Paris-La Rochelle, 22nd - 27th of April
Two weeks ago we reported on a daily basis from this year's Tour
Auto with all the stages from the French capitol to the Atlantic
seaside town La Rochelle. Now with a distance of time we want
to look back on all the participating cars on the 2000km through
the French countryside, the 4 race tracks and the various special
stages.
The Tour Auto in its present form was founded in 1992 by Patrick
Peter to take up the idea of the former Tour de France Automobile
combining rally sport with classic track racing. Within the
following twenty years the TA became a fixed date in the classic
car calendar and although like the Mille Miglia the event for
historic cars became an own trade mark it still carries the idea of
the original event and so just cars entered in the Tour de France
are eligible for today´s editions.
Although the Tour de France was already held as early as 1899
and saw several editions before the war the “golden times” of the
TdF started with the reappearance in 1951. In the following 13
years the tour was started yearly (except at the Le Mans crash
year 1955) over a distance of 5000-6000km with classes for
Touring and GT cars. This year's form the major part of the entrant
list in the VHC (Véhicules historique competition) category
eligible for the overall victory of the TA and starting in the first two
competition groups.
In 1951 the first edition was won by a trio of Ferrari 212 Export
bodied as Barchetta and Coupé when the sports , GT and street
car classes were not separated. In the following years the small
sports cars dominated the Tour, unfortunately just few cars of this
era could be found in today's entry list, some Jaguar XK120, early
Porsche 356 and a sole OSCA MT4 were entered in the regularity
class. Even some of the earlier cars were a couple of Aston
Martin DB2 and DB2/4 as part of the centenary celebration of the
British Marque as one of the features of the TA.
The period of the TdF coincides with the David Brown years. After
DB bought Aston Martin and Lagonda his goal was to achieve an
overall victory at Le Mans with a car bearing his own name. The
first experiences in racing were collected with the DB2, a new
construction around the 2.6 litre Lagonda engine but after some
early class victories at Le Mans and the Mille Miglia the race
program was turned into the direction of open sports cars racing
for overall victories like the DB3S or the later DBR1. The DB2
went into production but its further development into the DB2/4
with rear seats and the rear opening for the hatchback indicates
its role as a fast touring car rather than a race car. Nevertheless
even of the DB2/4 some team cars were built to enter in
international rally sports, later many of these cars were converted
into club racers. Six of these early Astons were entered at this
year Tour Autos, three DB2 and three DB2/4. Running in the first
of the three competition categories against much younger cars
the DB2/4 certainly was not the fastest but its reliability over the
distance gave them a 13th and 20th overall and an impressive 3rd
and 4th at the index of performance classification. Better was just
a duo of Porsche 356 showing why the small racers from
Zuffenhausen are favoured by many at this sort of events, the air
cooled 4-cylinder and the light design make these cars ideal for
long distance tours.
After the break in 1955 the 1956 edition was a battle between the
Ferrari works team and the Mercedes-Benz team with a couple of
300 SL Gullwing, one even driven by Stirling Moss. Unlike at the
Mille Miglia the 300 SL is more exotic at the Tour Auto and just
two race prepared cars were brought over by marque specialist
Hans Kleissl of HK engineering.
1956 was also the first year won by the Ferrari 250 GT giving the
LWB race version the nickname TdF for “Tour de France”. This
started the dominance of Ferrari in the GT category with the 250
GT LWB, later the 250 GT SWB and finally the 250 GTO.
In the first years of the historic TA many of these cars could be
seen on the entry lists but in the times of ever increasing prices
the Ferrari 250 GT becomes a rare sight on this hard driven rally.
A few years ago the feature of the 250 GT SWB still drew a dozen
of these multi-million dollar cars to Paris but this year just a duo
was seen in the Grand Palais. The car in the competition
category (Chassis 2129GT) is not just one SWB but it is the
actual 1960 winner of the TdF in the hands of Willy Mairesse and
Georges Berger. Unfortunately the car suffered from rear axle
problems resulting in a late night rear axle change after the
second day. It was seen a few more times roadside with the
mechanics under the bonnet but it finally finished the week at La
Rochelle.
