What has a Scandinavian woman named Barbara Grut to do with Grand Prix racing? Well, a light blue evening dress she owned gave the color for the Siamese national racing colors!
In the late 20s three members of the Siamese royal family came to England to study. They were the king’s nephews, Prince Abhas, Prince Chirasakti and Prince Birabongse. Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh was born in 1914 and had been car-crazy since the day he as a little child had sat on the lap of the chauffeur and been allowed to steer one of the cars belonging to the royal car park. He came to England in 1927 and supervised by his older cousin Prince Chula Chakrabongse he educated at Eton and Cambridge before concentrating on sculpture. In 1932 Birabongse got his first car, a MG Magna. In 1935 after much persuasion he finally got Chula’s permission to enter a Riley Imp in a race at Brooklands. The car was sent to a garage for tuning and was painted light blue after a dress of a young girl Birabongse had met. Birabongse started at Brooklands under the name “B Bira” and showed promise during the race but the car proved far too slow so it was soon replaced by a M3 Magnette. With it Bira entried several local British events.
In 1935 the sensational new ERA voiturettes were offered for sale and Prince Chula was one of the first buyers. The car, a 1.5 litre B-type, was given to Bira on his 21st birthday and was given the name “Romulus”. Five days later Chula’s and Bira’s new White Mouse Stable, based at Hammersmith outside London, made itself known for the first time on the continent, at Dieppe on the French north coast for the 7th Grand Prix de Dieppe. The debut was quite sensational because Bira had to stop for new plugs but still managed to finish second. The team with its little spectacled oriental driver and with its non-interpretable Siamese pit signals was soon to be known on the race tracks all over Europe.
A month later at Berne Bira took on the whole voiturette elite and once again finished second. He finished off the season with a fine fifth at the Donington GP and third at Brooklands, in both cases being the top voiturette finisher among the bigger GP cars.
The 1936 season proved to be perhaps the best of Bira’s career. A new ERA B known as “Remus” had been bought for British events while Bira mostly relied on “Romulus” for the international races. A Maserati 8CM Grand Prix car was later also added to the stable. The season started off well when Bira after a dramatic race took his first victory at the Coupe Prince Rainier, the voiturette race before the Monaco Grand Prix. He followed it up by victories at the JCC International Trophy, Grand Prix de Picardie and Albi Grand Prix. He was second to Seaman’s Delage on the Isle of Man and finished 3rd behind two Maseratis at Nürburgring. In the Donington GP and at Brooklands he raced his GP Maserati and finished 5th and 3rd.
In 1936 the brightest voiturette star had been Dick Seaman with his old Grand Prix Delage so the future seemed bright for the White Mouse Stable when they bought the Delage with all its spares from Seaman, who had signed on for Mercedes. Chula also managed to buy the second Delage that existed in England and now owned half of the GP Delages ever produced. The cars were extensively upgraded with a new chassis and independent suspension and phenomenal results were expected. Sadly the rebuilt cars did not live up to the expectations at all and Bira had to rely on his old ERAs which by now were inferior to the new Maseratis. The team had taken on too big a task and as a result of the money (£ 7 836) spent on the Delage, the team was now on a strict budget and the race preparation of the ERAs suffered. Bira was victorious at some occasions in England; at the Campbell Trophy at Brooklands with his GP Maserati and on the Isle of Man and Crystal Palace with the ERA, but the international starts proved mostly to be disastrous for the team.
For 1938 the team got itself yet another ERA, an ex works C-type with a Zoller vane supercharger, and it received the name “Hanuman” after a Siamese ape god. Chula tried to sell off the Delage for £ 2 500 but found no buyers. After the Delage disaster, the team concentrated mostly on British events during the season to minimize expenses, proving victorious at the Coronation Trophy, the Cork Grand Prix, the London Grand Prix and the Nuffield Trophy.
In 1939 a wide yellow line appeared on the cars and the wheels were also painted yellow . On the continent the ERAs were outclassed by the Maseratis. Bira’s victories that year included the Nuffield Trophy with “Hanuman”, the Sydenham Trophy and Crystal Palace Cup with “Romulus” and a handicap race at Brooklands with the Maserati 8CM. At the Coupe de la Commission Sportif at Reims-Gueux Bira crashed badly during practice destroying “Hanuman” but fortunately escaping himself with only minor injuries.
Bira also had plans for organizing a voiturette race in his homeland. Naturally the date had to be set after the racing season as moving the cars to and from Siam would take months. A preliminary date for the Bangkok Grand Prix was set at 10th December 1939 but of course the war destroyed those plans.
