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Julien Jean Chassagne (26 July 1881 – 13 April 1947) was a pioneer submariner, aviator, and French racing driver active 1906–1930. Chassagne finished third in the 1913 French Grand Prix; won the 1922 Tourist Trophy and finished second in the 1925 Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance - all in Sunbeam motorcars. He was second in the 1921 Italian Grand Prix with a Ballot, and set speed records and won races at Brooklands and hill climbs internationally.
Chassagne was also associated with the Bentley Boys, who are described as having captured the spirit of the times, partying as hard as they worked. Larger than life, their restless and often reckless love of speed and adventure complemented the big green Bentleys from Cricklewood perfectly. As a result of his association with Bentley Motors, Chassagne Square in Crewe was named in his honour.
Chassagne applied to serve as a pilot during the Great War but under the request of the British Admiralty he joined Sunbeam to advise, develop and test aero engines for the war effort.
His mechanical knowledge, gained early in his education and augmented during his service with the French Navy on early , stood him in good stead both in racing and the development and testing of the latest technology in early aviation for Demoiselles Santons-Dumont , the first Hanriot monoplanes and Clément-Bayard. He was also involved in the development and testing of racing cars, namely Grand Prix Sunbeams and the Bugatti type 35.
Chassagne was not born into wealth, and competing at the cutting edge of technology could not have been easy. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he retained a "twinkle in his eye and un air fortement sympathique" throughout his life. Meticulous, resilient, calm with a delicate driving touch and mechanical sympathy ‘Chass’ was held with the utmost regard and affection by his friends and colleagues, the finest engineers and drivers of their time; surely a testimony to his amiable, loyal and easy nature.
In 1905, he volunteered as a submariner and was stationed for ten months on three different submarines. Firstly, on a , 157 tons with 13 crew; then on which was the world first all-electric submarine and finally on , which was the second submarine to be introduced to the French Navy.
During this period, Chassagne was also working at Clément-Bayard, Senat workshops for airships and race-car engines on the development, assembly and testing of the experimental Demoiselles Santons-Dumont monoplanes. Development, assembly and testing of the first Hanriot Monoplanes, Reims followed and in August 1910 Chassagne received his pilot licence certificate no. 160.
He subsequently participated in various events including the Baie de Seine estuary crossing; winning the Liege altitude & speed prizes. Chassagne crashed in Deauville due to engine problem but escaped with only a few splinters from the wooden frame in his thighs. He was then appointed Chief Pilot to Hanriot Flying School where he trained many of the early pioneering aviators and in 1911 he became Director of the Algeciras Flying School, Spain where he was responsible for the training of Spanish officers. In 1912 Chassagne was again flying with Clément-Bayard where he was responsible for the testing and development of the new aero engines in long-distance flights such as Paris to Reims, Paris to Mourmelon to Reims to Soissons and to Paris, as well as, remarkably Issy to Reims. That year Jean Chassagne met Louis Coatalen, joined the Sunbeam racing team and withdrew from flying.
Throughout this period, Chassagne combined his aviation activities with racing and with the Hispano Suiza Racing Team in 1910 he competed at Coupe des Voiturettes, Bolougne gaining second place and in the Catalan Cup Race a fourth; later taking part in the famous Mont Ventoux Hillclimb. It is at Hispano Suiza that Chassagne was acquainted with Works drivers Pilleverdier and Paul Zuccarelli the latter becoming with Georges Boillot, Jules Goux & Ernest Henry the Peugeot ‘Les Charlatans’ who revolutionized racing with the twin cam over head, four valve per cylinder engine design.
Motorboat racing in Monaco was a convenient test bed for engine technology and in 1913 Coatalen and Chassagne in a Sunbeam powered boat took part in the event. That same year, Chassagne was promoted to a Sunbeam Works Team driver and in the French Grand Prix at Amiens Chassagne came first of the Sunbeams and third overall. Later that year at the Coupe de l'Auto at Boulogne Chassagne, with his riding mechanic A P Mitchell, retired on the seventh lap when lying third with a rear axle failure.
On 2 October 1913 at Brooklands Chassagne alternating in two-hour spells with Dario Resta and K. Lee Guinness of the eponymous Stout dynasty, set up a series of long distance World Records with a Sunbeam Grand Prix fitted with a Single- Seater body. Two days later again at Brooklands, Chassagne with the Sunbeam Toodles V, won an event against Percy E. Lambert's Land Speed Record holder Talbot. On the same day and with the same car Chassagne made the fastest Brooklands race lap to that date. A few days later, Chassagne and Toodles V set up further long distance World Records.
