Happy New Year to all! Does anyone know any history of the 1957 silver Carrera coupe that Harry Blanchard raced for a short period of time at Watkins Glen and other New England races? Harry also raced a Carrera Speedster as well. Harry was one of the first Porsche dealers and he even was a factory 718 RSK driver for Porsche...which he died in at the Argentine GP in 1960. Harry sold the Carrera coupe to Charley Schwab in mid 1958. I have the history of the car from new in Germany where it raced at Nurburgring, etc., and I'm trying to collect more history when it arrived in the USA. Thanks. ps: that's the car on my Avatar !

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I have over 15 race results from Harry Blanchard in the
Liebe zu Ihm Porsche Race Database

Type Blanchard in the PILOT field and start the search

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Tim Havermans
www.liebe-zu-ihm.be

Mike/Tim,

What was the location and name of Harry's Porsche Dealership?

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I have his old spyder he bought from the factory in 59 after spending it's first year with the Piech family as a hill climb car in Europe. Millard Ripley bought it from the Blanchard estate. Sorry, I don't have anything on his coupe. I knew of his carrera speedster.
Steve
#3517

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Steve Terrien

31/1/1960, Harold Blanchard dies.

Harry Blanchard ran a large car dealership in Greenwich, Connecticut, and used to race Porsche sports cars as a hobby. In 1959 he won the US production sports car championship with a Porsche 550A and, with the help of his mechanic Karl Kaihofer, had a second hand 718 RSK Spyder sports caar converted into a single-seater race car. This car had no resemblance with the factory’s own single-seater designs and was a completely independent development. Harry took part in the first U.S. F1 Grand Prix with it at Sebring in December 1959 as a private entry and finished 7th and 4 laps down in that converted Spyder, running off the track and potentially ruining a better result. Still he was the only one of 6 participating US-drivers listed in the final results. However, it should remain the only Grand Prix appearance for both car and driver. In late January 1960 Harry was invited by the Porsche factory to share a works RSK sports car with Wolfgang Seidel in the 1960 Buenos Aires 1000 Km race and, allocated for the first stint, he unfortunately crashed right on the first lap, the Porsche somersaulting several times and finally turning over, injuring Harry Blanchard fatally.

Born: 13 June 1929, Burlington, USA;

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After searching thesama.com VW dealer listing for Greenwich, a Blanchard Automobile Corp was listed from 1959-1961. Anyone in the NE remember this dealership? pics? stories? pics of the dealership license plate frame?

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Interesting thread. And an explanation I've been wondering about for a number of years. An early B Cab I bought years ago had a 1 1/2" square badge attached to it that was worded at the top: Blanchard Automobile Corp, and at the bottom: Greenwich Conn. USA. The center part had a diagonal line that separated two areas, one that had an Eagle with wings spread and the other had B.A.C. in red letters on the white background. I kept the badge and still have it almost 20 yrs later. Of course, I always wondered what this badge had to do with the car, so this explains it. On the back of the badge is inscribed: Made in West Germany for Leonard Linger, New York, NY.

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Jack, can you post a picture of the badge?

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Mark, I'll give it a shot this weekend. It will severely tax my techno skills but will try! Worst case I can email a shot to you and you can post. Got some garage chores that will limit my time but will try to get to it this weekend.

Cheers!

Jack

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I have the Sales/Warranty certificate that Harry filled out when he sold this Carrera coupe to Charles Schwab. From what I can tell, Harry may have originally bought "Morlee Motors" at 212-213 Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT, then changed the name to his "Blanchard Automobile Corp.". I say this because the certificate, with a checkered flag on it, was a Morlee Motors form that Harry (or his sales person) typed in "Blanchard Automobile Corp." in various places, including where he signed it. Harry's name and this address was also hand written in on the Factory kardex.

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There's a connection to Malcolm Pray in Greenwich, CT. In Pray's biography it says: In 1955 he went to work for Morlee Motors on the Post Road in Greenwich, a small imported car dealership only a few feet away from the eventual complex of dealerships that he created and ran for forty-five years. Unquote.

Call him up and ask about Blanchard; he's a "car guy"
Malcolm S Pray
home

566 Round Hill Rd

Greenwich, CT 06831-2724

(203) 869-4630

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Mike,

Can you post a scan or pic of it?

TIA

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Here's the picture of the Badge that Jack Griffin sent me.

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Here's a picture of the Morlee Motors - Blanchard Automobile Corp. Sales/Warranty certificate that Harry completed for the buyer, Charles Schwab:

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I'm a little late to the conversation, but I thought I'd post this. Malcolm Pray, a former local dealer who has a fantastic car collection, was once a salesman at Morlee Motors in Greenwich.
When I visited his collection last year, I snapped this with my iPhone. It's a framed pic of the dealership (nice 54/55 Speedster in front) that was hanging on a wall above his own Speedster - sorry about the poor quality.

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