Hermano da Silva Ramos

Hermano Joao ‘Nano’ da Silva Ramos was born in Paris on the 7th December 1925 and participated in seven F1 World Championship Grands Prix and four Le Mans 24 Hours, in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1959. Of dual nationality (the son of a Brazilian father and French mother), he spent his childhood in France and was educated at the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris where he proved a brilliant student. He eventually moved to Rio de Janeiro and while there bought an MG sports car and raced for fun. At one race in Rio in 1948, he finished fourth but told how “the race had to be interrupted for the passage of the President of the Republic.” This was at the ‘Circuit of Paris Square’, when President Eurico Gaspar Dutra went to have lunch in Petropolis.

His racing began in earnest in 1953-54 after he returned to France and after visiting Le Mans in 1952 as a spectator he was inspired by the Aston Martins and with several friends bought a DB2 in 1953. When he went to collect the car in Paris he met Mike Sparken, who was about to buy a similar model and the two became great friends. They also formed a friendship with Peter Collins who had come to live in Paris and they formed a close-knit group, enjoying the good life in Paris. On one occasion very early in the morning he, Peter Collins and Lance Macklin raced round the Arc de Triomphe but fortunately the roads were quiet and there were no police around. One of his friends, Edmund G. Nelson, was friends with the Spanish nobleman, Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton (the Marquis de Portago) and they invited him to the Sable-Solesmes Rally near Le Mans. They became close friends, travelling to races together and spent a lot of time in restaurants or night clubs with Nano describing him as “an exceptional guy and a very charming person.”

Racing the Aston Martin in 1953 he won the Rallye de Sable and he and Mike Sparken co-drove in the Tour de France though retired due to broken shock absorbers. Continuing with the DB2 the following year he contested two races at Monthlery in April and won the Coupe de Vitesse and later finished second, to Duncan Hamilton’s C-Type Jaguar, in the Coupe de Paris. The year saw his debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours alongside Jean-Paul Colas though they retired after 14 hours with rear axle failure; he was only the second Brazilian to participate in the event, after Bernardo Souza Dantas in 1935. In a return to the Tour de France, he ran out of fuel whilst leading and retired from the Rally of Morocco due to a damaged engine. At the end of the year he had his first drive with a Gordini T15S in the Coupes du Salon at Monthlery but retired from it on lap 20.

In 1955 he contested a number of events with the Gordini and early races in North Africa in a T15S brought a fifth place at the Agadir GP in Morocco and sixth in the Dakar GP in Senegal. Back in France, in two races at Monthlery he won the Coupe de Vitesse at the end of March and a few weeks later was eighth in the Coupe de Paris. In a switch from the Gordini he won with the Aston Martin at Marseilles in late April and shortly after was sixteenth (fifth in the GT class) in the Mille Miglia with Jean-Claude Vidilles. However, he described it as “a terrible and very dangerous race. Every year spectators died because of cars crashing into the crowd. The organisers did not want to let reporters know this because the Mille Miglia was so important for Italian car manufacturers and Italy: it was one of the most prestigious races in the world.” There was also an outing with Jean Lucas in a Ferrari 750 Monza at a Supercortemaggiore race at Monza though they did not finish. In further drives with Lucas, they contested the Monte Carlo Rally and were classified forty-sixth and fourth in class, then late in the year were ninth in the GP Venezuela at Caracas with a T15S. Returning to Monthlery for a shared Gordini drive with Jacques Pollet, they came home fourth in an impressive drive in the Bol d’Or. They led the race during six of the twenty-four hours but had to slow due to suspension problems though they finished first in the two-litre category. He was teamed with Pollet for his second entry at Le Mans, in a Gordini T132S, though they retired due to engine problems after 145 laps. During the race he passed through the pits seconds after the tragic accident and told how “It was like the end of the world! My wife was there, in the pits, and she was so devastated that she never went to a race again.” The tragedy led to the cancellation of the French, German, Swiss and Spanish Grands Prix but one week later the Dutch GP at Zandvoort would take place. The team fielded three cars, for Robert Manzon and Jacques Pollet, with Nano replacing Elie Bayol, though the Gordinis struggled and he qualified on the sixth row in fourteenth. In the race, Manzon retired on the forty fourth lap though Nano and Pollet were still in the race but towards the end of the race it rained heavily and made the circuit treacherous. Despite driving a fragile car, Nano put in an impressive performance to finish eighth with Pollet coming home tenth. In mid July came the British round at Aintree and Gordini brought three cars for him, Manzon and Mike Sparken. Nano was second-quickest, starting eighteenth, though gained several places at the start and at the end of the first lap was running inside the top-fifteen. Manzon retired after four laps though he and Sparken continued in their positions but as Nano began pushing hard his engine failed on lap twenty-seven. The race’s heavy attrition saw only nine of the twenty five starters completing the distance, with Sparken finishing seventh. The next round was the Italian GP in September and the team brought T16s for him and Pollet while Jean Lucas was in the team’s new T32. Nano was fastest in qualifying and started eighteenth but Pollet made an incredible start and from nineteenth was up to eleventh by the end of the first lap. Lucas would retire on lap seven due to engine problems but after a slip-up by Pollet, Nano gained on him and the two Gordinis would be running together inside the top fifteen. However, although still close together as the race neared the halfway point, Nano would retire on lap twenty-three due to fuel feed problems and Pollet followed three laps later.

