Pierre Chancel, winner of the index of Performance in Le Mans and Rheims. He was the world record holder in a 750cc powered car. This had the PANHARD engine, which was famous in the world of Motor Racing.
Pierre Chancel was born on May 24, 1920 in Paris in the 20th district, where his parents owned a coffee shop. Shortly after his birth, the family returned to Salers, their land of origin. At an early age he was attracted to mechanical devices, he could even drive a car and at 14 years his father offered him a motorcycle.
In 1938 he finished 2nd on a Bol d'Or motorcycle in the 12 hours of Paris on Magnat-Debon. In 1939 he married and opened a motorcycle shop with Mauriac nearby in Salers. During the war he manufactured gas generators for Ford and he adapted one of these for a motorcycle combination by putting the apparatus in the side of the bike.
Since 1945 he decided to settle back in Paris to be able to get around more easily, there he bought a small garage on the Avenue of Versailles. Sticking with motorcycles, he raced three Bol d'Or (motorcylces) and earned places of honor at the Grand Prix at Saint-Cloud and the 3 hours of Montlhery. In 1946 he gained the Coupe Terrot on a 175 cc bike!
Around 1949 he bought another garage on Saint-Meacutedard Street. Later he moved to Saint-Saens Street in 1950 then Garibaldi Boulevard where he worked until his early retirement for health reasons in 1978. Raymond Gaillard, one of his best friends, gave him the chance to team up with him in Le Mans during 1950 to 1952. In 1951, the car was the design of Pierre Chancel with a body made by the carriage-builder Monopole. In 1952, the car would be almost the same as the 1951 with just slight modifications.
In 1953, Panhard decided to build 3 cars for Le Mans and Rene Panhard, former aviator, asked Marcel Riffard well-known at the time for his designs of airplanes (the Rafale de Caudron interalia) to draw the body of these cars which will be used in 1953 and 1954 and on which Pierre Chancel would have much success alone and with his brother Robert.
In 1954, the newspaper "L'Automobile" launched the challenge of the record of the world of the 200 km per hour on the track at Montlhery with an engine of 750 cc. Panhard and DB were in competition. Rene Bonnet on DB failed twice with 197 km/h and December 10, 1954, after having losing a tire in a first attempt, Pierre Chancel reached 201,880 km. Since then this record has never been beaten.
In 1955, Pierre Chancel ran with a Panhard VM5 engine designed by the engineering firm Pierre Durand.
Panhard officially stopped the races after an accident at Le Mans in June 1955 and Monopole became the official coach builder and recovered the 2 VM5 and Riffard which would be used as car laboratory to Pierre Chancel. Seen well to Panhard and LP, Pierre Chancel, thanks to the race, would develop or adapt various techniques like the hydraulic correction of the play to the valves, the cylinder head with double camshaft at the head, the engine with detachable cylinder head, etc...
In Rouen, in 1958, the VM5 of Pierre Chancel caught fire and this one was seriously burned with the drivers. By the end of the year, Monopole stoped the competition. In 1959 a contract was signed between DB and Pierre Chancel. This one would allow him to continue to test his research on the improvement of the Panhard engine. Four engines would be tested at the 24 Hours Le Mans and in Rouen on two barquettes DB. Pierre Chancel would take the wheel of one of these 2 cars and would thus finish its long and rich sporting career.
Pierre Chancel returned to settle in Salers in 1994. He died there on March 31, 2000.
Nonexhaustive prize list of Pierre CHANCEL:
Alain Gaillard