Pierre Veyron (1 October 1903 – 2 November 1970) was a French

Grand Prix motor racing Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition, has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as early as 1894. It quickly evolved from simple road races from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car an ...

driver active from 1933 through 1953.

Career

Pierre Veyron enrolled at university to study engineering. Veyron's friend, Albert Divo, convinced Veyron to take up racing and introduced Veyron to André Vagniez, an industrialist who provided financial support to Veyron. Vagniez purchased a

Bugatti Type 37A The Bugatti Type 35 was the most successful of the Bugatti racing models. Its version of the Bugatti arch-shaped radiator that had evolved from the more architectural one of the Bugatti Type 13 Brescia, was to become the one that the marque is ...

that Veyron drove to his first racing victory, winning the 1930 Geneva Grand Prix.

Jean Bugatti Jean Bugatti (15 January 1909 – 11 August 1939) was an automotive designer and test engineer for Bugatti. He was the son of Bugatti's founder Ettore Bugatti. Biography Born Gianoberto Maria Carlo Bugatti in Cologne, he was the eldest son ...

, son of

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars w ...

founder

Ettore Bugatti Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (15 September 1881 – 21 August 1947) was an Italian-born French automobile designer and manufacturer. He is remembered as the founder and proprietor of the automobile manufacturing company Automobiles E. Bugatti, wh ...

, hired Pierre Veyron in 1932 as a test driver and development engineer. Veyron entered races as a Bugatti company driver, winning many including the 1933 and 1934 Berlin Avus races while driving a Bugatti Type 51A. Veyron's most significant race victory was his 1939 win at the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

, co-driving a

Bugatti Type 57 The Bugatti Type 57 and later variants (including the famous Atlantic and Atalante) was a grand tourer car built from 1934 through 1940. It was an entirely new design created by Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore. A total of 710 Type 57s were ...

S Tank with

Jean-Pierre Wimille Jean-Pierre Wimille (26 February 1908 – 28 January 1949) was a Grand Prix motor racing driver and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Biography Born in Paris, France to a father who loved motor sports and was employed as t ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Veyron joined the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

against German occupation. For his service during the war, the Republic of France awarded him the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

in 1945. After the war, Veyron continued racing, but his main focus was on his family and his oil-drilling technology company. Veyron died in

Èze Èze (; oc, Esa; it, Eza) is a seaside commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera, 8.5 km (5.2 mi) to the northeast of Nice and 4.5 km (2.7 mi ...

, France in 1970. Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. named the Veyron 16.4

supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

in honor of Veyron.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

1903 births 1970 deaths Bugatti people French racing drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans winning drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers {{France-autoracing-bio-stub