Swedish Sensation

Rally champion Ewy Rosqvist broke both
records and hearts driving for Mercedes-Benz
 
Article Stephan McKeown
Images Daimler Archive
 
 
Spectators crowd the broken fringe of a narrow dirt track clinging desperately to the edge of a mountain precipice. Trailing a long plume of dust, a Mercedes-Benz Finback drifts gracefully around a rock-strewn curve in a masterly display of high-speed car control. Inside the sliding sedan, a slim young woman grips the big black steering wheel with calm concentration, her slender hands accented by string-backed driving gloves. A dainty bracelet flashes in the sunlight as she deftly shifts gears. Her blonde hair is pertly framed by the leather straps of a white half-helmet that would look more at home on a polo field than on this crude cart path in the wilds of Argentina.

In 1962, the press and public generally ignored the feats of professional female athletes despite remarkable demonstrations such as this Mercedes-Benz being driven so skillfully over rough Andean roads. Yet the chic woman behind the wheel and her equally charming co-driver would soon cause a sensation in the testosterone-fueled world of international endurance rallying. Their exploits captured the world’s imagination – and attention.

Having won the 1961 Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina the first time out in a 1-2 sweep, Mercedes-Benz sent four teams to Buenos Aires in autumn 1962 to again contest the rally. On hand were Manfred Schieck and Hermann Kühne in a W111 220SEb, along with Eugen Böhringer and Peter Lang and the Argentinians Carlos Menditegui and Augustin Linares in W112 300SEs. The fourth team was also in a 220SEb: Swedish rally sensation Ewy Rosqvist and Ursula Wirth. Women had never before competed in the wild and dangerous Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina.

The young phenomenon

Born in 1929 on a horse farm in southern Sweden, Ewy Jönsson was the only girl of five children. Ewy’s father taught her to drive as soon as she could see over the steering wheel. She grew into a pretty and athletic young woman who loved tennis. After studying in Stockholm, Ewy became a traveling veterinary assistant, often driving 100 or more miles each day over primitive roads on her calls to isolated farms. Ewy’s father bought a reliable Mercedes-Benz W136 170S to ease her long rural treks.   
        
Ewy made a game of whittling down her elapsed times between the remote farms. Before long, the odometer on the 170S registered 135,000 miles and she had taught herself to drive with skill, speed and confidence on challenging roads – whatever the weather. In her autobiography Fahrt durch die Hölle (Driving through Hell), Ewy wrote, “After two years, I was driving so well that I often finished for the day one-and-a-half to two hours before my female colleagues, despite all my stops on the farms.”

In 1954, Ewy Jönsson married Yngve Rosqvist, an engineer with a love for motorsports, and gained a passion for rallying along with a new last name. The couple entered that year’s Swedish Rally to the Midnight Sun together. Ewy enjoyed the competitive driving so much she resolved to do it again – soon.

Although her marriage did not last, Ewy’s love for rallying did. Before long she became the woman to beat in major rallies all across Europe. She collected the Women’s Cup four times in Finland’s 1000 Lakes Rally. In 1959, Ewy became European Ladies’ Rally Champion for Volvo, beating renowned female driver Pat Moss, sister of Stirling Moss. Ewy took the title again in 1960 and 1961, and the Ladies’ Class in international rallying in both 1959 and 1961. Then Mercedes-Benz came calling.

Driving for Mercedes-Benz

In 1962, racing driver and director of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Karl Kling signed Ewy Rosqvist as the first woman ever to drive for the factory team. With co-driver Wirth, she won the Women’s Cup in the Rally to the Midnight Sun, finished sixth in Poland and 12th in the Liège-Sofia-Liège Rally. Then Kling telephoned to ask her to run in Argentina. “He said: ‘This is no European rally; it’s tough and risky, with no speed limits on public roads,’” Rosqvist later wrote. “I said yes immediately.”

The Touring Car Grand Prix was the biggest sporting event – and public spectacle – in Argentina. The torturous 2,760-mile drive over primitive roads had elevation changes of nearly 10,000 feet and a reputation as the most difficult and treacherous rally in the world. The route was divided into six stages: Beginning in Buenos Aires, the rally headed to Villa Carlos Paz, then San Juan, Catamarca, Tucumán and Córdoba before returning to Buenos Aires. A rest day was scheduled between each race day.

Rosqvist and Wirth were the only women’s team and newspapers ridiculed their entry. “They thought we were simply decorative, there to advertise Mercedes-Benz.” However, Argentinian world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, chief organizer of the huge event, encouraged the young women driving for his beloved Mercedes-Benz team: “You will win. You must just drive the way you usually do. These maniacs think that the race is 100 kilometers. Let them eliminate themselves and one another.”

