1924 Grand Prix season
The first major event of the year, at the Targa Florio on Sicily, saw a big German contingent, led by Mercedes, arrive to take on the Italian teams.
[10] Sunbeam installed a Roots supercharger to their Grand Prix engine, lifting its power output from 105 to 138 bhp.
It was also fitted with cast aluminium wheels with integral brake drums to allow both break discs and tyres to be replaced during a pit stop.
The supercharged 2-litre, straight-8 engine was fitted with four valves per cylinder and generated up to 7000rpm, a level unprecedented in grand prix cars to that time.
Also in 1924 races were held at the new 5 km oval at Miramas, on the southern coast of France[20] The first chance for the prospective competition to meet was at the Targa Florio.
Their regular drivers Antonio Ascari and Giuseppe Campari were joined this year by Frenchman Louis Wagner, while gentleman-driver Conte Giulio Masetti entered his own.
The Austrian Steyr company had three of their Type VI Klausen sports models for Ferdinando Minoia, Conte Gastone Brilli-Peri and Herrmann Rützler.
André Boillot, Giulio Foresti and Christian d'Auvergne ran the 4-litre Peugeot 174 Sports, and Jules Goux and Jean Haimovici gave the Ballot 2LS another run.
[21][22] Second fell to Masetti almost ten minutes back while Bordino bought his Fiat to third with Campari's Alfa fourth.
On for the extra lap for the Coppa Florio, Nazzaro, in his last major race,[23] had taken over from an exhausted Bordino but the car caught fire and could not finish.
Werner returned to Germany a national hero, while Porsche was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Stuttgart.
In April, the great Tazio Nuvolari got his first victory on four wheels at the inaugural Circuito del Tigullio, near Genoa, in a Bianchi.
[28] The new Alfa Romeo P2 was unveiled in June at the fast local circuit at the city of Cremona, giving the race an auspicious status.
It was won by Enzo Ferrari in an older Alfa Romeo RL and he was given the title Commendatore by Italian premier Benito Mussolini.
It was shortened to a 23 km track cutting out the back end of the run out to Châteauneuf while still incorporating le piege de la mort (Death Trap) - the infamous steep downhill right-left switchback, and hairpin at Les Sept Chemins.
Bugatti unveiled its new Type 35 with a works team of five drivers: Jean Chassagne, Ernest Friderich, Pierre de Vizcaya, Meo Costantini and Leonico Garnier.
Presenting a strong French line-up, they were joined by the Delage works team of veteran René Thomas, Albert Divo and new driver Robert Benoist.
The other French team was Rolland-Pilain, this year fitted with a Swiss Schmid engine, with the experienced Jules Goux and Giulio Foresti.
The Fiat team had their supercharged 805 with Pietro Bordino, Cesare Pastore, Onesimo Marchisio and the great Felice Nazzaro.
Sunbeam, surprise winners the year before, had three cars ready for Henry Segrave, Kenelm Lee Guinness and Dario Resta.
Segrave brought his misfiring car back up through the field but only managed to reach sixth (while also setting the fastest lap time).
[31] The second San Sebastián Grand Prix got a strong international field with Bugatti, Delage and Rolland-Pilain from France.
On lap 11 he hit a rut in a corner that threw him into the roadside banking which then rolled the car three times on the wet track.
His mechanic, Tom Barrett, was killed instantly and Guinness suffered severe head and arm injuries that curtailed his racing career.
After Salamano was injured practising and Bordino was suffering a recurrence of pain in his shoulder, the Fiat team also announced it would be a non-starter.
[34] So at the rescheduled race, there were only four teams present: Alfa Romeo were the clear favourites with four cars for Campari, Ascari, Wagner and Ferdinando Minoia.
There were four of the supercharged M218 cars for Targa Florio heroes Christian Werner and Italian Giulio Masetti, as well as Alfred Neubauer and Count Zborowski.
[31] On lap 50, Zborowski had pitted to change his Mercedes’ spark plugs but in his haste to make up time on his out-lap he went off at the Lesmo corner, hit a tree and was killed.
He had been assigned to Kenelm Lee Guinness for the upcoming San Sebastian Grand Prix, but his place taken by the unfortunate Barrett.
[10][39][40] Finally, Boyer's erstwhile Duesenberg teammate, Ernie Ansterburg, was killed in October when testing at the new wooden oval at Charlotte before its opening race.
