April 14-18, 1998
A new name for the "Tour de France Auto"
The "Tour Auto"
38 Ferrari in the 1998 "Tour Auto"
A remarkable turnout of 250 GTs
More Ferrari in the "Tour"
The most spectacular Ferrari?
Tour Auto 1999
A new name for the "Tour de France Auto"
France's major event for historic motor racing, the "Tour de France Auto", has
been renamed "Tour Auto" this year, but although the name has changed, its
attractiveness remains unchanged for automotive enthusiasts around the globe.
The "Tour Auto"
The "Tour de France Auto", which took place as a major European event for road
racing for the last time in 1986, had been revived in the 1990's by Patrick Peter of
Paris. Likewise as in the Mille Miglia Storica, a car is eligible for the "Tour Auto" if
the very car or an identical model did once participate in the Tour de France
between 1951 and 1973. But sometimes the organizers make exceptions for
cars which did start in the TDF after 1973 if the car in question really is the very
car that did particpate years ago. An example for this way of proceeding is
François Entremont's Michelotto-prepared and "Tour de France"-approved Ferrari
308 GTB, a regular contestant in the Tour.
The field of participants is divided into two categories: There's one so-called
"racing" category for the fastest and most ambitious pilots, and a "regularity"
category for all the gentleman drivers who prefer to absolve the several stages in
a preset time and in a more constant way rather than running their cars at the
limit. Most of the some 220 participants run in the latter category. The route of the
"Tour" differs from year to year; in 1998, it lead the contestants from Paris via
Dijon, Annecy and Vichy to La Rochelle.
38 Ferrari in the 1998 "Tour Auto"
Ferrari is one of the most popular marques in the Tour; no less than 38
examples were entered in the 1998 edition of the event. The oldest Ferrari
among them was the little 166 MM Barchetta Touring s/n 0034M of Juan
Quintano, the Spanish Ferrari-importer by trade.
Another very old Ferrari had been brought to France from Wisconsin: 166 Inter
Berlinetta Vignale s/n 0071S, driven by Stephen Dudley. This small blue Ferrari
is extremely original and has a nice patina.
A remarkable turnout of 250 GTs
The 250 GT-family always shows up with many members in the Tour: Mark
Finburgh from London drove his 250 Europa GT s/n 0375GT, and Jon Masterson
from California competed in his newly acquired 1956 250 GT LWB Berlinetta
Scaglietti "Tour de France" s/n 0585GT. This car is registered on the more than
just adequate California license plate "MY 56 TDF". Mr. Masterson was co-piloted
by long-time Ferrarista P. Paul Pappalardo.
Jean-Claude Bajol from Toulouse/France and David Webb from the U.S. brought
their "TdF"s as well.
Rarely seen is Bernard Consten's 250 GT LWB Berlinetta Interim s/n 1509GT.
This white Ferrari is one of seven 250 GT LWB Berlinettas which were produced
shortly before the end of the production of the long chassis 250 GTs and which
already sported a Scaglietti-made body very similar to the design of the
forthcoming short chassis 250 GTs. Six of these rare Interim cars remain in our
days.
Nine examples of the above mentioned 250 GT "Short Wheelbase" Berlinetta
were present at the start of the "Tour Auto" in Paris: Jean Sage, Lord Cowdray
(a.k.a. Michael Pearson) and a Mr. Haquette from France brought their
alloy-bodied Competition Berlinettas (Lord Cowdray's example being one of the
so-called "SEFAC Hot Rods", a 250 GT SWB Competizione with a special
high-output engine), while the six other cars were steel-bodied examples. There
was even a ladies' team among the SWB-equipes: Christine Laidlaw and Pat
Woollett shared s/n 2669GT, while Mr. Irvine Laidlaw drove a Porsche 904 GTS.
