Bugatti Type 35B.

Pen&ink, paint markers and markers on 18"x 12.75" (45.5cm x 32.5cm) blue archival paper © Paul Chenard    

I decided to create an artwork showing him in his Bugatti, and had a B&W photo as reference. I did the art on blue paper, as most often Bugatti's were in French racing blue.

After starting the art, I found out that he was racing in British racing green, so I used a yellow marker on the blue paper to get the green.

A happy mistake!

Bugatti Sale of the Century

American John Shakespeare from Illinois was a curious gentleman who sought the unusual and the exciting.

Heir to his father’s fishing tackle fortune, John discovered fast cars amongst his other distractions of skydiving and waterskiing. He also had interests in oil, real estate and auto dealerships.

He tried his hand at racing Ferraris in the mid-1950s, even racing with Luigi Chinetti to a 6^th place finish of the 1954 Carrera Panamericana in a Ferrari 375 MM.

By 1963, he had accumulated a large collection of rare cars, with a strong focus on Bugatti’s.

The Schlumpf brothers in Mulhouse France heard of his Bugatti’s, and thought they would make excellent additions to the museum they were creating.

Negotiations began, with lots of back and forth, and by 1964, a deal was struck where Shakespeare would selling them all his 30 Bugatti’s for the lowly sum, including shipping, of $85,000 USD, which works out to about $650,000 USD in today’s money!


John Shakespeare seeing off his 30 Bugatti's
Pen&ink and white markers on blue and brown paper © Paul Chenard 2016

They were all loaded up on railcars, and shipped to France.

Considering that most individual vintage Bugatti’s sell between $350,000 and $30,000,000 USD today, the Shakespeare Bugatti deal could certainly be considered the used-car sale of the century!

My Summer “Vacation”

This past Summer, I travelled to the United Kingdom and Belgium to attend events and sketch what I found interesting.

I’ve been working at refining the idea of “live” sketching, where I sketch an interesting motorized vehicle on-the-spot, no matter what the context or situation.

The most interesting aspect of it is the not-knowing what will happen next, and be able to adapt to any changes, whatever they may be.

There are always spectators who have questions, or who want to chat, which I very much appreciate; it’s comforting as an artist to have so many people interested in what you do. There are also the professional photo-journalists who look for that different image to make their story-telling more unique.

There are the changing weather conditions (especially in the UK and Belgium!); wind, rain, the movement of the sun … they all impact the final result.

Other things that impact the art, or more accurately, the artist, are the noises of racing engines being tuned, exhaust fumes that burn the eyes, flames coming out the exhaust pipes, or even the race car being moved.

Finally, there is the time crunch of trying to get 2 artworks done in one day, for which I don’t always have much control over.

Sometimes the car is racing within the 2 hours, so there is a minimum amount of the art-piece that needs to be finished. For a land speed record car at the Brooklands Reunion, I had to reset up 3 or 4 times to get the artwork finally finished.

Below are the 16 artworks that I created at these 5 events … my summer “Vacation” …

Silverstone Classic




Brooklands Reunion



Goodwood Revival





Spa Historic 6 Hours



Sywell Classic Pistons & Props

René Dreyfus - Bugatti Star

Frenchman René Dreyfus was born in Nice in 1905.


When he was 22, he convinced his mother that he needed a Bugatti to get to the clients of his paper company faster. He actually used it for racing.

He was hired as a driver by a local Bugatti dealer, and in 1929 won the Grand Prix de Dieppe in a Type 35B. His real fame came when he beat the factory team driver Chiron in the 1930 Grand Prix de Monaco.

He was briefly with the Maserati team and later joined the Bugatti factory team. With them, he won the 1934 Grand Prix de Belgique, driving a Type 59.



For 1935, he drove for Scuderia Ferrari, alongside drivers like Nuvolari and Chiron. Dreyfus had one more major win before the war, racing a Delahaye to victory at the 1938 Grand Prix de Pau.

He went to the U.S. to race in the 1940 Indianapolis 500, finishing a creditable 10th place. It became impossible to return because of World War Two, so he stayed.


He enlisted in the United States Army during the war, and at the end of it became an American citizen. He opened the famous “Le Chanteclair” restaurant in New York City in 1953, which became a gathering place for the rich and famous, and for the racers coming to the city.

Dreyfus died in New York City in 1993.

Les 24 heures du Mans 2011

The 24 heures du Mans is coming up this weekend, at the same time as Grand Prix du Canada. Talk about over-stimulation!

The 24 Heures du Mans race is the world’s oldest sports car race, with the first race being held in 1923.


The race is organized by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and it is run on the Circuit de Sarthe, about 2.5 hours south-west of Paris.


On the world stage, the race equals in stature to the Grand Prix de Monaco in the Formula 1, and the Indianapolis 500 in Indy car.