At midnight on October 28, 258 competitors left Buenos Aires at one-minute intervals, roaring off into the darkness on the first stage. Thousands of excited spectators cheered them on. Twelve days later, only 43 battered survivors would cross the finish line.

Setting a record time despite heavy rains, the women won the first stage to muted praise in the press. Teammates Böhringer and Lang ruined their engine fording a stream. Menditegui and Linares’s 300SE was knocked out on a technicality.

Then Rosqvist and Wirth did it again, taking the difficult second stage – once again in record time. Elation vanished when they learned of their teammate Kühne’s death in a rollover as he swerved to avoid livestock at night. Suddenly, the young women were the only Mercedes factory team left. Gathering their courage, they drove on. Now the press and public began to pay attention.

Race days were a blur of heat, dust, noise, rain and mud. On the fastest dirt-road stages, Rosqvist averaged more than 100 miles per hour. Flying over the Salinas Grandes salt desert under a scorching sun, she later wrote: “It was so hot … pieces flew off the tires.” With no time for proper meals, the women nibbled from a bag of peeled apples and oranges wedged between them. Rivals broke down, crashed, and trailed dejectedly in their wake. Meanwhile, Rosqvist and Wirth, smiling graciously, continued to win stage after stage, charming the world as they went.

Nearing the end of a day’s racing, the pair would touch up their makeup – without slowing down. “We always looked fresh when we arrived at the finish of a stage. The men were bearded and dirty.” The press reported breathlessly on the young heroines’ progress. Flashing cameras, ever-larger crowds, tributes from admirers and bouquets of flowers greeted them at each stop. Police were assigned to fend off star-struck Romeos dazzled by the daring and élan of the pretty young Swedes.
 
A Primer on European Rallying

As Ewy Rosqvist was making her way into top-class European rallying, the character of the events was changing. Up to then, most events relied on maneuvering tests, short speed runs and time/speed/distance sections to determine results. It was the Scandinavians who introduced Special Stages – flat-out speed trials over several miles of primitive road surface – to sort the men from the boys.

This soon led to the development of faster, more powerful and stronger cars: It also meant that Scandinavian drivers became standard setters throughout Europe. The famous Monte Carlo rally was a perfect example: Until 1960, regularity runs in the mountains settled the race; from 1961, Special Stages were introduced to determine ranking instead. Scandinavian events such as the Swedish Midnight Sun and Finnish 1000 Lakes had always featured Special Stages, so cosmopolitan girls like Rosqvist could cope with any event, anywhere, in any climate.

Born and bred in countries where many roads had low-grip, often graveled surfaces, Scandinavian racers were used to balancing their machines at the limits of adhesion and set new standards for car control. Until then, the ladies had usually competed for the Coupe des Dames awards, where everything was more sedate and – yes, lady-like – but when women like Pat Moss and Rosqvist came along, all that changed. They proved to be as fast and as well trained as the men with whom they were now competing as equals.                  Graham Robson
 
Ewy Rosvqist: First Place Finishes & Honors
 
1959    Midnight Sun Rally Women’s Class Winner
1959    European Women’s Championship
1960    Midnight Sun Rally Women’s Class Winner
1960    European Women’s Championship
1961    Midnight Sun Rally Women’s Class Winner
1961    European Women’s Championship
1961    Swedish Sportswoman of the Year
1962    Midnight Sun Rally Women’s Class Winner
1962    Motor Man of Sweden
1962    Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina
1963    Rallye Monte-Carlo Ladies’ Cup
1964    Rallye Monte-Carlo 2,500cc Class Winner
 
 
Ewy in Action:
To see Ewy Rosvquist driving in the Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PSJVSxJW2A
 
Rallye Monte-Carlo 2,500cc Class Winner
LEFT: Swedish rally ace Ewy Rosqvist with 1962 Mercedes-Benz W111 220SEb.
 
OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: On the 1962 Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina, Ewy Rosqvist behind the wheel of the 220SEb on a tough and dusty mountain stage. Crowds grew larger and more enthusiastic with each stage the charming young women won. Awards ceremony in Stuttgart after the win, from left, Rosqvist, Mercedes-Benz Director General Walter Hitzinger, Wirth and racing director Karl Kling. Rallye Monte-Carlo, 1963: Rosqvist (left) and Ursula Wirth won the Ladies’ Cup in a Mercedes-Benz 220SEb. Rosqvist leans into the turn, mid-corner at Monaco. Mercedes-Benz & Friends 2011 gathering, Berlin-Tempelhof: Mercedes-Benz Classic brand ambassador Baroness Ewy Rosqvist-von Korff with Michael Bock, head of Mercedes-Benz Classic.