What do Peugeot the car maker, Tennis and a French aviator have in common? The answer is, Roland Garros. Still confused then read on and learn about the wonderful relationship between the three.
Roland Garros was a World War I fighter pilot, who was also famous for being the first person to make a non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea, from Southern France to Tunisia. Roland Garros was also the first pilot to achieve a shooting-down method from a fighter plane using a tractor propeller. Which lead to some victories against the Germans, until Garros crash landed in German territory, on April 1915. He survived and even after being kidnapped Garros managed to escape in February 1918. Unfortunately on 5th October 1918 Roland Garros was shot down and killed while still serving for the French army.
Going on to the 1920s, there was a tennis centre which was regularly attended by Roland Garros, while he was a student in Paris. In respect to his work and dedication to the country, this tennis centre was named Stade de Roland Garros. This is the stadium that now holds the French Open and the Grand Slam tournaments, which are known officially as Roland Garros. The Roland Garros tournaments are held between early May and late July
So weve covered the French aviator and then how his name went onto being used by a tennis centre, which then moved onto becoming the name of a substantial tennis tournament. Now well go onto what Peugeot have to do with this all.
Peugeot is a major French carmaker; they are officially the second largest carmaker in Europe.
In 1984 Peugeot became the official partner of the French Tennis Federation. This also made them the leading partner of the International Grand Slam tennis tournament known as the French Open of Roland Garros. 1989 saw the making of Roland Garros Limited edition version of Peugeots 205 model, which was done in celebration to the tennis tournament.
The Roland Garos models are painted in a dark green paint and have cream and green leather interior and red seat belts. They also have the Roland Garros logo on them. Due to the success of the special limited edition version, Peugeot went onto releasing several other models such as the 106, 206 and soon to come the New Peugeot 207. But theres one major difference on the latest Roland Garros model, Peugeot have decided to drop the dark green paint work and cream interior. Instead the New Peugeot 207 comes in a canary yellow but still has the Roland Garros badge in a greyscale colour.
Its been nearly 26 years since Peugeot became a part of the French Tennis Federation and through the years theyve not only released special edition cars after the Roland Garros name. Theyve also made Roland Garros Scooters and Bicycles. Also since 1996 Peugeot has been devoted in amateur tennis and have created The Roland Garros Encounters, which is its own mixed double tournament.