The SWB's successor, the 250 GTO, could be seen in the Tour as well: Nicolas
Springer, a German living in Switzerland, brought is s/n 4153GT, and Paul Vestey
from England showed up in his s/n 4115GT. Springer's car used to be in a
silvergrey livery with a "French" band of blue, white and red ranging from the front
to the tail of the car. Now, the French "Tricolore" has been replaced by a broad
yellow band on the car's hood, a reminiscence to s/n 4153GT's former glory as a
car of Jacques Swaters' Belgian "Ecurie Francorchamps". In fact, this very car
sported this very livery during the 1964 "Tour de France Auto", being driven by
Lucien Bianchi and Jojo Berger.
In 1998, there was only one 250 LM entered in the Tour: s/n 6051, driven by
Charles Arnott from Maryland. His co-pilot was Bill Noon of Symbolic Motor Cars
in La Jolla, CA/USA.
To make the turnout of the 250 GT-family nearly complete, two 250 GT Lusso
were present as well. Car dealer Paul Osborne from England brought a red one
(s/n 5031GT), while Ralph Bruggmann from Switzerland competed in his s/n
4965GT which is held in the lovely color-combination of silvergrey metallic with a
red interior.
More Ferrari in the "Tour"
In 1965, Ferrari produced a small "series" of twelve 275 GTB Competizione,
based on the 275 GTB/2 Shortnose. Two of these rare Ferrari were among the
contesting cars: José M. Albuquerque from Portugal brought his s/n 07271, and
Mohammed Syed showed his s/n 07517 in public for the first time. The
Tokyo-resident Pakistani bought this car in Germany in late 1997. s/n 07517 had
been completely restored in Switzerland during the ownership of a Swiss
collector; this collector decided to replace the car's original short nose by a
longer one because he preferred the latter's design.
In 1966, Ferrari produced a second series of (again) twelve 275 GTB/C, based
on the 275 GTB/2 Longnose. Two of these cars took part in the 1998 Tour Auto:
William Ma from Hong Kong drove his s/n 09067, and Anil Thadani, a
UK-resident Indian, participated with s/n 09085. Naturally, several "normal" 275
GTB/2s and 275 GTB/4s were present as well. A 275 GTB/2 Longnose, s/n
08955, had even been brought to France from Columbia, although registered in
Florida.
The most spectacular Ferrari?
The probably most spectacular Ferrari in this year's Tour was the 512 S Spider
s/n 1016 of Brandon Wang from Hong Kong. The well-known England-resident
Ferrari-collector had handed over the steering wheel of his latest acquisition to
professional driver Gary Pearson. It was quite a thrill to watch him piloting this
beast across the often narrow and always crowded streets of Paris. Pearson's
run on the circuit of Montlhéry in the outskirts of Paris was sensational as well,
especially when he steered the 512 S through the track's famous banking. Since
this car had slumbered in a collection in the southeastern USA for a number of
years, it was obviously quite happy to be moved in an adequate way again after
this long time of absence from the track.
A little less spectacular, but nearly as noisy as the 512 S were the two 365 GTB/4
Daytona Competizione which were entered in the Tour: Sally and Dudley
Mason-Styrron once again competed in their ex-Maranello Concessionaires s/n
15681, and François Degand drove his yellow s/n 16717, a former Ecurie
Francorchamps car.
Tour Auto 1999
The list of the 220 participants always reads like a "who-is-who" of the Ferrari
world, although not all of the well-known Ferraristi listed did actually participate in
a Ferrari. For example, Harry Leventis drove an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato,
Burkhard von Schenk and Manfred Rimböck were seen in a Maserati A6 GCS,
Peter Gläsel started in his Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL and even the
noted author Antoine Prunet took part in a Lotus Elite. Celebrity participants
included the famous German rallye-pilot Walter Röhrl (driving Friedrich-Wilhelm
Dauphin's Porsche 356 A Speedster 1600 GS) and the comedian and actor
Rowan Atkinson, probably better known as "Mr. Bean". The Englishman steered
an AC Ace Bristol.
|
