Drivers

Yves Giraud-Cabantous

Born Yves Giraud he acquired a second surname after his father died and his mother remarried a doctor. His childhood ambition was to be an orchestra conductor and he was a fine musician but when he discovered automobiles they became his passion and he started to work as a mechanic with the Salmson company in Paris, which was well known for its racing cyclecars which were dominant at the time in the hands of Robert BenoistAt Christmas 1924 his father bought him a Noel car and he made his racing debut in March 1925 in a hillclimb at Argenteuil. Salmson offered him a drive and Giraud-Cabantous became a highly-successful cyclecar racer in the late 1920s with Salmson and Caban machinery. In the 1930s he moved on to bigger sportscars. He joined Ecurie France in 1947 and won a variety of events in Delahayes but he then switched to Talbot-Lago and, despite being in his forties, was hired to be a member of the Talbot factory team and in 1948 was the French Champion. He came fourth in the first World Championship race in Britain in 1950. When the Talbot team was broken up he joined Ecurie Rosier, still using the old Talbot machinery and then enjoyed a period racing Formula 2 HWMs as the official HWM driver in France. He continued to race Talbot sportscars and shared second place in the Reims 12 Hours with Rosier in 1953.He continued to race in sportscar events until 1957 when he retired to concentrate on a transportation business he had established.