There have been cycles of consecutive winners starting with Bentley in the late 1920’s, followed by Alfa Romeo through the 1930’s, and two Bugatti wins late in the decade.


 The war years stopped the race until 1949, with the advent of Ferrari’s first win there. There was mostly Jaguar dominance through the mid-1950’s. Ferrari came back with a vengeance, winning six years in a row, 1960 through to 1965.


At this point, we were well into the Ford/Ferrari war, with Ford taking the next four years. Please read A. J. Baimes’ great book “Go like Hell” to get fabulous insight on the battles.





1970 heralded the Porsche years at Le Mans, with sixteen wins until 1998. These were interspersed with wins by Jaguar, Mercedes, Mazda, Peugeot, Dauer, McLaren, and BMW.


Since 2000, we have been in the Audi years, with the exception of Bentley (2003) and Peugeot (2009).


Aston Martin has returned “en force”, so this year is looking like a three-way battle between them, Audi and Peugeot.


Le Mans has never been so exciting!

1934 Grand Prix de Nice

In the beautiful coastal setting of Nice, France, the 1934 Grand Prix was vaguely reminiscent of Monaco.

The racers started along the Quai des États-Unis, with the waterfront and grandstands to their left, and the cityscape and pits to their right.

1934 Grand Prix Season – Grand Prix de Nice – Alfa Romeo P3Limited edition of 50 – 14.5”x 11” (36.8 cm x 27.9 cm) – $150 USD plus S/H

At the green flag, they raced off down the Promenade des Anglais, past the Hôtel Negresco, downshifting quickly at the tight hairpin curve to the right, back down the Promenade, upwards through the city, around the Jardin Albert 1e, and back to the waterfront starting point.

Three Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos (driven by Louis Chiron, Count Trossi, and Achille Varzi) squared off against seven Maseratis (whose drivers included Tazio Nuvolari, Philippe Étancelin, and Whitney Straight), one Bugatti team car driven by René Dreyfus, and some privately entered Alfas, Bugattis, and Maseratis. Both the Mercedes and Auto Union teams chose not to participate.

The race start saw Varzi and Chiron leading, with Nuvolari and Dreyfus battling for third place. Dreyfus crashed out, allowing Nuvolari’s attention to shift to Chiron. But Nuvolari’s Maserati was not up to another duel and threw a piston.

After the necessary pits stops by all the racers, Étancelin’s Maserati took second place, with Trossi slipping into third position.

With Nuvolari’s retirement, there was no one to really challenge Varzi’s lead, and the somber Italian took the race.

Ettore Bugatti - Le Patron

Ettore Bugatti, often referred to by staff as “Le Patron”, was born in Milan, Italy in 1881.

He apprenticed at a bicycle factory, where he designed his first motorized vehicle. Subsequently, he worked as an automobile designer for the Dietrich and then the Deutz car companies.

Blue Bugattis at Eau Rouge - 1934 Belgian Grand Prix
 Pen&ink, markers, Prismacolor white pencil and pencil on archival white stock 11.75”x 9”
© Paul Chenard 2010
Limited editions available.

In 1910, he started on his own in Molsheim, France, where he designed the Type 19 for Peugeot, called the “Bébé.”

At the same time, Bugatti was successfully racing a Type 13 “Brescia,” built for competition. This little racer carried the famous “horseshoe” radiator that became an earmark of Bugatti quality.

From the early 1920s to the early 1930s, he developed ever more refined and successful racers, such as Types 18, 35, 35B, 35C, 35T, 37, 37A, 39, 51, 54,and 59, as well as road cars, such as Types 40, 41, 50, 55, and 57.

There is a legend that the shades of blue of the Bugatti racecars were based on blue of the 1930’s Gauloise cigarette packages. Madame Bugatti would pull out her Gauloise package and compare it to the colour being used and have it “adjusted” to match the package.

Bugatti’s son Jean was a dynamic catalyst for change and development within the company. With his death in 1939 in a testing accident, and the ruin of the Molsheim factory during the Second World War, the company fortunes started to diminish.

Philippe "Phi-Phi" Etancelin on his way to winning the 1930 French Grand Prix in Pau, driving his 2-litre supercharged Bugatti Type 35C.
 My first scratchboard illustration 7"x 5" (17.8cm x 12.7cm)
© Paul Chenard 2010

This illustration is available.
Ettore Bugatti passed away in Paris in 1947 at the age of 65.

Grand Prix de France 1934

The French Grand Prix in Montlhéry, just south of Paris, signaled the return of Rudolf Caracciola with the Mercedes Team, having spent the last fourteen months recovering from a serious accident.

Auto Union was present, along with the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos and a couple of Maseratis. Tazio Nuvolari was invited to try the Bugatti Type 59 by Ettore Bugatti.

