Luis Fontés

A skilled driver fuelled by a ruinous cocktail of wealth and extreme recklessness

BRITISH RACING DRIVER, aviator and powerboat racer Luis Fontés was a virtual unknown when he won the 1935 Le Mans 24 Hours. Despite a studious appearance, he was a daredevil and hellraiser whose drunken antics regularly got him into trouble with the law and culminated in him killing a young motorcyclist, for which he was jailed for manslaughter.

The son of an English mother and a Brazilian father, he was born in Hampstead, London, on Boxing Day in 1912. His father Antonio had prospered during the Brazilian rubber boom and became a property developer, shipping tycoon and London-based government official. Not believing in the formalities of marriage, Antonio started several families and on his death, when Luis was just one, left generous legacies to all the mothers and their children. So it was that on his 21st birthday in 1933, Luis inherited a fortune that enabled him both to take up motor racing and qualify as a pilot.

Early cars included two MGs, a J2 and a J3; he started competing in the latter and quickly showed himself to be competitive. The young novice then bought an Invicta S-type and, despite engine maladies, impressed rival entrant Arthur Fox at the 1934 Ards TT.

However, the wealthy young newcomer's career really took off when he hired an exScuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo 2.3-litre 8C Monza from John Cobb, after the engine in his own MG had failed, and sensationally went on to win the 1935 International Trophy race at Brooklands. He had specifically requested the racing number 13 and painted the car in the generally accepted 'unlucky' green. Reportedly, his post-race party was memorable.