Today the Tour Auto officially started with the scrutineering in the Parc des Tuileries. After checking all the numbers and the paperwork of the cars plus the helmets and racesuits of the drivers all the cars got their race number. A red number indicates that the car is entered in the regularity group, the black numbers will start in the competition classes. At last all the cars get their transponder fitted to monitor the times on the stages during the next days.

Featured coachbuilder this year is Zagato, so many Alfa Romeo TZ and SZ came to Paris this year. Further Zagato cars are a beautifull Maserati A6 G54 and two of the 19 original Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagatos. They were all lined up on the dry alley in the parc covering them with a thick layer of dust during the day.

Tomorrow morning will see an early start at 6:30 at the Place de la Concorde with a neutralized time until the timekeeping will start at the first stop in Montlhery. The competition classes will go out first and they will do their first races at Le Mans at about noon followed by the regularity classes. Usually in the middle of the week the sequence will be changed giving the owners of the racers a little bit more time in the morning but keeping their mechanic a little bit longer busy in the evening to check over the car and preparing it for the next day."

Text & Images Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarPhotography.de