12/4/1907 - 28/12/1983
Record updated 12-Apr-20
Chaboud started racing in 1936 with his friend Jean Tremoulet driving Delahayes. They won the 1938 Le Mans 24 hour race. After the war he continued recing Delahayes and Talbots for Ecurie France, winning the French Championship in 1947. In 1950 he took over Etancelin's Talbot-Lago at the French GP finishing 5th to score a single World Championship point.
Born in Lyon, France, Eugene Chaboud was the son of a wealty businessman. He was a successful athlete in his youth and began racing late in 1936 with his friend Jean Tremoulet, with whom he shared his birthday.
He made his debut in a Delahaye sportscar and, in 1937, raced in a variety of hillclimbs and local races. He entered Le Mans with Tremoulet and won his first race at the end of the year at the Lapize hillclimb at Montlhery.
He teamed up with Tremoulet again for Le Mans 24 Hours which they won in a Delahaye. Then later in the year he won the Chamonix Rally in a Lancia.
Chaboud and Tremoulet then went their separate ways and in 1939 he established Ecurie Francia and took his second major victory, winning the Paris-Nice race.
The war put a stop to racing but following the end of hostilities, Chaboud was soon back behing the wheel driving a Delahaye 135S for Paul Vallee's Ecurie France team and acting as Sporting Director. He finished third behind Jean-Pierre Wimille and Raymond Sommer in the Coupe des Prisonniers in the very first postwar race held in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris.
He won the sportscar Belgian GP in 1946 and had a number of other good finishes in French events that year.
In 1947 the team acquired a 1939 single seat Talbot and Eugene won races at Marseilles and the Grand Prix du Rousillon at Perpignan.
Eugene emerged as French champion that year, however the drive was then handed to Louis Chiron and Chaboud and Charles Pozzi left in disgust and set up their own team.
So in 1948 Chaboud and Pozzi started Ecurie Leutitia, with Chaboud still racing his Delahaye. He took sixth place in the 1949 French GP and fourth place in the GP des Nations in Geneva. He was unlucky at Le Mans when the car caught fire while leading the race by some nine miles.
Chaboud's chance to race in more competitive machinery than the Delahaye came in 1950, when he was invited to drive a Lago-Talbot in place of the injured Martin. Sharing the car with Etancelin, he finished fifth in the French GP. He also raced at Le Mans and on the Monte Carlo Rally where he finished second in a Simca.
At Le Mans in 1951, Chaboud lay sixth until, after the 22-hour mark, he crashed the Talbot. While lying under the overturned car waiting to be extricated, he had enough time to decide it was a good time to call it a day!
He continued to compete in rallying until 1953 and then retired to concentrate on his business.
He died at Montfermeil in 1983.
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