Nano contested more races with Gordini in the following year but, unfortunately, money and resources were running short and the team was struggling as it went into 1956. It was a busy schedule though and the year started with a T156, taking another fifth place in February at Agadir though he retired at Dakar. Following this he raced in April’s non championship Syracuse GP with a T16 though retired on lap forty two with mechanical issues. He contested three races in April at Monthlery and twice won Coupe de Vitesse events, with a T24S and T15S, and was ninth with the T15S in the Prix de Paris. In May’s non championship International Trophy at Silverstone he came home in fifth place and was entered for a race at Valentino Park in Turin two weeks later but it was cancelled due to lack of entries. The World Championship’s first round was in Argentina but he only entered in the second race, with a T16 in Monaco. Gordini had Nano, Manzon, Elie Bayol (and Andre Pilette as reserve) and he qualified behind Bayol and Manzon. By lap 50 he, Manzon and Pilette were still running though Manzon’s brakes were fading and he hit the chicane. He pitted with a bent front suspension but resumed after a quick inspection though after battling to fourth place his race ended on the ninety seventh lap with broken transmission. At the flag, Nano came home fourth, ahead of the sixth placed Gordini driven by Bayol and Pilette and his two World Championship points were the very last points that would be scored by the Gordini team. His fondest memory of this event was of Thursday’s free practice, which started at 5.45 am so that traffic would be open to the public by 10 am. The drivers started for the first lap and then drove to the finish but though it was at first deserted, eventually people appeared at their windows and balconies, still in their pyjamas, and applauded and offered encouragement. He stated “In one lap, we wake up a whole city.” At the French round at Reims, he was the highest of the Gordinis in fourteenth, ahead of Manzon and Pilette, and came home in eighth place with the T32. There were only two cars entered at the British GP at Silverstone, where he qualified towards the back of the grid but though Manzon would finish ninth Nano retired on lap 71. His fourth GP came at Monza, where Gordini had eight-cylinder cars for him and R.Manzon and a six-cylinder for Andre Simon and he was the highest qualifier of the three. But once the flag dropped his race would end after just three laps due to engine problems, with Manzon stopping on lap seven and Simon coming home ninth. This would prove to be his final World Championship appearance (as it would also be for Robert Manzon, Toulo de Graffenried, Piero Taruffi and Luigi Villoresi). In shared drives, June saw him teamed with André Guelfi for the 1000km of Paris though they retired due to an accident and later in the month he was sixth in the Supercortemaggiore at Monza with Robert Manzon. His third visit to Le Mans ended in retirement after 90 laps for him and Andre de Guichet due to clutch problems and he and Bayol had a sixth place result in the Reims 12 Hours. He retired the T15S at the GP Rouen in July due to gearbox issues while, frustratingly, the non championship GP Caen in August ended when his T32’s clutch failed on the first lap. Return visits to Monthlery produced a victory in September’s Coupe de Vitesse with a T242 though in October he retired from the Coupes du Salon while leading the race. Between these two outings he was sixth at the Shell Cup Imola in a T15S and his final race was the Venezuelan GP at Caracas in November, which ended in retirement but he told how, before the start of the race, de Portago took his hand and placed it on his heart, telling him “Do you feel my heart beating? This is what starting the race on the same line as Fangio does to me!”

In 1957 he participated in two non-championship F1 races in April and was sixth at Pau with the Gordini 32 though retired because of brakes problems at Naples with the Gordini 16. Unfortunately the year was a difficult one as the team were struggling and in dire straits but then in May, his friends Alfonso De Portago and Edmund G.Nelson were killed in an accident during the Mille Miglia. A tyre burst on their Ferrari 335 S and they died instantly in the crash, but it also claimed the lives of ten spectators, among them five children, and 20 others were injured. He described how “The death of Fon, one of my greatest friends, was a terrible shock for my wife and me. She was pregnant and she had a serious breakdown because she was really scared for me, she did not want to see me continue racing, so I put an end to my career-for a couple of months…I could not resist coming back to car racing.” In September, he took part in the Tour de France again, this time with Edouard Monnoyeur, at the wheel of a Jaguar Mk 1 though they did not finish. During this Tour de France Jean Estager had shared a Ferrari 250 GT with Harry Schell though it was badly damaged when it hit a Citroen 2CV that had strayed on to a closed special stage. Once it was repaired, Estager sold it to Nano, who would race t the following year and Nano had it painted in blue and red (the colours of his mother’s family, Lavalade) plus had a Brazilian flag painted on the side.

