Gerard Ducarouge 1941-2015
Discussion
(couldn't see a thread.)
One of the great unsung designers has left the stage.
The Matra F1 cars.
The Matra Le Mans winners.
The Ligier F1 cars.
The JPS Lotus that saved their season in 1983.
The JPS Lotus that Senna really made his name in.
A designer like Tony Southgate who made really great cars but without too much fuss. (Although he did seem to get sacked a lot.)
I wonder if the truth about the 'spring loaded' Ligier side pods will finally now come out?
RIP Gerard.
One of the great unsung designers has left the stage.
The Matra F1 cars.
The Matra Le Mans winners.
The Ligier F1 cars.
The JPS Lotus that saved their season in 1983.
The JPS Lotus that Senna really made his name in.
A designer like Tony Southgate who made really great cars but without too much fuss. (Although he did seem to get sacked a lot.)
I wonder if the truth about the 'spring loaded' Ligier side pods will finally now come out?
RIP Gerard.
Edited by The Hypno-Toad on Thursday 26th February 21:22
The Hypno-Toad said:
(couldn't see a thread.)
One of the great unsung designers has left the stage.
The Matra F1 cars.
The Matra Le Mans winners.
The Ligier F1 cars.
The JPS Lotus that saved their season in 1983.
The JPS Lotus that Senna really made his name in.
A designer like Tony Southgate who made really great cars but without too much fuss. (Although he did seem to get sacked a lot.)
I wonder if the truth about the 'spring loaded' Ligier side pods will finally now come out?
RIP Gerard.
Not to mention Alfa - both they an Ligier went downhill after he got the sack and joined Lotus for a mini revival of soughts.One of the great unsung designers has left the stage.
The Matra F1 cars.
The Matra Le Mans winners.
The Ligier F1 cars.
The JPS Lotus that saved their season in 1983.
The JPS Lotus that Senna really made his name in.
A designer like Tony Southgate who made really great cars but without too much fuss. (Although he did seem to get sacked a lot.)
I wonder if the truth about the 'spring loaded' Ligier side pods will finally now come out?
RIP Gerard.
Edited by The Hypno-Toad on Thursday 26th February 21:22
Tony Southgate - the less said about F1 the better?
coppice said:
Sad isn't it when a gifted and influential designer's death merits 3 posts and yet Alonso's minor accident in testing is 23 pages and counting and the helmet design thread gets 5 pages.
I think that it also shows how the world is today regarding the celebrity culture. What will get more viewers, a programme about building cross rail or I’m a celebrity get me out of here. I mean how much attention did Carl Fogerty get whilst winning 4 WSB titles on BBC sports personality of the year and then this year he gets to present a trophy because he won get me out? Very sad.Rant over
Sad news.
While still in his 20s, Ducarouge co-designed the Matra MS80 that took Jackie Stewart to his WDC and Matra (under the steady hand of Ken Tyrrell) to the WCC in 1969.
He never quite matched this in his later career, but he did achieve a good measure of success with Ligier as well as penning the cars that gave Team Lotus their last hurrah in F1.
He deserves to be rather more than a footnote in racing history.
While still in his 20s, Ducarouge co-designed the Matra MS80 that took Jackie Stewart to his WDC and Matra (under the steady hand of Ken Tyrrell) to the WCC in 1969.
He never quite matched this in his later career, but he did achieve a good measure of success with Ligier as well as penning the cars that gave Team Lotus their last hurrah in F1.
He deserves to be rather more than a footnote in racing history.
That's sad news. Must have been about '88 I got him to sign a couple of pictures I'd taken of his active Lotus 99T in the pits at Silverstone. Course that was back in the day when one person could still pretty much be called 'the designer' of an F1 car. IIRC he was a friendly chap who seemed very surprised that anyone would recognise him, let alone want his autograph.
Very sad news,been away for a long weekend and just seen this
Worked at team lotus during all of gerards time and he was a great guy
Actually had time to talk to you,cool as f*** (who else could get pulled for speeding in a 190 cossie merc on the A11,give the police the "eeeeerr,French,no English" act and get let off.Only to wheel spin off an get done 5 miles further down the rd doing 120
Then when he gets banned employs,the hottest French girl you have ever seen as his driver !
Great guy an very happy days
Worked at team lotus during all of gerards time and he was a great guy
Actually had time to talk to you,cool as f*** (who else could get pulled for speeding in a 190 cossie merc on the A11,give the police the "eeeeerr,French,no English" act and get let off.Only to wheel spin off an get done 5 miles further down the rd doing 120
Then when he gets banned employs,the hottest French girl you have ever seen as his driver !
Great guy an very happy days
f1rob said:
...he was a great guy Actually had time to talk to you,cool as f*** ...
When I met him, I remember he was wearing sunglasses, under a typical Silverstone overcast, inside the Lotus pits, (Thursday before the BGP, '87):
I think that's him standing behind the car....in his sunglasses?
f1rob said:
Very sad news,been away for a long weekend and just seen this
Worked at team lotus during all of gerards time and he was a great guy
Actually had time to talk to you,cool as f*** (who else could get pulled for speeding in a 190 cossie merc on the A11,give the police the "eeeeerr,French,no English" act and get let off.Only to wheel spin off an get done 5 miles further down the rd doing 120
Then when he gets banned employs,the hottest French girl you have ever seen as his driver !
Great guy an very happy days
Thanks for sharing that, always had a suspicion he was a bit of a rogue. Worked at team lotus during all of gerards time and he was a great guy
Actually had time to talk to you,cool as f*** (who else could get pulled for speeding in a 190 cossie merc on the A11,give the police the "eeeeerr,French,no English" act and get let off.Only to wheel spin off an get done 5 miles further down the rd doing 120
Then when he gets banned employs,the hottest French girl you have ever seen as his driver !
Great guy an very happy days
Nice that a few more people are commenting on this thread now, I maintain he was a very underrated talent.
Yes that's him talking to Steve Hallam one of the race engineers
To give you an idea of his talent the 1st 2 cars didn't have any wind tunnel work done on them it was from Gerards head
Had the mock up for the car in the pattern shop at kett hall and body/aero work was done by Gerard and a strange little French guy every one refered to as "Wiskey" which came from his habit of having to have a bottle of scotch as he worked !!! Pretty sure he was ex matra ? And he styled the bodywork pattern in plaster freehand to Gerards directions
Still friends with the painter from the JPS days who often laughs about how crazy he thought Gerard was as he had him spray every bit of furniture brilliant white for he new flat in Norwich and how fantastic it looked when finished
Like I said cool as.....
To give you an idea of his talent the 1st 2 cars didn't have any wind tunnel work done on them it was from Gerards head
Had the mock up for the car in the pattern shop at kett hall and body/aero work was done by Gerard and a strange little French guy every one refered to as "Wiskey" which came from his habit of having to have a bottle of scotch as he worked !!! Pretty sure he was ex matra ? And he styled the bodywork pattern in plaster freehand to Gerards directions
Still friends with the painter from the JPS days who often laughs about how crazy he thought Gerard was as he had him spray every bit of furniture brilliant white for he new flat in Norwich and how fantastic it looked when finished
Like I said cool as.....
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