Alain de Cadenet, R.I.P.

If anyone wishes to make a donation in memoriam of Alain de Cadenet to support cholangiocarcinoma research and patients, please do so here:

https://cholangiocarcinoma.org/donate/ or at https://ammf.org.uk/donations/

 

first link can not be found

 

Works for me. Try this https://cholangiocarcinoma.org/ then click on "GIVING" all the way to the right below the full width horizontal green bar.

 

thank you
but now your other link also works
strange

 

So, so sorry to see this...

R.I.P

 

I met Alan several times and got to sit at his table at a Goodwood dinner. Really fun stories and the ones about going to Lemans with Gordon Murray, in the 70's are both facinating, slightly R - X rated, and hilarious.... its amazing anyone finished a race in one piece back then. I loved his Bon Vivant life - its truly something to aspire to. nothing better than to see a guy first thing in the morning - down a cup of coffee, get on his leather jacket, and flying helmet - jump in a golf cart and 30 Min later see him fly off in a spitfire... and buzz the hotel at the same time!

 

He went racing for the girls.
Thats why i went to dental school.
Different results, such is life.
(Haiku)

 

I sold Alain a vintage biplane, 1931 Waco QCF, he loved that airplane. Was always a gentleman. Not sure who has it now, but he used my Alaska address for registration after he bought it, never changed it. Still registered that way. But my old address now.
John

 

Respectful words so very well spoken.

 

I think the following is a lovely genuine tribute sent to me by a mutual friend of AdeC and myself. For me this perfectly encapsulates the wide-ranging emotions within long-term motor sporting people upon hearing of Alain's passing:



"Sad - I knew the old rogue for 60 odd years I suppose & survived various deals with him and raced with him too - Never boring & very knowledgeable on many subjects including SEX and, most of all, good fun! RIP".



One company with whom he worked - sorry, 'used' - in building one of his cars had a lady accountant who - without meeting him - apparently came to hate the very mention of his name, because invoices vital to the little company's very survival went so long unpaid. Then one day Al visited, met the lady and in conversation lasting about 20-30 minutes only he explained and apologised so convincingly, and with such enormous charm, that she became utterly converted to his cause and even began defending his continuing delays. If anyone could kick the financial can further down the road it was him.



He was in so many ways an endearing operator. One could become exasperated but anger sparked by or directed towards him would very seldom survive long.



Classic (and not necessarily true) AdeC stories relate to his having exported his Tipo B Alfa chassis from Argentina as "a ladder" valued at around 7s 6d in proper money, while absolutely true stories include him taking it upon himself to tidy, restore and maintain legendary 1920s/30s 'Bentley Boy' and Alfa Romeo Le Mans-winner Sir Henry Birkin's grave at Blakeney on the north Norfolk Coast. On one anniversary of Moss and Jenks's 1955 Mille Miglia win Al also organised an informal little dinner get together for them at a favourite Italian restaurant in Fulham (or Chelsea? - can't really remember which) at which the menu was precisely that which Mr Ferrari selected in Modena when he entertained 'Tim' Birkin, Earl Howe, 'Johnny' Lurani etc of the MG team at the time of the '33 MM.



There was a good-fun evening bash at the NMM Beaulieu at which a panel of alleged 'experts' presented their personal claims (on behalf of long-gone great racers) to having been the greatest driver of all time. Al represented Nuvolari and was not only brilliant, but knowledgeable, and he brought with him a fantastic sculpured, and clothed, c.half-scale model of the man himself, which he had commissioned. I was meant to be Fangio - attempting Spanish in a squeaky voice - and one way and another I think everyone, yes - even the audience - had an enjoyable evening.



Of course there's the famous tale of his early Ferrari Dino 206S which Al had just had bolted together somewhere in Chelsea as a moneyed young London blade in the allegedly swinging 'sixties. He'd painted the poor thing purple, had shoulder-length hair, bright orange flairs and a flowery shirt. As if that, and the V6's exhaust scream, were not enough to demand attention he drove it along King's Road unaware its leaky injection system was spraying petrol onto the road surface, which a stuttering backfire then ignited. There was no mistaking which way de Cad had gone - just follow the flaming trail.



He'd had so very many great cars through his hands that almost any that one cared to mention to him in any context - as in "So-and-so's Maserati" or "Bonhams have X coming up for auction" he would just light up and repeat the very same phrase: "Oh - that was my old car!". Some of the time it was true.



We were once filming a Targa Florio movie together in Sicily. Al had his 8C Alfa there and he'd parked it overnight in one of the roadways through the hotel's sprawling (and beautifully stocked) gardens. What none of us knew was that the garden looked as lovely as it did in part thanks to the automatic watering system which sprang into life each morning around 6am. When he went out to his car after breakfast its cockpit was absolutely flooded. And just for once he really didn't see the funny side of it - and the more enraged he became at the hotel manager, in a mixture of Italian, French and Anglo-Saxon English, the more convulsed we became. Typically AdeC, he turned the incident into an earner...



