Paris September 20, 2001

An exclusive ride from Paris to Monte Carlo

Have you ever heard of Supercars with names such like Koengisegg or Edonis? Even seen them on display? Okay, so you’ve visited all the big motor shows in the whole world of course, and you’re familiar with all these wonderfully arranged car exhibitions for sure, but…

…have you ever seen them in action ?

Stephane Ratel, the promoter of the FIA GT Championship, must have thought this way, creating a unique event for the very first time – the Supercar Rally 2001. Beginning from the Place Vendome in Paris then travelling through beautiful landscapes down to Monaco, 40 enthusiasts followed Ratel driving the crème de la crème of the automotive world.

The organisers tried to gather simply the best and most exclusive cars, together with concept studies, design masterpieces and brutal race machines to create a new promotional platform for all ambitious automobile designers and constructors of Supercars.

It was not the drivers who were starring this time, but these extraordinary and exceptional motorcars. Just have a look at this short list and you’ll see what I’m talking about:

Aston Martin Vantage Le Mans & 20/20
Bentley Continental T
Dauer "Bugatti" EB 110 SS
Edonis V12
Ferrari 288 GTO, 456 GT, 550 barchetta and F50
- three F50 took part, including chassis numbers 106880 & 107115
Koenigsegg CC V8 S
Lamborghini Diablo GT and SVR
Lotus Elise GT1
- one of only seven produced, driven by Toine Hezemans
Opac Contender XG
Pagani Zonda C12 S
Peugeot Asphalte
Porsche 911 GT1 & GT2
Stola 82 S
Venturi LM 400

New Lamborghini Murciélago presented

Giuseppe Greco, head of Lamborghini Automobili SpA, not only presented Lamborghini’s new weapon against Ferrari and Co. but also took part in this hard rally together with his co-driver Enrico Maffeo. But Greco was not the only ”President” driving:

Horacio Pagani drove the all new Pagani Zonda S, Christian von Koenigsegg showed up with his CC V8 S, currently a one-off powered by a Ford V8 with 655 hp, and Alfredo and Maria Paola Stola, manufacturers of the Stola 82 S based on a Porsche Boxster with 450 hp, took the advantage to present their thoroughbreds.

Let’s not forget the Edonis, a new Supercar built in Modena by the former Bugatti team directed by Jean-Marc Borel and Nicola Materazzi. Reading its datasheet, you’ll notice one superlative after another: V12 twin turbo with 680 hp at 8000 rpm, carbon fibre chassis, alloy body and a weight of only 1,300 kg !

Fabrizio Giugiaro, the son of Giorgetto Giugiaro represented state of the art with three Italdesign creations: the fabulous BMW Nazca C2 Spider, the aggressive looking Aston Martin 20/20 and the show car ”Structura”.

The route

Thursday, 20th September

Friday, 21st September

Saturday, 22nd September

Sunday, 23rd September

David against Goliath

Impressed by all these power outputs, one would think that you had to have at least 600 hp and a V12 mounted in the back to win such a rally, but none of the omnipotent race cars took it home. A small Peugeot three-wheeler called ”Asphalte” powered by a 4 cylinder engine producing 120 hp won, raced by Jean-Christophe Bolle-Reddat. Sometimes, less can be much more….


Bjoern Schmidt

Driver

JOBST Josef 

SCHWINGEN Helmut  

RATEL Stéphane 

LESTRADE Gilbert 

JEANNOT Raymond

SHALSON Peter

BERNARDET Alain

COLOMBO Vittorio 

CRAMATTE Paul 

DAUER Jochen 

FREI Alexander

HEZEMANS Toine

KARACAN Ali  

VON KOENIGSEGG Mr

THIERRY Mr

STELLOO Arie 

STRAUMANN Thomas

VAN VLOKHOEVEN Stephan

PAGANI Horacio 

STOLA Alfredo

FRADIN Norbert

BELL Derek (75,81,82,86,87)

LECONTE Jack

BIERLING Claude

STIRANO Giorgio

BELS Patrick 

RATEL Alexandra

FUMAGALLI Alberto 

GIUGIARO Fabrizio  

BAY Franco  

TIRELLA Vincenzo

PEUGEOT 

PEUGEOT  

GRECO Giuseppe 

MHITARIAN Michel

CHARRIOL Philippe

OLIVER Ben

COLAS Frank