PastImperfect: Hélène Delangle, the Bugatti QueenThe woman who was to become the most remarkable female racing driver in a remarkable age was born in 1900 in the village of Boissy-le-Sec halfway between Paris and Chartres. Her father was the village postmaster and the family struggled to make ends meet throughout her childhood.
Hélène was 16 when her brother was killed at Verdun, and shortly afterwards she left home to make a new life for herself in Paris.
A pretty girl, she found work as a model for the sort of "naughty" postcards that sold to eager tourists. At the same time she trained as a dancer and found sufficient work to be able to buy her first car, a Citroën, in which she passed her driving test in 1920, a feat which she celebrated by taking the Citroën on a 1,000 mile tour of France.
At around the same time, she became drawn to a new and fashionable car accessory shop which had opened on the Rue Saint-Ferdinand. She formed a friendship with three men who frequented the shop, sharing their growing interest in motor racing and mountain climbing, accompanying them on trips to Brooklands in England and the Alps in pursuit of their past-times. On the professional front, she had changed her name to Hellé Nice and become a major star as a dancer in Parisian revues.
In 1929 she made her motor racing debut at the very fast banked Montlhéry circuit outside Paris. Driving an Omega, Hélène won the race to a huge ovation from the crowd. The win gave her widespread fame and probably influenced her decision to seek other races in which to compete.
Whatever the reason, Hélène attracted the attention of Jean Bugatti, son of Le Patron Ettore Bugatti. Jean came up with the idea of persuading Hélène to set a new world speed record in one of their cars. In December 1929 she did just that at Montlhéry with an average speed over 10 laps of 194.266 km/h.
Hélène's racing record over the next 10 years was impressive: including success in Grand Prix, on American board and dirt tracks - both particularly difficult and dangerous, hillclimbs and rallies. But her success came with a price, and a major crash at São Paulo in 1936 left her in a deep coma from which she was not expected to recover. But she did, slowly finding her way back into motor racing once again. However, the number of events in which she competed fell drastically and with the advent of war clouds in 1938 and 1939, the best years of Hélène's racing career came to an end.
After the second World War she was denounced as a Gestapo agent by a fellow racing driver and despite a long fight to clear her name, her reputation never recovered. She made a short-lived come-back driving in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1949 and the Grand Prix de Nice in 1951, but her passion seemed to be gone.
Hélène Delangle, or Hellé Nice, died in obscurity in 1984. Her story has until recent times been all but forgotten, an undeserved legacy for one of motor racing's most flamboyant and greatest drivers.