Jonkheer Karel Pieter Antoni Jan Hubertus (Carel) Godin de Beaufort (10 April 1934 – 2 August 1964) was a Dutch nobleman and motorsport driver from the Netherlands. He competed in Formula One between 1957 and 1964. Info from Wiki
Info by Stephen Latham
Nobleman Carel Gaudin de Beaufort (Jonkheer Karel Pieter Antoni Jan Hubertus Godin de Beaufort) was born in 1934 in Maarsbergen near Utrecht, and was often described as the last of the gentleman drivers. Coming from a very wealthy and aristocratic background, he ran his own cars, painted in the Dutch national racing orange as Ecurie Maarsbergen, which derived from his country estate. On some occasions he drove without shoes and in Germany in 1964 drove practice laps wearing a Beatles wig. Although his early driving divided opinions he matured into a competent and popular competitor.
He started driving on the family estate and on public roads though crashed various cars (on one occasion after attempting to drive a VW Beetle under a trailer). Another pastime was tying matchboxes to tree branches and then using a Canadian army Jeep to take a run at them, jumping from his seat to try and pull them from the trees. When he was 16 he dismantled a BMW 328i, to the last nut and bolt, before putting it back together again; unfortunately he failed to secure the right rear wheel, which came off while driving at 100 mph. After developing a taste for fast driving, he drove an MG A in some national events at Zandvoort then started racing Porsches and stayed with the marque for his entire career.
In 1956, racing a Porsche 550 and 356 Carrera, he contested the Nurburgring 1000 Km race and made his debut at Le Mans (with Mathieu Hezemans) plus raced at the Nurburgring, Solitude and finished fifth in the GP Berlin and second at Zandvoort. There was also a race with a VW Karmann Ghia at Zandvoort.
A year later, he returned to Le Mans (partnering Ed Hugus in a Porsche 550 RS) and they finished eighth overall and first in their class. He also contested the Nurburgring 1000Km and Reims 12 Hours while in the August he made a debut in the Formula 1 World Championship, entering the German GP at Nurburgring. With his own Porsche RS550 F2-spec car, he ran as Ecurie Maarsbergen and finished fourteenth overall and third among F2 drivers. It was said he lost his youthful brashness after Alfonso de Portago’s fatal Mille Miglia crash in that year, shortly after sharing a friendly Coca-Cola with him.
In 1958, he participated in two F1 Grands Prix, in his home race at Zandvoort and again at Nurburgring; finishing eleventh at Zandvoort in a Porsche RSK and retired at Nürburgring in a Porsche RS550 F2 car. In sports cars, he started with a debut at the Sebring 12 Hours, sharing a Porsche 550 RS with Art Bunker, then went on to score a class victory at the Nürburgring 1000 Km with Edgar Barth and Richard von Frankenberg. He scored his best-ever overall result at Le Mans when he and Herbert Linge finished fifth (and second in class) in Ecurie Maarsbergen’s Porsche 550 RS.
1959 saw two F1 starts, finishing tenth in the Dutch GP in a Porsche RSK while in France, he raced Scuderia Ugolini’s Maserati 250F to ninth place. He was fortunate to survive while at a race at the fearsome AVUS track, when he lost control of his Porsche and flew over the top of the banking. However, the car had its fall broken by branches and landed on its wheels and he was able to drive his car back onto the circuit, to the amazement of onlookers. Sadly, on the same day Jean Behra was killed after an accident on the banking and was thrown from the car and into a flagpole. At Le Mans, he and Christian Heins retired their Porsche 718 RSK though early in the year he was eleventh overall and GT1.6 class winner in the Sebring 12 Hours (in a 356A Carrera GT with Huschke von Hanstein) then in May he won the GP de Spa in a Porsche 718 RSK.
There was one F1 start in 1960, finishing eighth at Zandvoort with a Cooper T51-Climax while in sports cars he contested the 1000km Nurburgring (with P.Frere), Le Mans (with R.Stoop) and a Tirol race with a 718 RS60 plus returned to Sebring with a 356 Carrera. Although he only raced in that year’s Dutch GP, he did drive at Belgium-despite not having an entry! After doing some laps he was spotted and the race organisers black-flagged him. However, the race weekend had tragic overtones as Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor suffered serious injuries during practice and in the race itself Alan Stacey and Chris Bristow were both killed in separate accidents.
In 1961 he acquired an ex-Moss Rob Walker Porsche 718 though it was the only car he could fit his large frame into and he self mockingly referred to it as ‘Fatty Porsche’. He participated in six Grands Prix with it, with his best result being seventh at Monza and sixth in a non-championship race at Zeltweg.