In 1914 Chassagne continued to set up World Records for Sunbeam at Brooklands with Toodles V. Chassagne took part in the Monaco Motor boat races with ‘Toto’ a 2.5L dohc four valve per cylinder Sunbeam powered racing boat; this may have been a test run for this new engine design; similar designed engines, built in the manner of the Pegueot ‘Charlatans’, from which the design was derived, were used in that year's Grand Prix Sunbeam racing motorcars. Travelling to the US for the 1914 Indianapolis 500 Mile, Chassagne with his riding mechanic A P Mitchell in ‘Spotty’ a 1913 Sunbeam G.P. car, qualified at but crashed on the twentieth lap due to burst tyre. Shortly after in the historic French Grand Prix in the newly designed 4 cyl 4.5 L dohc Sunbeam, Chassagne made fastest lap but retired on the thirteenth lap due to big-end failure.
The Great War was looming and on commencement, Chassagne enlisted in the Artillery Corp despite several requests to join the Flying Corp; shortly after in 1915, under the request of the British Admiralty he joined Sunbeam to advise, develop and test aero engines for the war effort.
During the war in 1916 Sunbeam designed a 4.9 L engine in the Ernest Henry manner which performed well in that year's Indianapolis 500; J Christiaens finishing fourth; this engine type was fitted in 1919 in two shorter 1914 Sunbeam T.T. chassis and entered for Jean Chassagne and Dario Resta for the 1919 Indianapolis 500. The cars were shipped to the United States but were not submitted for scrutineering and withdrawn for unknown reason. Jean Chassagne was consequently recruited by the newly formed Ballot Racing Team to drive one of their newly designed Ernest Henry straight eight 4.9 L cars; accident on the 63rd lap due to steering problem resulted in what became Chassagne's most serious accident in his entire career but despite having been ejected some from his car he was largely unhurt. Chassagne remind with the Ballot team and in 1921 became their top driver.
A year later, in the 1920 Indianapolis 500 capacity limit was reduced to 183 cu (3-litre). The design of the Ballot entry was similar to the year before but scaled down to 3-litre; Chassagne was running in the first five places throughout the race but damaged steering dropped him to seventh place winning $1,900. Back in Brooklands in the larger 4.9 L Ballot and with riding mechanic Robert Laly who was to become a lifelong friend, Chassagne made the fastest BARC lap of the year and finished second in the three handicap races. In the Gaillon Hillclimb, he made 22.6 sec at .
Back in Indianapolis in 1921 with a private entry Peugeot 4 cyl, Chassagne lost his bonnet and was forced by the regulations to retire. The long-awaited French Grand Prix took place at Le Mans, on a circuit that was to become known as the Le Mans '24 hours Endurance'; Chassagne on the 3-litre Ballot thrilled the crowds with a neck to neck duel with Jimmy Murphy on his Duesenberg; on lap 17 Chassagne was leading but he was forced to retire with punctured petrol tank. Chassagne had his break in the 1921 Italian Grand Prix with the Ballot where he came second and the Gaillon Hillclimb where he made third fastest time of the day. In November 1921 Chassagne, married the half English, half French Emma; over the years, Emma escorted her husband on some racing events and they remained married until Chassagne died in 1947.
1922 was a successful and busy year for Jean Chassagne with S.T.D. and at 41 years of age, his greatest victory in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. The year started with a win at Brooklands Easter Meeting with the now legendary aero-engined Sunbeam 350 hp which proceeded to break numerous Speed Records including the first car to set a new World Speed Record over the magic 150 mph mark.
In 22 June after 5:24:50hr in what he famously described as "a nightmare in sea of mud" Chassagne won the first postwar Tourist Trophy and the last motorcar Tourist Trophy to be run on the Isle of Man with Sunbeam IIIThe Motor 21 June p.786 a 1921 Sunbeam Grand Prix straight eight 3-litre modified for the event; Chassagne ordinarily a measured and meticulous driver was fazed by the atrocious weather conditions on the island that day but it remained "one of the greatest victories of his career". Chassagne was entered in several voiturette racing for S.T.D. with the invincible 1921 1.5 L Talbot Darracqs, in effect a half sized engine of Chassagne's winning Tourist Trophy car, but none gained him success.
