All is here in the excellent article written by the late Ken Purdy: http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=9016&page_number=1 --Matt
Anyone intersted in having a copy of Riverside records interview I have a very small quantity of the four driver records remastered on CD. these are are not bootleg copies, see advert Image Unavailable, Please Login
It may be of interest to people on this thread that my book on de Portago will be completed by Christmas and published by a UK publisher. I am interested in hearing from those of you who have accurate lists of dates of races and other sporting events to check against my own. Also looking for unpublished photos, which will be credited etc. Any help greatly appreciated. For your interest I have been in touch with members of the family including Portago's widow who I am going to interview shortly. Thanks very much, Ed McDonough If you want my CV or list of my other books, just ask.
Ed FYI I own the original police accident photos showing the MM 57 wreck in all detail. Marcel Massini
Thank you for the update and please keep us posted when there are future developments. It sounds like a great book.
Many Tks for your interest in my Fon's bio. The wording, along with a good number of hard-to-find period images, are ready for printing. Now looking for these elusive action shots of his early horse, bobsleigh and car races.
I am pleased to say I have just returned from the USA where I spent a day with the widow of Alfonso de Portago. It was fascinating and illuminating. I was able to have access to the family albums..never seen photos of his early years. 'Fon' made six large albums of his life himself. Ed McDonough
Do you mean Don Alfonso Antonio Vicente Blas Ángel Francisco Borija Cabez de Vaca y Leighton, Carvajal y Are, XVII Marqués de Portago, Marqués de Moratalla, XIII Conde de La Mejorada, Conde de Pernia, Duke of Alagon, Grande de España?
It's gonna need a damn big cover to get all that on............ ;-) Look forward to the book Ed, I love 'Ferrari 156 Sharknose' and your stuff for Auto Italia. I've heard two versions of his last accident:- 1) Enzo is rumoured to have taunted Fon that Gendebien in the 250GT would beat him, and Fon wouldn't have a tyre change at his last stop due his impatience to prove Enzo wrong, despite a tyre rubbing on the bodywork - so it burst...; or 2) the cats-eyes in the centre of the road cut his tyre as he drifted across them, and the Italian government was said to have banned that type of cats-eye for years afterwards.......... Paul M
Hey guys thanks for sharing the information above - really wonderful reading. Here are some amateur pictures of Alfonso de Portago in 290MM Spyder (0626) at the 56 Nurbergring. Didn't Fangio came in 4th @ the 56 Mille Miglia in this car several months earlier? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, he did. Hence the nose band in Argentine colors. The car has been with Pierre Bardinon since the mid-seventies if I recall it right.
Here photos of the 290 MM #0626 when it was in the Mas du Clos Collection of Pierre Bardinon. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
To return one moment on this Argentinian nose on the Ferrari 290 MM #0626 of Pierre Bardinon, it is Claude Vialard, the historian of the Collection of Mas du Clos which had had the delicate attention to restore to him this nasal coquettery at the time of the restoration of #0626.
And even better is my photo of De Portago in the 1956 Le Mans scuffle with the Jaguars. This is the missing shot in the sequence of shots in Paul Frere's book "From starting Grid to Chequered Flag" Image Unavailable, Please Login
I know of no US vendor. I got my copy from Chater's in the UK. http://www.chaters.co.uk/book_details.cfm/bks_id/11029 A bit pricey, but worth it IMO.
Strangely, I'm just reading "The Last Playboy" a biography of Rubirosa, who, if I remember correctly, died at the wheel of a Ferrari by crashing into a tree in the Bois de Boulogne (sp).
a PF cab - does anyone know the s/n? the damage didn't look that bad; Ferraris in a lot worse shape than Rubirosa's have been repaired. does anyone know what happened to it?
