30 marca 2025 | Piotr R. Frankowski

Tadek Marek: The Birth Of A Monte Carlo Rally Driver [Part 2]

Why did the ŚnG team decide to drive a pre-war Opel all the way to Monte Carlo? Well, in the Warsaw factories of Lilpop, which assembled vehicles for the General Motors group, there worked a talented engineer and excellent driver in the late 1930s. It was with such a car, assembled in Wola, that he set off for the Monte Carlo Rally. Thanks to this engineer, many years later, Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton had cars to drive on film sets when they played the role of James Bond 007.

It all started with motorcycles.

Tadeusz Marek’s exceptionally intelligent biological parents did not force him to follow a career path that would continue their own professional choices—Tadek had no intention of becoming either a doctor or a lawyer. Engineering studies seemed like the obvious choice: at just fourteen, Tadek had already restored a Ford Model T on his own. A few years later, he became the owner of his own motorcycle, a French Alcyon with a belt drive. Riding the motorcycle, however, wasn’t always a pleasant experience, as one day the belt transferring power to the rear wheel suddenly snapped and struck the rider’s back with great force—Marek couldn’t fully catch his breath for several hours. Nevertheless, this did not deter him from motorcycles.

He then swapped the French bike for a water-cooled Indian, and later for a BMW motorcycle, on which he began competing. I assume all his motorcycle adventures took place while he was studying at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg—this is suggested by a somewhat blurry photo in the album, which is handwritten with the caption: „First m-bike. 1927.” In the photo, our hero is sitting on the Alcyon, and the motorcycle has a license plate with the letters „IA,” which indicated Prussia, to which Berlin (the seat of the technical university) naturally belonged.

He is said to have competed in various flat and hill races, mostly in Germany, until his career was cut short by a serious accident during a race on a banked track. He tried to avoid another rider who had just fallen and ended up flying off the track over the upper edge, crashing into a beverage tent that had several hundred glass bottles of soda water. It hurt, a lot. Apparently, after the accident, he bought a new Norton, but never returned to motorcycle racing. However, he retained a vast knowledge of the physics of motorcycle motion.

Work for the Homeland

After completing his studies, Tadeusz Marek returned to his homeland and quickly managed to secure a job in the design office of PZInż, where the freshly graduated engineer was included in the team working on the development of the Polish heavy motorcycle CWS M111, later known as the Sokół 1000. The work on this vehicle wasn’t about breakthroughs in technology or cutting-edge innovations, but about creating an incredibly reliable, easy-to-maintain motorcycle that could be used by conscripts in the military, ordinary police officers, or postmen. As Maciej Tomaszewski quotes in his excellent book Sokół 1000, on October 27, 1941, during a hearing as part of an investigation to clarify the reasons for the defeat in 1939, engineer Tadeusz Marek testified in London that „… instead of building modern, precise machines offering high performance with low weight and fuel consumption, we had to design heavy and inefficient motorcycles that no one could break.”

It is clear that this mature man understood that the role of an engineer is not to operate in an idealistic vacuum, but to design devices that are needed for economic or political reasons. He was also able to recognize the merits of pre-war design assumptions that made sense in a young country: The buyer, however, received a reliable motorcycle capable of operating off-road and in the harshest weather conditions. The maintenance of the motorcycle required minimal effort, and starting the engine was never a problem. Even in winter, when temperatures dropped to as low as -40ºC, starting the cold engine was not difficult.

At the same time, Marek worked in the Motorcycle Department of PZInż on Terespolska Street in Warsaw, as part of a team led by engineer Rudawski, which was rapidly developing the Sokół 600 motorcycle. The exact contribution of our hero to the design of this successful motorcycle is not known, but it can be assumed that he worked, among other things, on its engine. More importantly, he learned how to work in a small team, equipped with limited resources but with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve.

The Birth Of A Monte Carlo Rally Driver

He later worked at the Polish Fiat factory, but unfortunately, I couldn’t determine exactly what his role was—perhaps he worked on versions of cars made exclusively for the domestic market? During the same period, he began competing in car rallies, gaining experience that led him to decide it was time to take on the Monte Carlo Rally. At that time, the rally began with a „star-shaped” start, where participants would drive to Monaco from various cities across Europe. The starting point considered the most difficult by the organizer would give the participant the highest number of points. This is why Marek, driving a Fiat 508 he had prepared himself, chose Palermo as his starting point in 1937.

In the Calabrian Apennines, the brakes completely failed, and the necessary spare parts were only available in Naples, 300 kilometers away. What to do? Of course, Marek continued on without brakes. Driving flawlessly and quickly, he made up enough time to repair the car within the time limit. Unfortunately, in the later part of the route, heavy snowfall prevented him from securing a good position, but Tadeusz Marek accepted his 80th place and knew he would return the following year.

The beginning of 1938 brought the next edition of the Monte Carlo Rally. This time, Tadeusz Marek decided to compete in a light, agile, and incredibly modern Lancia Aprilia. The rally format had been slightly altered, with the introduction of an additional mountain stage in the Alps, a speed test, and a hill climb near Èze. Marek started from Athens, but unfortunately, on the rough mountain roads of Yugoslavia, the delicate, independent front suspension of the Lancia broke down. While Marek managed to fix it with wire and somehow limped to Monte Carlo, the Lancia was no longer able to continue the race. Oh well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Instead of lamenting his fate, the engineer meticulously worked out a plan for his next attempt at the most famous rally in Europe.

Przeczytaj pierwszą część życiorysu inż. Tadeusza Marka.

Author: Piotr R. Frankowski