In May 1962, he scored his first F1 point by finishing sixth in the season opening Dutch GP then repeated the result in the French race at Rouen. He wasn’t as successful in Britain and Italy, and retired on the ninth lap in the USA. While he was in France, he had slept during the afternoon at his hotel and discovered Dutch motorsport journalist Rob Wiedenhoff waiting for him in the lobby. Carel did not have any transport to the circuit so they travelled in Rob’s Chrysler and en route made a detour to a garage where Carel’s Porsche was being serviced by the Porsche crew. The crate of beer they brought was warmly appreciated. But while traveling at speed towards the circuit gates, a French gendarme stepped in their way, instructing them to stop but he pressed his left foot on top of Wiedenhoff’s right, with the Chrysler narrowly missing the officer. Fellow Dutchman Ben Pon was also in this race, in a Porsche 787 fielded by Carel but after surviving a horrific crash he vowed never to race single-seaters again. In the seven non championship races Carel entered that year, he drove well and finished in the top 10 in all of them and his best result was fifth at Solitude. In sports cars, he co-drove a 356B Carrera at Le Mans with Ben Pon though retired from the race.
His greatest success came in 1963 with podium finishes in three non championship races, second in the Syracuse and Rome Grands Prix plus third in the Austrian GP at Zeltweg. He also took points in the Championship with the Porsche in Belgium and the USA. However, at the Belgian GP, he took an F2 Cooper onto the track to test it, simply driving it onto the circuit. Eventually the organisers noted from their entry list that the car’s number wasn’t on it and he was black-flagged! During the French GP at Reims, when official practice had finished it was noted that he and his orange Porsche were missing. Fearing an accident, the race organisers sent out a search team but discovered he had stopped at a distant part of the circuit to pick up an attractive female spectator, to give her a ride round the track! In order to improve his competitiveness, he began to work on his weight and started a severe weight-reducing programme, including a diet of tasteless biscuits which every crew member also had to eat.
1964 saw retirement in the Sebring 12 Hours (in a Porsche 904 GTS), in the Dutch Grand Prix in a Porsche 718 though he finished two non-championship F1 races at Silverstone and Solitude. And then, in August he travelled to the Nurburgring to compete in the German GP and in Saturday practice actually wore a Beatles wig before starting on a series of reconnaissance laps. Sadly, after deciding to push he later crashed and went off at the Bergwerk corner and suffered severe injuries to his head, chest and legs. Upon hearing the news his mother and the family’s personal physician flew out to Germany and on arriving had Carel transported to a neurological centre in Cologne. Up until Sunday evening the doctors fought to save him, and earlier reports were that he was recovering, but he passed away.
He was buried at the family estate at Maarsbergen in the presence of many drivers and his repaired Porsche 718 was later presented to the Driebergen Automobile Museum by Carel’s mother. For the funeral procession his coffin was placed on top of a white Porsche 356 convertible and motorsport friends walked besides it: Graham Hill, Bob Anderson, Herbert Linge, Wolfgang Seidel, Jan Dijkstra, Fritz Hüschke von Hanstein, Ben Pon, Gerhard Mitter, Gerhard Koch, Richard Stoop and his mechanics Anssems, Koudijs and Van der Weert. The trumpet corps of his old regiment walked in front of the procession, followed by three farm wagons filled with flowers. Hundreds of people joined the procession and behind the Porsche came a host of family, friends, national and international racing drivers, team owners and managers, mechanics, journalists and other relatives. The procession followed a route through the estate, passing the barns where his cars were stored, before moving into the forest. There, his coffin, helmet, family arms, some rings, a bracelet, his watch and the logos of the BRDC and the Automobile Club of South Africa which he worn on his racing overall and blazer were set into the Beaufort family grave. On the family grave is written: La vertu est un beau fort. Virtue is a beautiful fortress.
Carel enjoyed racing his own cars and aid of his racing; “I go to the factory and tell them exactly what I want. On my return from a race I’ll tell them all my stories and show the guys my time sheets and the photographs I took. In the evenings, I’ll take them out to dinner. And in case they need to work late, I’ll buy them a crate of beer and bring along a pile of food. And that’s just huge, that’s fantastic. Essentially it’s the reason why I’ve been going great this season in that old car of mine…I am very happy to be a privateer. You get much more satisfaction out of racing by beating the works drivers. It’s no fun flying from Grand Prix to Grand Prix, jump into the car, do your thing and fly off again.” He spent hours with them and Porsche mechanics loved him for it.
Info – The last knight of Grand Prix racing – from 
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