Responding to the formula change of the 1922 French Grand Prix held in Strasbourg Coatalen engaged Ernest Henry, then at his peak, to design the new 2-litre Grand Prix Sunbeam engine. Pre Great War Henry, together with 'Les Charlatans' was responsible for the development of the game changing Peugeot race engines with double overhead cam and four valve per cylinder. Postwar he was acclaimed for the highly influential Ballot engines.
Jean Chassagne knew Henry for many years and he acted as liaison between Henry in S.T.D. Surenes near Paris and the S.T.D. Wolverhampton Experimental Department, ultimately testing the prototype car in Brooklands and helping to develop the Sunbeam Grand Prix team entry. In the event, Chassagne drove Sunbeam I but the three cars retired after being the second fastest behind the winning Fiats. The cars were entered at the subsequent Grand Premio d’Italia Monza but did not appear. Instead, Sunbeam competed in the 1922 November 19 Coppa Florio in Sicily where Chassagne after holing the oil tank of his dreadnought grey 4.9 L 1922 Tourist Trophy Sunbeam with a stone on the rough Madonia Mountains track, and having replenished with olive oil locally purchased, finished fourth but was unplaced.
Chassagne took a sabbatical in 1923 and his only recorded entry was a first in class in the Circuit des Routes Pavees, with a Citroen B Type Two-Seater. In 1924 Chassagne was involved together with Bugatti himself with the preparation, development and tuning of the iconic type 35 Bugatti in advance of its inaugural French Grand Prix at Lyon; the tyres were insufficiently vulcanisation and after changing 15 deflated tyres himself, Chassagne finished seventh – the highest placed Bugatti; the situation was not dissimilar at the Spanish Grand Prix at San Sebastian; a race which saw some particularly harsh accidents, injuries and fatality due to poor road preparation.
In 1925 the third Le Mans Grand Prix d’Endurance took place and S.T.D. entered two Sunbeam Super Sport one for Jean Chassagne and Sammy C H Davis, the other for H.O.D. Segrave and G Duller. It is saidSunbeam Racing Cars, Anthony S Heal, 1989 p.216 that the Sunbeam 3-litre Super Sport was designed by Vincenso Bertarione and produced by Sunbeam under instruction of Louis Coatalen mainly to beat Bentley in endurance racing and this Chassagne and Davis did coming second overall to a Lorraine-Dietrich in their ailing Sunbeam after a hotly contested race with the Bentley team. With the new Bertarione/ Becchia 1923 S.T.D. Talbot Darracq 1.5 L voiturette, Jean Chassagne had good success in 1925 obtaining fastest time of the day at the Gometz le Chatel Hillclimb and second fastest at the famous Gaillon Hillclimb but he ran out of fuel on the last lap in the Touring Car Grand Prix, Montlhéry which was run on distance, ballast & fuel formula. Further speed events with the Talbot Darracq Works Team yielded in 1926 success but also a serious accident in a rainy Avus whilst he was lying third.
For the 1926 Le Mans Grand Prix d’Endurance Chassagne was entered with an Aries Surbaissée 2 L car; further races with Aries Surbaissée continued in 1927 achieving excellent results in endurance racing in Belgium, France and Spain.
In 1929 Le Mans Chassagne was sharing a Bentley with Francis Clement; the Bentley team holding virtually from the beginning the first four positions. Back with a Ballot at the Grand Prix Chassagne retired with a mechanical problem.
W. O. Bentley was against Supercharger his 4.5-litre cars and it was left to Henry Tim Birkin sponsored by the Hon. Dorothy Paget to initiate the construction of a team of Blower Bentleys designed by Amherst Villiers and built at the Birkin's Works, Welwyn Garden City. At the 1930 Brooklands Double Twelve Chassagne shared Birkin's favourite Blower Bentley but the Mechan's frame broke and the car retired at 4.30 pm of the first day's racing. Again sharing a car with Birkin at the Le Mans Grand Prix d’Endurance, the car put up the fastest lap at overtaking Caracciola at nearly but retired on lap 138 with a broken valve. The Bentley Works Team was retired but the Birkin Blowers were entered in the 1930 Phoenix Park Irish Grand Prix where they had a close race with the Mercedes 7 litre supercharged; Chassagne car suffered from a lubrication problem. This was to be his last recorded race.
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