Al just seemed to enjoy life and enjoy people, he certainly enjoyed an audience - he was a first-rate TV documentary presenter, and above all an absolutely first-rate, extremely knowledgeable, motor sporting enthusiast. He was unique.



And he is mourned, and missed.



DCN

 

Thank you so much for sharing those stories. We were so very lucking in meeting Alain in 2015 in our little corner of the world near Clemson, SC when we found out a famous race car driver was having a STOL plane built at the local Just Aircraft factory. Of course we had all seen Victory by Design, as well as read about Alain and seen footage of his racing exploits. And we were thrilled to be there when he visited. I will never forget meeting him and hearing his stories first hand. He talked about the Spitfire scene, how that came to be, and all about the great cars and racing. What a gentleman and what a life, makes you sad to see the great ones go.

Of course he had to have the most powerful Just Aircraft that was built to date.

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Thank you to all who have shared their remembrances. Alain & I ran into each other over the course of several Monterey Car Weeks, beginning with when he asked me about a car I was showing during the Tuesday Carmel show. I don't know how he remembered me since we were acquainted only through the annual events, but each year when we saw each other he would pick up the conversation as if we friends who had spoken just the day before. What a gentleman. RIP.

 

Published to youtube on May 25 this year.
One last adventure.
One last ride.
With Alain.
RIP

 

Dave go to bed. BP

 

Met him once in Santa Ynez at a restaurant. Everything everyone has said here I found true. Just a truly nice man. He came outside after finishing his meal to look at my 430. We chatted for a long while until I had to leave. Amazing stories he had. What a great guy and amazing TV presenter.

 

was he driving the alfa?

 

Poor Alain, one last ride. You can hear the difference in the voice, at least I can.
I had the fortune of meeting with him all over the world many times, many stories,
such a lovely man and friend.

Happy drives Alain!

With joyful remembrance,
Alberto

 

I met him a couple years ago in Monterey as he was walking into the auction that takes place downtown. He struck me as the epitome of the type of Frenchman that every woman who watches Emily in Paris yearns to meet--good looking, suave, a racer who has all the manners of both cultures, so i don't hold his reputation against him...I think women chased him. Too bad he couldn't live into old age....yet Another car racer done in by a motorcycle...

 

No, it is Gregor Fisken.

 

LOL!!!…Im a dentist also!!!

 

Fiskens paid tribute to Alain:

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It was poignant that we heard the news of de Cad’s passing whilst on the pit wall at Le Mans Classic. For 30 years we have had the distinct pleasure of sharing the mews with this inimitable character. Alain moved to our famous car-loving mews in the 70s and ran his eponymous race team from it with the help of the immensely talented Gordon Murray and Dick Crosthwaite. In our misspent youth, Alain came to all of the parties we had and racked up most of the miles on the odometer of his Green Daytona Spider giving all the prettiest girls joyrides. For both this and his antics on track, he was our idol - he showed us that you could work hard, go to Le Mans as an amateur, and have a good go of it but also have a hell of a lot of fun along the way. To be clear, he was never boastful, he simply wanted the rest of us to follow his example. The amazing thing is that over the years he never changed, his youthful mischievous energy, cracking sense of humour and unbridled enthusiasm never seemed to age.

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Alain created a community here in the mews. The resident mewsmen and mewswomen, as he called us, were always around to give a helping hand with each other’s cars. A few months ago the entire Mews got out and helped Alain and his son Aidan tow-start his Ferrari 275. He’d often poke his head around the door asking to borrow all sorts of tools and help and we always acquiesced, full well knowing we’d never see our things again. He was so charming about it that you never felt like an aggrieved party. Part of the induction for any great car that came into the mews was having Alain go over it, he’d amble over in one of his Alfa jumpers, usually with Leica in hand, and inspect the latest exciting offering. The most recent induction was the 8C Figoni Spider that we had with us for filming and we were honoured that despite not being well, Alain threw himself into narrating our 8C film for us. The passion in his voice is palpable and we are so privileged to have collaborated with him on one last project. Truly, to hear Alain speak about 8Cs was to experience passion in its purest form. Just before he headed out to LA he fired up his own beloved 8C, “FLC 820” and drove down the mews for what was to be the last time, a sight and sound that won’t soon be forgotten.

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On behalf of all of us, thank you de Cad for everything you were and everything you taught us - yes, to love the cars, to appreciate their history, but also to go out and do it, use them, enjoy them, race them, and never be afraid to dream big.

Our sincerest condolences to all the de Cadenet family.

We will never forget our greatest mewsman

 

Lovely piece.
Reference to @Wheels1 former Daytona Spyder conversion in the text...

If any of you are 'friends' with Aidan de Cadenet on Instagram he wrote a lovely. personal memory of his dad.

Paul