At race start, Louis Chiron driving for Scuderia Ferrari quickly took the lead from Caracciola, Luigi Fagioli (Mercedes) and Hans Stuck (Auto Union). Stuck than pushed hard past the Mercedes drivers to take the lead from Chiron.

Nuvolari experienced gearbox trouble in the Bugatti so he handed it off to Jean-Pierre Wimille. Fagioli was instructed to push harder to catch the lead cars.

The high pace of the race started taking it’s toll on the new German cars, and one by one they dropped out, Caracciola with fuel-feed problems, Fagioli with a broken brake-line, von Brauchitsch with supercharger woes, the persistent Stuck with engine problems, and Momberger with a steering break.

The other teams also dropped out, Bugatti with mostly engine and transmission issues, and Maserati with axle and engine breaks.

Trossi, Chiron and Varzi, race-ready for Scuderia Ferrari

Pen&ink, markers and pencil on white archival stock 12”x 9” (30.5cm x 22.9cm) © Paul Chenard 2010

Original sketch available, as is the limited edition.

This led to a clean sweep for the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos with Chiron first, Varzi second and the Trossi/Moll duo third.

The 80,000 spectators were thrilled with Chiron’s win over the Germans teams. This win hid the fact that all the German cars, though still being very new, fell out of the race for fairly minor reasons, and that with better preparation, they would have clearly matched the opposition.

1934 Grand Prix de Monaco

As the first “Grande Épreuve” of the 1934 Grand Prix season, Monaco was, and has always been, a dramatic venue on the Mediterranean Sea.

It is one of few city courses in the world and considered the most prestigious of all the Grand Prix’s. The Monaco Grand Prix’s started in 1929 and it is still run today.

Guy Moll in an Alfa Romeo P3 rounding the Station Hairpin ahead of René Dreyfus in a Bugatti Type 59
Pen&ink, markers, and pencil on archival white stock 12”x 9” 
© Paul Chenard 2010

Original art & limited editions available.

For this April 2^nd race, a few of the cars running needed modification to meet the new 750kg rules. Both the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams decided they would not participate in any racing until the May 27^th Avusrennen.

From the flag, the race lead changed hands quite often between the Bugatti T59 of René Dreyfus and the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo P3’s of Louis Chiron and “Guy” Moll.

Pen&ink © Paul Chenard 2010

Later in the race, while Chiron was in front, he had a slight off at the Station Hairpin, relinquishing his lead to Moll, who kept his position till race end.

It was a great start for this talented and popular 24-year-old Algerian rookie Scuderia Ferrari driver.

The Bugatti Queen

Hellé Nice (born Mariette Hélène Delangle) was born on 15 December 1900 in Aunay-sous-Auneau, Eure-et-Loir, France.

At the age of 16, she moved to Paris and eventually became a successful dancer in the city's music halls. As her fame and popularity grew, she performed throughout Europe, and spent time with the rich and famous, such as Philippe de Rothschild, Jean Bugatti and Count Bruno d'Harcourt.

She love speed, and was an avid skier. Unfortunately a skiing accident damaged her knee and ended her dancing career. She quickly turned to racing cars, winning some races and breaking some speed records.

Markers on plywood

© Paul Chenard 2011

After a tour through the United States, where she raced a Miller racing car, she was introduced by de Rothschild to Bugatti. This lead Nice to race Bugattis, usually against men. Between 1931 and 1936, she raced Bugattis and Alfa Romeos.

In Brazil for two Grand Prix races, she had a major crash in her Alfa Romeo, but miraculously survived after a three-day coma.

After recovering, she competed in various endurance trials for Yacco, breaking ten records that still stand today.

During World War II, Hellé Nice moved to Nice. In 1949, Nice attended a party celebrating the first post-war Monte Carlo Rallye. During the evening, driver Louis Chiron publically accused Nice of being an agent of the Gestapo.

With these accusations, Nice was dropped by her sponsors and her friends. Her life collapsed around her and she live out her last decades in a back-alley apartment in complete poverty, under a fictitious name. She died penniless and alone in 1984.

In 2001, author Miranda Seymour came across some material on Nice and decided she should be honoured with a biography The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend in 2004. In her research, Seymour found no evidence of Chiron's claims.

In September 2010, a proper grave marker was placed at her grave in a celebration of her life and great accomplishments.

http://hellenicefoundation.blogspot.com/2010/09/helle-nice-marker-ceremony-sept-4-2010.html

In doing renovations recently in our home, I was left with a blank canvas after I pulled up our old carpet. I decided to honour Hellé Nice's accomplishments with a sketch.

Markers on plywood

© Paul Chenard 2011

The new carpet was laid down over the sketch, waiting for years from now when new owners will discover this important personality.