{"id":11493,"date":"2024-07-13T19:13:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T19:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=11493"},"modified":"2024-07-13T19:13:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T19:13:14","slug":"mercedes-mourns-rally-driver-and-pioneer-ewy-rosqvist-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=11493","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes mourns rally driver and pioneer Ewy Rosqvist (94)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Swedish rally driver Ewy Rosqvist has passed away on July 4th<\/sup>, at the age of 94. Rosqvist \u2013 born Ewy J\u00f6nsson – was a trail-blazer, as one of the first woman able to beat the men in post-war rallying. She became famous as a Mercedes works driver.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosqvist was the only girl in a family counting five children. Born in Ystad, South Sweden, Ewy became a veterinary assistant. She got a knack for driving fast on the dirt roads connecting the farms she had to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed was of essence, as the veterinary assitants had to transport frozen bull semen in a thermos flask, with a temperature in the flask that should not exceed -5 degrees Celsius. Rosqvist was good, and even started timing her drives. As she stated in her autobiography \u2018Journey through Hell\u2019, \u201cI was usually back one-and-half to two hours earlier than my colleagues.\u201d This is also the premise of the 2008 Swedish film \u2018Rallybrudar<\/a>\u2019, based loosely on the life of Ewy Rosqvist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ewy Rosqvist, in 1963. Photo Mercedes-Benz Classic Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Factory driver<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ewy J\u00f6nsson became Ewy Rosqvist when she married Yngve Rosqvist, and both went rallying together. Ewy was the co-driver at first, then started driving on her own. With success, and in 1960, Volvo signed her as a factory driver. Only for Mercedes to snatch her away two years later. In 1959, she won the European Women\u2019s Cup in a Volvo, beating another famous and ferocious female rally driver: Stirling Moss\u2019 sister Pat Moss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Swedish women\u2019s team of Ewy Rosqvist and Ursula Wirth wins the 6th Argentinian Touring Car Grand Prix (VI Gran Premio Internacional Standard Supermovil YPF) with the Mercedes-Benz 220 SE with the starting number 711. Photo Mercedes-Benz Classic Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Argentinian succes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mercedes took Ewy Rosqvist and her co-driver Ursula Wirth on board for a 1962 rally campaign and offered the pair a Mercedes 220 SE. The duo would win the fast Argentinian Touring Car Grand Prix<\/a> at the end of the year. Rosqvist set fastest times on all of the stages. She won, three hours ahead of the 250 men that had entered the rally. In 1963, Rosqvist won the Women\u2019s Cup in the Monte Carlo rally, a class win at the N\u00fcrburgring 6 Hours and third in the Argentinian Touring Car Grand Prix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rosqvist – Wirth, Monte Carlo rally 1964. Photo Mercedes-Benz Classic Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monte Carlo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1964 brought Rosqvist a career-best in the Monte Carlo rally: fifth overall and first in class in the +2500 cc category. She would do even better in the Spa-Sofia-Li\u00e8ge marathon, finishing third. Rosqvist, by now partnered by Eva-Maria Falk, ended her career in 1964, with another fine third in the Argentinian Touring Car Grand Prix. She married Mercedes motorsport director Baron Alexander von Korff, and remained associated to the Mercedes brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1964 Mercedes works crew for Marathon de la Route. From left to right: Martin Braungart, Dieter Glemser, Alfred Kling, Ewy Rosqvist, Manfred Schiek, Eugen B\u00f6hringer, Rolf Kreder and Klaus Kaiser. Photo Mercedes-Benz Classic Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mercedes Classic director Marcus Breitschwert said: \u201cShe has done a lot for motorsport \u2013 and at the same time she shaped the image of women in motorsport, especially as an overall winner against the strongest of her time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swedish rally driver Ewy Rosqvist has passed away on July 4th, at the age of 94. Rosqvist \u2013 born Ewy J\u00f6nsson – was a trail-blazer, as one of the first woman able to beat the men in post-war rallying. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107],"tags":[1604,1602,1387,280,1606,471,521,1605,163,1603],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-11493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-pictures-videos","category-obituaries","tag-argentinian-touring-car-grand-prix","tag-ewy-rosqvist","tag-marathon-de-la-route","tag-mercedes","tag-mercedes-220-se","tag-monte-carlo-rally","tag-nurburgring","tag-pat-moss","tag-rally","tag-volvo","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24c0140_003.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11504,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11493\/revisions\/11504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11493"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=11493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}