Grand Prix des Frontières

In this race just after the war till 1954 with very interesting
grid filler like :
Veritas - jicey - balsa speciale - simca deho - etc
any comments about those cars

The Jicey was a BMW engined special, or which there were several at the time. The Balsa Speciale was a BMW 6-cylinder machine which was entered in several races. The car is now owned by someone in Germany, but I forget the name.

The balsa ran mostly in france and also in the german GP in 1952
and I think failed to finish

Marcel Balsa -


25 May 1952 - GP de Paris - 6th
03 Aug 1952 - German GP, ret
14 Sep 1952 - 2nd in Cadours GP repechage, 6th in final
12 Sep 1954 - V Circuit de Cadours, retired

All these results were in the BMW. He was also placed in events either side of WW2 driving a Bugatti.

The Balsa Speciale was a Gordini chassis with a BMW 328 engine. I can only guess about the actual chassis number, since my only info on these is Sheldon's black books which are a bit moody when it comes to Gordini chassis! Is there someone with more info on Gordini out there?

Christian Huet in his GORDINI book does not show this home-made car in his results but only pure Gordinis.

The balsa was I think built around a simca 5 or 8 I have to check it
with a french book this evening