After the war Bira resumed racing at Chimay, on June 9, 1946, finishing 6th with his Maserati 8CM. At the Ulster TT on August 10th he was back as a winner with the rebuilt “Hanuman”. For 1947 he got himself a new Maserati 4CL and with it he won the Grand Prix des Frontières. In 1947 he also became a works driver racing for Simca-Gordini, winning at Reims and the Manx cup.
In 1948 he continued racing Maserati 4CL and 4CLT/48, winning with both cars. After the season his long partnership with Chula ended. In 1949 Bira continued racing his Maseratis for the Swiss Enrico Platé stable, winning the Swedish Grand Prix and taking a lot of podium places. He continued racing for Platé in 1950, taking 5 points in the new World Championship but the cars were outclassed by the Alfa Romeos. For 1951 Bira raced as privateer with an OSCA V12-engined Maserati, an experiment that did not turn out well. A skiing accident destroyed part of the season and Bira seems to have lost interest in racing. He spent more and more time home in Thailand during the next two seasons when he raced Gordinis and Connaughts without too much success.
But in 1954 Bira was back again and with the Maserati 250F he regained his interest and even if some of his pre-war speed had been lost he proved that he still was a force to be reckoned with. He finished 6th in the Argentine Grand Prix with a works car, finished second in his heat at the International Trophy, was 6th at the Bari Grand Prix and took what proved to be his last European victory at the GP des Frontières in Chimay. He finished 6th at the Belgian Grand Prix with a private 250F but of course there were no points earned for finishing 6th in those days. Coming to the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux, Bira had not received a World Championship point for almost four years.
The 1954 French Grand Prix was especially interesting as it was the comeback race for Mercedes-Benz, almost exactly 20 years after their first great international comeback at the 1934 French Grand Prix. The three new Mercedes-Benz W196 streamliners were run by Fangio, Kling and Herrmann. They were challenged by 18 other cars including three works Ferraris for Gonzalez, Hawthorn and Trintignant and Rosier’s and Manzon’s old private Ferraris. Equipe Gordini entered three cars for their drivers Behra, Frère and Pollet with Belgian driver Berger (Georges, not Gerhard!) racing a private ditto. Lance Macklin raced a HWM-Alta and Harry Schell a private Maserati A6GCM.
The story of the Maserati 250F is too long to be told here (that’s why it’s told here!). Shortly one can say that it was the “workhorse” of Grand Prix racing in the mid 50s and no less than seven of those cars were on the entry list for the French Grand Prix. Maserati had lost Fangio to Mercedes but Lancia had released Ascari and Villoresi and both were now racing for Maserati together with Mieres and Marimon, while Salvadori raced a Maserati for Gilby, Wharton one for Owen and Bira his private 250F under his own name.
The race proved to be a very dramatic one for Bira. Starting in the third row he initially held 6th place behind two Mercedes, two Ferraris and Marimon’s Maserati. Ascari was already out of the race with transmission trouble. After a few laps Bira was passed by Herrmann’s Mercedes but soon he started to earn positions as the drivers in front of him struck trouble. Both Hawthorn and Gonzalez blew the engines of their Ferraris in the pursuit of the disappearing Silver Arrows. They were followed by Marimon, who had to make a pitstop for new plugs, and when Herrmann’s engine gave up on lap 13 Bira found himself in third position leading the chase on the Mercedes duo of Fangio and Kling.
But soon Bira found himself attacked by Behra’s Gordini and Trintignant’s Ferrari. On the 20th lap all three cars came to the braking point for Virage de Thillois at the end of the long straight in a bunch. Behra made a mistake and hit a fence and Trintignant had to take to the grass to avoid a collision. That left Bira with a secure third position until it started to rain. Bira got problems with his goggles and had to fall back behind Manzon’s Ferrari but when the rain stopped Bira regained his podium position. But shortly before the end Bira ran out of fuel and was once again forced to see the Ferrari pass. So Bira took the flag in fourth position as the best Maserati driver, taking the last three championship points of his career.
Bira’s fine season continued. He was second at the Rouen GP, 4th at Caen and 2nd at Pescara. He was 9th in the Spanish Grand Prix and retired at the British and German GPs. In 1955 he won the New Zealand Grand Prix before he sold his Maserati and returned to Thailand to run an airline. He died in 1985.
By his fellow competitors Bira was known as a gentleman. He vas very short-sighted, and always had to use glasses or special goggles. His driving wasn’t of course of the Lang/Caracciola class but he was a steady, reliable driver and when he was in the right mood he had what was needed to be a winner. In the 1937 RAC International Light Car Race on the Isle Of Man, raced in heavy rain, he really excelled in the terrible conditions, dominating the race over such drivers as Mays, Fairfield and Villoresi. If the political situation had been another in Europe in the late 30s it is probable that Bira at least would have got a chance in one of the major German or Italian teams. Now his background made the final step to the top impossible.
Info from
