Emile Coquille

Emile Coquille was a French entrepreneur and a motorsports professional and, as such, a major contributor to the establishment of Le Mans's 24-hour race.

In the 1920s Emile Coquille was the French general representative of the British motorcycle and tire company Rudge. In this function, he was one of the founders of the 24-hour Le Mans race alongside Charles Faroux and Georges Durand.

In 1922 Georges Durand, the secretary of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, had the idea of ​​organizing a long-distance race for touring cars in order to demonstrate the performance of quite normal road cars. In October of that same year he addressed Charles Faroux, the editor of the trade magazine La Vie Automobile, to the Paris car-maker, who immediately became enthusiastic. Coquille, who had sufficient capital, was attracted and agreed to provide 100,000 francs of prize money. He also donated the Rudge-Whitworth Cup, which also entered the history of motor racing and this race as a biennial cup. Single-level Edit source text

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