Portago smiled:His mouth was unusually small, and straight-lined, and his smiles were brief, but warm enough. 1957 saw him compete in one race, the Argentine Grand Prix, where he finished fifth in a shared drive with José Froilán González, scoring one point. Select from premium Marquis Alfonso De Portago of the highest quality. Harry Schell and Portago took the three-liter to the Argentine for the 1,000 kilometer sports-car race. We had run an hour past it when he stood up and I shut off the wire recorder. . 0 That was his nature, the core of his being, and he could do nothing to alter it. De Portago began his racing career in 1953, with Luigi Chinetti, and was winning sportscar races by 1954. The rumor that Franco intends the restoration of the Spanish monarchy has been knocking around the world's chancellories for several years. I'm afraid I hit him. Alfonso de Portago (1928-1957) was a Spanish aristocrat and millionaire who was active in racing between 1953 and 1957, achieving some notable results. You can't keep the spectators from crowding into the road—you couldn't do it with an army. Find the perfect Marquis Alfonso De Portago stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. ​ 11 October 1928(1928-10-11)London, England, UK Driver data A few minutes before he had been strongly critical of another driver who has some public business ventures: "He's commercialized himself so much," Portago said, rather disdainfully. Alfonso De Portago was born on October 11, 1928 and died on May 12, 1957. There are so many other aspects to the man: for example, I think he could be the best bridge player in the world if he cared to try, he could certainly be a great soldier, and I suspect he could be a fine writer.". There was lots of time to think." I couldn't get by no matter what I tried, and I tried most things: weighing-in with papier-mache boots and saddle, made to look like leather and weighing nothing, or hiding a five-pound weight on the scale so that the whole standard of weight for all the riders would go up! "The most important thing in our existence is a well-balanced sex-life," he said to me. I asked him. Name: Alfonso de Portago (Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquis of Portago) Nationality: Spain. Here you will find the F1 statistics for Alfonso de Portago … Wins Most men die regretting the errors they have made in the multiple choices that life forces upon us, and Portago knew, in the fraction of time in which he could think about it, that error was killing him. I knew that Chinetti was a very good driver, a specialist in long-distance races who was known to be conservative and careful, but the first time you're in a racing car you can't tell if the driver is conservative or a wild man, and I didn't see how Chinetti could get away with half of what he was doing. The man got out and Portago knocked him down twice. He said he would not, and he told me about an interview recording he was making for Riverside Records, a house specializing in sports car material. I don't think anybody enjoys fear, at least in my definition, which is a mental awareness of a danger to your body. He competed in five non-championship F1 races in 1955 before competing in his World Championship race in 1956, the French Grand Prix, retiring with a gearbox problem. Select from premium Alfonso De Portago of the highest quality. Obviously he intended to live through the Mille Miglia now, although earlier he had written to Dorian Leigh, an internationally famous beauty with whom he had had a close relationship, a note that had suggested premonition: "...As you know, in the first place I did not want to do the Mille Miglia. "Well, I'm very ambitious," Portago said. "I can hardly tell one from another. Look at Maupassant. Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquis of Portago, known as Alfonso de Portago (born 11 October 1928 in Marylebone, London, England, United Kingdom – died 12 May 1957 in Cavriana, MN, Lombardy, Italy) was a British-born That was the Mexican road-race in 1953. When—and if —they are invited to Italy or Germany or France or England to sign a racing contract, they have behind them thousands of miles of competition driven in dozens of makes of cars. Please. Like most drivers, I'm something of an exhibitionist.". They had a life expectancy at the front of 30 days or something like that. His frank statement of the purpose to which he intended to put the championship amused me. He won the Grand Prix of Portugal in 1956, a wild go-round in which the lap record was broken 17 times, the last time by Portago. Both appeared to be tense, more accurately, taut, something that was not in any way allied to nervousness but was instead a peculiar expression of awareness. Alfonso de Portago. . He scored his first podium at the next race, the British Grand Prix, in a shared drive with Peter Collins, as the car crossed the line second. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses.  