Count Carel Godin de Beaufort

The last truly amateur driver to compete in Grand Prix racing on a regular basis, de Beaufort metamorphosed from the roly-poly dilettante of his early racing career into a much more serious and competent performer- without losing his perenially sunny disposition - to earn the respect of his peers.

De Beaufort began his racing career with production Porsche spyders in 1956 and was soon itching to pit himself against the stars of the day, racing his Porsche RSK sports car in the Formula 2 category of the 1957 German Grand Prix. He had to content himself, however, with occasional Grand Prix outings until the 1961 season, when he acquired the ex-Moss Rob Walker Porsche 718.

This car, with its four-cylinder engine, then saw extensive service over the next four seasons, the broad-shouldered Count - invariably driving in stockinged feet - battling nobly against more powerful fuel-injected cars. His orange-painted machine was entered in non-championship races the length and breadth of Europe, enjoying its greatest successes in 1963 with second place in both the Syracuse and Rome GPs and third in the Austrian GP at Zeltweg.

De Beaufort plugged away into the 1964 season with the by now veteran Porsche, but in practice for the German Grand Prix he crashed heavily, sustaining injuries from which there was no recovery and dying three days later in hospital in Düsseldorf.