Mariette Hélène Delangle began auto racing in A racing sensation, Nice drove in Europe, the 1929. Known popularly by her stage name, Hellé United States, and even South America, but Nice, her success was near-immediate. That very her career foundered in the late 1930s. A crash year, she won a women’s race in Monthéry, in Brazil-killing six people and putting Nice France, prompting the car manufacturer Ettore herself into a coma-was just the start; she Bugatti to loan her a vehicle. She used her first would also be convicted in a scandal involving Bugatti to win another women’s race, this time at the Actor’s Championship Grand Prix, where illegal car imports and falsely accused of being she set the fastest time for both women and men. a Nazi collaborator.