1958 was mostly spent racing the 250 GT though he and Jean-Claude Vidilles drove an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SVZ to victory at the start of April in the 3 Hour Pau. He also drove the Ferrari in a GT race at this Pau meeting though retired due to an accident, was tenth with the car the following month at the GP Spa then fifth at the Trophy d’Auvergne at Clermont-Ferrand. In shared drives he was tenth with Phil Hill in the 12 Hour Reims in July and he and Jean Estager were third in September’s Tour de France (behind 250 GTs driven by Olivier Gendebien/Lucien Bianchi and Maurice Trintignant/Francois Picard). There were two single seater outings with Alan Brown’s Cooper T45-Climax in European F2 and he was second (to Maurice Trintignant) at Pau then seventh in July at the Coupe Internationale de Vitesse at Reims.

Nano was back in single seaters in 1959 and drove Scuderia Centro-Sud’s Maserati 250F in three British races. He retired at Goodwood’s Glover Trophy because of an accident and from the International Trophy at Silverstone due to gearbox trouble though was fourth at the BARC 200 at Aintree (behind Jean Behra, Tony Brooks and Bruce McLaren). He was invited to join Ferrari’s sports car squad which led to him being selected to share at Le Mans with Jean Behra but Behra insisted he wanted to race with Dan Gurney so he was teamed with Cliff Allison. But, during first practice Nano set the fastest time in qualifying, with an average speed of 200 km/h but he told how “Behra was furious. He came up to me and suggested that for the next practice session we go out side by side and when we reached the start of the Mulsanne Straight we have a race to see which car was the quickest. Well, my car was certainly quicker and Behra went absolutely mad. He stormed up to Tavoni and they had a terrible argument…Our Ferraris were undergeared for Le Mans that year and Tavoni told all of us that as we were still the quickest cars, to keep the revs to 7,500. I set off and was in third place but on the Mulsanne Straight I was horrified to see the hood beginning to lift up. It was only being held by the leather straps as the mechanics had forgotten to use the sprung metal clips. I pulled in just after Mulsanne Corner, clicked the clips shut and then continued. I remember Behra coming past me absolutely flat out and he was clearly going over the rev-limit. I was also very lucky for I realised I was running out of fuel and only just managed to coast into the pits to hand over to Cliff.” They eventually retired after 4 hours due to engine problems and Behra/Gurney’s race ended after 10 hours. His final race that year came back at the Tour de France where he and Estager won their class at the wheel of a Jaguar Mk1.

His final race came at Guanabara for the Rio GP in November 1960, where he finished second at the wheel of a Porsche RS 1500. His retirement was a great relief for his wife as he told how “My wife could not sleep as she was always scared for me. You know, in those days, racing was much more dangerous than nowadays. Three or four drivers died each year. It was terrible. Doctors told me that the best way to put an end to my wife’s breakdown-she had lost seven or eight kilos-was to divorce her or to put a definite end to my career. I chose the second option and I could not sleep for two years because of that decision!” He lived in Biarritz, France, with his wife Nelly and forged a career in electronics plus was an active member of the F1 Grand Prix Drivers Club. He retained an interest in motor sport, stating “I have always followed Formula One in the newspapers and on TV, and of course the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is my favourite race. I knew lots of drivers and was a close friend of François Cevert, his sister Jacqueline and her husband Jean-Pierre Beltoise, and Alain Prost too. They kept me involved in motor racing when I wanted to make a complete break from it, but that’s life!”

Recalling his racing he stated “I have been in auto racing since the 1940s. Auto racing was an adventure. You knew you were going out but you didn’t know if you would arrive…I’ve got some great memories of each of those cars. The Aston Martin was the first in 1954. It was an extraordinary car, ready for anything. I went everywhere with it. I used it daily on the road and when travelling…The Gordinis weren’t quite so reliable but they were nice little cars to drive. The Ferrari 250 TR that I drove during my fourth and final appearance in 1959 was easily the fastest. It was the most thrilling drive, it had so much power. We were really happy at the wheel of that car!. He told how the Gordinis “broke down a lot because Gordini had no money to buy new parts. The suspension always gave problems and sometimes we even lost the wheels. It was very dangerous..I remember one race when I saw a wheel passing just above my head. I thought, ‘Who is the idiot that just lost his wheel? Suddenly I realised it was mine!” Nano returned to La Sarthe in 2012 and 2014 and in the first event, at the age of 86, he took part in the Le Mans Classic race in a 1936 MG. He was elected to the Le Mans 24 Hours Hall of Fame in 2013 and at 2014’s event he was reunited with the Aston Martin DB2/4, 60 years after his outing in a similar model.