Born : March 12 1923
Deceased : April 21 2002
Biography Charles Vögele
It is absolutely no offense to say that Charles Vögele was a late bloomer when it comes to racing. At the age of 30, Charles Vögele was a visitor at the 1953 AVUS GP to support a Swiss driver Theodor Gurzeler who was lucky enough to win the race in a Jovet Javelin Jupiter. It was about the same time that Vögele who has always shown interest in cars bought himself an identical Jovet Javelin Jupiter, and started racing himself. Just a few years later, Charles Vögele starts a store selling motorcycle clothing in Zürich. This was the start of the extremely successful career of Charles Vögele in the textile industry.
The Jovet Javelin Jupiter however was too heavy in Vögele’s opinion, so he bought himself a much lighter car: a Glöckler Porsche. That was the first Porsche in a long row of cars owned and raced by Vögele. However one of his main successes, the class victory in the 1960 Sebring 12H, won by Hans Herrmann and Olivier Gendebien in a Porsche 718 RS60, was in Lola-Climax Mk.1. As a successful businessman, Charles Vögele could afford to help young talented drivers, and that’s how Vögele and Jo Siffert got in touch with each other. Their greatest achievement together was the 1967 world record run in Monza in the 1967 Porsche 911R, together with Dieter Spoerry and Rico Steinemann.
In his race career, Vögele was furthermore very active in hill climbs, with many victories and records on his name. At the 1961 Budapest Grand Prix, Charles Vögele ran the fastest lap during training. However, he must have been very tired after a very long drive to Budapest and the training as he overslept and missed the start of the Grand Prix. During his career, Vögele acquired quite a collection of cars, nowadays still used in classic races by his sons Carlo Vögele and Peter Vögele.
