The daredevils in their speeding boxes on Lake Constance
On June 16 and 17, 1951, the XXII National Hill Climb Rheineck-Walzenhausen-Lachen took place on Lake Constance. As usual, an official program with a start list was sold for 1.50 francs, although this did not include entry. Forty pages long, it listed all the participants and their vehicles.
The standard touring cars included vehicles from the following brands: Skoda, Simca 8, Peugeot, Hillman, Lancia, Jowett-Javelin, Citroën, Alfa Romeo, Studebaker, BMW, Chevrolet, Delahaye and Ford. The field of special touring cars also included vehicles from Fiat, VW, Sunbeam, Healey and Talbot, three of which were marked with a "K" for Kompressor, a Renault, a VW and a Sunbeam.
Then there were the standard sports cars, in which vehicles from Fiat, Cisitalia, MG (4x), Javelin-Jupiter, BMW, Alfa Romoe (with supercharger), Jaguar (3x) provided competition, and the racing sports cars, where a Fiat-Fehr, a Fiat-ND, a FGH-Stagni-Fiat, an AFM, a Veritas, three MGs with superchargers, a BMW-Waldner, a Ferrari, a BMW-Veritas and three Alfa Romeos with superchargers competed for the fastest times. And finally, there were the racing cars, where a Cooper, a Cisitalia, two Simca-Gordini, two supercharged Maserati, two Veritas-Meteor and a Ferrari competed for the honor of the day's winner.
The 1951 hill climb was largely a Swiss event, with drivers coming from all parts of Switzerland, the most famous being Rudolf Fischer, Peter Hirt (see picture, driving a Veritas-Meteor) and E. de Graffenried from Lausanne.
The program booklet was printed in black and white, with the exception of the cover, and contained not only the daily program but also the route map, special regulations and time tables.
In addition, there are of course various more or less targeted advertising messages in the booklet, which in any case still give us pleasure and make us smile today.
However, it is questionable whether much thought was given to printing an advertisement from "Winterthur", which advertised insurance in the event of a serious accident or premature death. Even then, the organizers were obviously dependent on all sponsors.
A few days ago, we published a largely complete list of all the hill climb races ever held in Switzerland, illustrated with many historical pictures. The entire program of the 1951 Rheineck-Walzenhausen-Lachen hill climb can of course be found in the Zwischengas archive.
