P. G. Cristea
Encyclopedia
Cristea was born in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
.
Having a passion for motor vehicles, he forged his ID card in 1925 and obtained his driving licence even if he vas only 16 and a half. He started racing in 1930 and entered his first Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo in 1931, finishing 11th with his team mate, driving a Dodge
Dodge
Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
Victory Six. He pursued his driving career in parallel with joining the Bucharest Polytechical University, of which he dropped out after 3 years for medical reasons. He entered the 1934 and 1935 Monte Carlo Rallies
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...
, finishing 18th and 15th driving in both races a modified Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
V8.
After these progresses, Cristea, together with Ionel Zamfirescu, a motorcycling champion, decided to modify a Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
V8 in order to attempt a top finish in the 1936 Monte Carlo Rally. To help him Ford Romania gave him an already competitive Ford V8, which he heavily tuned up: he only kept from the original car the radiator's mask, the engine hood, the headlights, the fenders, the windshield and the dashboard. He modified the engine, which received a British-made cylinder head which reduced the compression ratio, he replaced the delco with a Vertex-Scintila magneto and replaced the stock carburaotr with a double Weber carburator taken from Maserati
Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
, he reinforced the chassis, changed the shocks with some Lincoln provenience, more rigid shocks, obtained a rigid transmission by obtaining the current effect of the limited slip differential and transformed the car's body into a roadster's body. When the car was finished, he stated that he couldn't possibly take off any more weight off his car. Together with his team mate Ionel Zamfirescu and his mechanic Gogu Constantinescu he started the rallye from Athens and arrived to Monte Carlo without acuumulting any penalty points (like other 15 crews). The winner was going to be selected after a slalom contest, which Cristea won 0.4 seconds ahead of Frenchman Laury Scheel, drivind a more powerful Delahaye
Delahaye
Delahaye automobile manufacturing company was started by Emile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines. In 1900, Delahaye left the company.-History:...
. This was Ford's first win at Monte Carlo and Romania's only victory in the Principality. The following year, he won the Monte Carlo Rally, but he was disqualified because his back fenders were illegal (they did not fully covered the wheels). In 1939, he won a sports car event at the Nürburgring
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...
in Germany. In the post-war period, Cristea only competed in local races and hillclimbing
Hillclimbing
Hillclimbing is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course....
events in Romania.
During his career, he raced in 80 competitions (of which 35 were international ones) and had 56 podium finishes (30 wins, 20 second places and 6 third places).
After ending his driving career, he founded the Autoturism (Car) magazine in 1969, today owned by the Romanian Auto Club and wrote several books including Cum sa devii campion (How to Become a Champion) and Arta de a conduce autoturismul (The Art of Driving The Car).
He died in Bucharest on 6 July 1995, aged 89.
External links
- Early days of Romanian racing (in Romanian)