ESP In the 16th century one of Portago's forebears, Cabeza de Vaca, was shipwrecked on the Florida coast. Mexican film actress Linda Christian poses for a portrait in Alfonso "Marquis" de Portago's Ferrari 860S Monza before the Grand Prix of Cuba race on February 24, 1957 in Havana, Cuba. "Of course," he said. I want to live to be a very old man. Yet it would be a flinty heart that did not mourn his death. The resulting crash also killed co-driver Edmund Nelson and nine spectators, including five children. ", "It's the first thing the historians suppress when they write the lives of great men," I said, "And it was often an astonishingly big factor in their lives. Alfonso de Portago; Metadata. He never drove the usual sports cars, MG's, Jaguars, and so on. I didn't learn to change gears properly until the chief mechanic of Maserati took me out and spent an afternoon teaching me. He had fenced rarely, he said. He was highly intelligent, courteous, and very much aware of the world around him. And as soon as the race is over, I couldn't care less what happens to it. But on it he had written, "With Fangio and Don Juan, the future King of Spain." "Everybody knows this is true, but nobody will admit it—of himself, that is. Complete Formula One World Championship results (key) […] Media in category "Alfonso de Portago". Fastest laps We talked generalities for half an hour and then I turned the machine on, I mentioned a newspaper article that had said something to the effect that he "lived on fear.". It had rained hard during the night, but the sun was steaming it off now, and outside we could hear cars slowing for the corner around the hotel that led to the circuit. We sat in my room in the Kenilworth in Sebring. For personal use, before he began to compete, he usually drove American cars: Fords, something else that may have been a DeSoto, he wasn't sure. And besides just the doing, I insist on getting something out of what I do. "Genuine Italian-type sports cars," I said. I want to live to be 105, and I mean to. "I didn't mean to be rude, I didn't mean to suggest that naturally you wouldn't speak Spanish. He said he was going to run in the Mille Miglia and at Monte Carlo. you must have the mental strength to concentrate absolutely . ", "Of course," Portago said. I said as much. I had been riding horses in competition for a long time, at least twice a week for two years, bill I had to give it up because I put on some weight I couldn't get rid of. . 5 (5 starts) But when he got out on the road, Nelson hunched enigmatically beside him, Portago began to go, and he was fourth at the first check-point. He told a reporter that he was intent only on finishing, that it was important to him to come back to Brescia "safe and sound," an obvious reference to the fact that someone was waiting for him. But whether they will die at the wheel sooner or later or not at all, most men have to serve years of apprentice time before they make the big league: the racing team of one of the major factories. "And then?" Another time, speaking of steeple-chasing, he said, "When your horse falls after a jump you look around for another horse to hide behind.". "Please," he said. You must pay. A refusal to count odds was the essence of his nature. Portago's death, I suppose, proved out again the two well-worn British aphorisms: "Motor-racing is a sport at which you get better and better until you get killed" and the other, less optimistic one, "There are two kinds of racing drivers: those who get killed before they get good, and those who get killed afterward." At most he was an inspiration, for, with the mere instruments of his life set aside—the steeplechasing, the motor-racing, wealth, women, world-roaming—he proved again what cannot be too often proven: If anything at all is meant for us, we are meant to live life, there is no folly like the folly of the hermit who cowers in his cave, and a dead lion is a greater thing than a live mouse. The fellow does everything fabulously well. I hope so, anyway." "I wouldn't be racing automobiles I didn't think I could get something out of it, and not only the championship . Nobody expected him to be around for very long in any case. Two team Maseratis came past, the mechanics who drove them blipping their engines incessantly. Pole positions He would have done it at the risk of his life. He was reputed to be enormously wealthy, he was a great lady-killer, and if he was not pugnacious still he was quick to fight. He smoked constantly, but never inhaled. In 1954 Portago broke down while leading the first lap of the Pan-American race in a three-liter Ferrari, and won a class, an overall and a handicap race in Nassau. The last king of Spain, Alfonso XIII, was Portago's godfather and namesake. He won the Tour of France, the Coupes du Salon, Paris, the Grand Prix of Rome and was leading Moss and Fangio at Caracas when a broken gas line put him out of the race. ." 12 May 1957(1957-05-12) (aged 28)Cavriana, Italy We broke down the second day of the race, but I had decided by then that this was what I wanted to do more than anything else, so I bought a three-liter Ferrari. His full name was Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton: for short, the Marquis de Portago. "I haven't told this to a great many people. He was surely thinking, as he screamed down the Valley of the Po toward Brescia and the finish, that he might conceivably win the race. Another time I suggested to a man on a dance-floor that it might be nicer for everybody if he put his cigar away when he danced. I don't plan to return to the States until October. "I'll do anything honorable to get out of a fight, but I get into situations in which there is no way out. There was no caution in him. Naturally enough, in the light of his background and his own propensity for high-risk sports, Portago was constantly accused of fearlessness, of clinging to a death-wish, and what-not. "Call me." They drive sports cars, stock and not-so-stock, in rallies and dreary airport events; they cadge rides in scruffy hand-me-down racing cars, hoping to attract a wealthy sponsor's eye. Don Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Carvajal y Are, Conde de la Mejorada, Marquis de Portago, was 28 when he died at Guidizzollo, a few miles from Brescia and the end of the Mille Miglia, on the 12th of last May. . Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. Portago was not a great racing driver, although it is certain that he would have been, had he lived, and that is not alone my opinion, but the judgement of men much more expert. He was not an artist, he left nothing of beauty behind him and nothing of use to the world. Portago ranked Collins, Behra, Schell, Musso and himself after Moss as equals. I may go through at 99, or 102—in which case there'll be an incident. Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquis of Portago (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957), best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing driver and bobsleigh driver. Speaking now only for myself, I'm sure I love life more than the average man does. Alfonso de Portago was a true sportsman, a remarkable lover, and an exceptional character. Had he been cautious, we would never have heard of him. Englebert (tyre manufacturer) - Wikipedia 0 66 relations. It was Nelson who taught Portago bobsledding—the first time Portago went down the St. Moritz run he went down steering, and he took 15 seconds off the time of the then champion of Switzerland—and it was Nelson who said, "I know Fon says he'll live forever, but I say he won't live to be thirty. Perhaps saddest of all, he over-ruled the Ferrari depot at Florence when he was urged to take two new tires for the run to Brescia. "I'm often frightened. I want to get something out of every minute, I want no time wasted. He obviously knew that real conversation can concern itself only with ideas, not things, and I think that like all first-rate minds, his natural preference was for ideas; he knew that it is necessary to listen, and he could be forthright, even in response to rough questions. I can't even go into a shop to look around and walk out without buying something. "A very untypical writer. I wanted to record the interview and I asked him if he would object to a Minifon. Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, the 17th Marquis de Portago, was the son of a Spanish nobleman and an Irishwoman. "It sounds corny," Portago said, "but I think that because racing drivers are very near to death every Sunday in the season, they are more sensitive to life, and appreciate it more. Portago and I had promised ourselves a certain length of time. "God protects the good, so I wasn't hurt.". Certainly Portago was uniquely gifted. Years active "Well, look at George Bernard Shaw," I said, "Who gave it up altogether, and married on condition his wife would never mention sex to him." Celebrities and Notable People Who Have Had Coronavirus. I told hint that he was right, in any case. Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, 11th Marquess of Portago (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957), best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing driver and bobsleigh driver. "Alfonso de Portago is a well-known Spanish driver that lives in Paris. Portago was willing to maintain his opinions under most circumstances, whether by debate or a right cross. Portago seemed very sure. 0 "You're quite right. We talked at length about that, the last time I saw Portago. 1957-05-12 Mille Miglia Ferrari 335 S 0646 de Portago e Edmund Nelson.jpg 275 × 353; 22 KB. He bent an automobile occasionally, and he was often off the road, but he was never hurt until the 1955 Silverstone when he missed a gear-shift and came out of the resulting crash with a double compound break in his left leg. of Germany, and rolled it. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links. I was lucky having enough money to buy my own car—even if I'm not 'enormously wealthy.' The car killed him, it very nearly destroyed his body, it killed Edmund Nelson too. But the flat corners, the way it ruins brakes... A race I don't like is the Mille Miglia. I can get frightened crossing the street in heavy traffic. A wiser man might have stayed out, even if it required an illness of convenience. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. Gregor Grant, editor of the British weekly AUTOSPORT, said just before the Mille Miglia, "A man like Portago appears only once in a generation, and it would probably be more accurate to say only once in a life-time. "Harry was so frightened that I would break the car he wouldn't teach me how to change gear, so when after 70 laps (the race was 101) he was tired and it was my turn to drive, after three laps, during which I lost so much time that we dropped from 2nd to 5th place, I saw Harry out in the middle of the track frantically waving a flag to make me come into the pits so that he could drive again. At Caracas in 1955 he climbed tip on Fangio until he was only 9 seconds behind him and finished second. This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. Portago had been a flier, a jai-alai player, a poloist, a steeplechase rider (the world's leading amateur in 1951 and 1952), an Olympic bobsledder and record-holder, a remarkable swimmer and he was at his death one of the dozen best racing drivers in the world. All the best, Fon.". You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, The Tech That Could Help Seniors Drive Longer, Watch These 12 Vehicles Get Poor Crash Ratings, Every 2021 Full-Size SUV Ranked from Worst to Best, These Are the Alternatives to Raising the Gas Tax, EVs Explained: Consumption Versus Efficiency. Could n't agree with you more, '' Portago told her he to..., Schell and Portago knocked him down twice `` of course a cynic and I handed the instrument him... Beyond normal to an extent that even he apparently did n't appreciate to accept hazard! The engine blew up had been born three or four centuries too late was a member of drudge! 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