Notes:
The drivers Peter Lindner of Germany and Franco Patria of Italy were killed in a horrible accident during the windy and rainy 1000 Km de Paris, held at Linas-Montlhéry on Sunday, 11 October 1964. The crash also took the lives of three marshals.

Abarth Squadra Corse had entered its two original Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero cars in the Prototype class of the event, instead of the GT class, officially calling them simply as Abarth 1300, because the collaboration with Simca was going to an end. The cars were modified with more large tyres and Franco Patria-Luigi Taramazzo drove the #51 car and Herbert Demetz-Anton Fischhaber the #52. By the end of the 83rd lap of the race, Taramazzo who was leading the class, pitted for refueling and new tires.

He was replaced by Patria who was ready to restart, when three flag marshals stopped his car at the end of the pitlane, marked out by straw bales. The 3.8 Jaguar E-type Lightweight of Peter Lindner-Peter Nöcker, driven by the first, was coming at speed from the fast righthander exit of the banking. The track was soaking wet with overall deep puddles and a number of accidents caused by aquaplaning had already happened, including the huge capsizing of Pierre Gelé’s Lotus Elan. Lindner was battling for the 8th position against the sister car of Dick Protheroe, who closely followed him. He suddenly lost control of the Jaguar that skidded on the right side, plunged over the straw bales and crashed on the left side of the roof of the stationary Abarth 1300. Possibly he tried a braking manoeuvre having seen the other car coming from the pitlane. Patria had no chance, both the drivers were killed instantly, together with three marshals.

After the accident the 1000 Km de Paris was not stopped and none of the other Jaguars or the Abarths were retired. Graham Hill-Jo Bonnier in a Maranello Concessionaires-entered Ferrari 330P eventually won the race.

The deceased marshals were Jean Pairard former sportscar manufacturer and a racer himself, Roger Millot and René Dumoulin.

According to the French magazine Sport-Auto, issue #122 of March 1972, several years later the official conclusion of the trial intended by families of the deceased marshals, stated that broken engine bearings on Lindner's Jaguar caused the accident.


Peter Lindner’s Biography
by Nanni Dietrich

A resident of Wiesbaden, Germany, Peter Lindner was an affluent man and ran a successful business as Jaguar and Aston Martin importer and dealer. He was not afraid of racing his precious cars, and as a skilled driver he obtained a series of remarkable results, particularly in company of his friend Peter Nöcker from Düsseldorf. In 1963 Lindner-Nöcker won the Großer Preis der Tourenwagen at the Nürburgring in a 3.8-litre Jaguar MkII and the ADAC 12 Stunden Rennen at the same track in the Jaguar E-type Lightweight. By the end of the season, Peter Nöcker at the wheel of Lindner’s Jaguar, won the title in the first edition of the European Touring Car Championship.

One of Lindner’s cars was an Aston Martin DB4GT, chassis #0166/L, of which he took delivery on the Christmas eve of 1960. Lindner scored several podium finishes at both the Hockenheim and Nürburgring circuits in 1961 and 1962 before an engine connecting rod broke and the car was set aside, but it remained with the Lindner family until 1988, when it was finally sold. Lindner also owned a Lotus Elite S2, chassis #EB1601, purchased by the Chestnut factory in Hertfordshire on 28 March 1961, but it is unknown whether he ever raced this car. It was reported that Peter Lindner acquired the engine of the Jaguar VDU881 owned by Mike Hawthorn, the car in which the 1958 World Champion was killed in a road accident on 22 January 1959.

Unquestionably, though, the car most famously linked to Peter Lindner was a silver Jaguar, arguably one of the most beautiful racing machines ever built, as in early 1963 he bought the fifth of the twelve special E-Type Lightweights built by the factory in the Winter of 1962-1963. These cars were very different from the road going E-Type model that had been launched in the Genève Motor Show in March of 1961, having an aluminum body shell and engine block, and were distinct from each other as well. Lindner’s car was a sweeping low-drag coupe, chassis number #S850662 and reg. plate number 4868WK. He partnered it with Nöcker in the 1963 1000 Km of the Nürburgring, and the car would surprise the whole field by gloriously leading the opening lap, but soon the Ferraris flew by and it retired after only eight laps with oil pressure problem; success would come soon, though, as it won at the AVUS (Automobil-Verkehrs-und-Übungs-Straße) track in Berlin, Germany.

The main assault of Peter Lindner Racing in 1964 would be the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the car was especially prepared for the occasion. Aiming to increase top speed in the long straights of the Sarthe circuit, the machine received a low-drag roof specially designed by Jaguar lead aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer and, with two eyes on the reliability required to succeed in such a long event, the aluminum engine block gave way for a steel replacement. Once again Lindner shared the car with Peter Nöcker, setting the sixth time overall during April preliminary tests (Essais Préliminaires). If the first modification helped the car to turn very fast laps during the race, the second was not able to help it to cross the finish line; in fact, it was due to a very engine seizure caused by a head gasket failure that the Jaguar retired in the sixteenth hour of the event.

In October of the same year Lindner went back to France for the 1000 Km de Paris at Linas-Montlhéry, and once again the car showed much promise. Sadly, tragedy would struck during the wet race when Lindner’s Jaguar crashed against the Abarth-Simca of Franco Patria, claiming the lives of both drivers and three marshals. Peter Lindner was 34 years old.

The French police impounded the remains of Lindner’s and Patria’s cars for years, and later these changed hands several times until Guy Black, owner of the British restoration and replica construction company Lynx, acquired what was left of Lindner’s silver Jaguar. The vehicle was carefully reconstructed around a new monocoque, and today is in exhibition at the Bianco Rosso Museum in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

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