At the Grand Palais the Ferrari 250 were grouped in front of the
unveiled new LaFerrari, the two SWB models were joined by a trio
of 250 GT Lusso and a sole 250 GT TdF (0911GT).
For the first time within year no Ferrari 250 GTO was present at
the TA but after the sole entrant at last year's 50th anniversary
celebration that was no surprise. Today the value of these cars
became that high that owners become afraid of using them on
events like this with the risk of damage both mechanically and the
risk of a crash during the chase on small country roads or in
wheel to wheel battle at the race tracks. That does not mean that
none of their owners take part in the TA but they choose other
cars from their collection. Three of them were seen these days,
one in a Dino 246GT, two in the Alfa Romeo GTA.
One year after the ladies-team Ellerbrock/Rohwer entered the last
of the GT class winning GTO, the silver-yellow 1964 winner
(4153GT) in their brave competition debut they were back in a Alfa
Romeo GTA just as former Champ Car, Le Mans and speed
record racer Charles Nearburg.
They lead an armada of no less than 8 GTA(m), the usual front
runners of the Touring Category. During the last years especially
the black-green car of Von Wildenburg/Hahne was dominant in
this category on the race tracks in the hands of experienced
classic touring car racer Bernd Hahne but mechanical problems
on the third day resulting in penalties prevented a better
classification.
So at the end it was Nearburg to win the touring class.
The second competition group is reserved for the GT cars of the
pre 1969 era and usually fights for the overall winner. This class
included no less than 8 AC Cobra and 3 Ford GT40. The GT40 is
without doubt the fastest car on the race track and on the first
day at Le Mans all three cars were running well in front but the
Ford is not really built for the narrow special stages and the open
French county roads so all the GT40 suffered from unreliability
leaving the battle for victory to the Cobras and the hot Jaguar E-
Types. The car of the event was without doubt the AC Cobra
Daytona Coupe driven by Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Bräck.
Chassis CSX2300 was raced at the Tour de France in 1964 and
was seen in recent years racing at Goodwood but one does rarely
see a Daytona Coupe on the open road. It was fastest of the
numerous Cobras but after rolling out with mechanical problems
during the last lap in Magny-Cours the car was just seen sparely
during the following days.
From the beginning of the Tour the fight for the overall victory was
between Monteverde/Pearson in their AC Cobra and the winners
of the previous two editions, the E-Type of Lajournade/Bouchet
and the Cobra of Caron/David. The later were taken out of the
battle after a penalty for repair on day 2 just to fight back to a
podium finish on the last day leaving a duel between the Cobra
and the Jaguar. Ironically the Porsche Collector Monteverde
brought his Cobra in the year of the Porsche Prototype feature to
win after five hard days. He took the lead on the second day just
to lose it because of a speeding penalty on day 4 to Lajournande
giving the Tour Auto its closest finish in years.
Monteverde/Pearson had to catch up 21 seconds on the final
special stage and at Val de Vienne. Although the Cobra was
fastest on the special stage the hard driven Jaguar just lost 9
seconds leaving the decision to the race track. The last race of
the week was won by the reappeared Daytona Cobra but a third
place behind Caron secured Monteverde/Pearson the win by just
16 second as Lajournade came home 6th behind a quintet of
Cobras.
After the 1964 edition the TdF reappeared in 1969 with a new
concept and the name Tour Auto to differ it from the bicycle race.
In the following years the TA was open for sports prototypes and
until the deadline of today's Tour Auto (1973) cars like the Matra
MS650, Ferrari 512 S, Lancia Stratos and the Porsche
Prototypes were racing on open roads. These cars are in the third
competition group lead by a couple of Porsche 906/910 that were
featured at this year's edition.
Porsche started its lightweight prototype concept with the
fibreglass body of the 904, the last car with the legendary 4-
cylinder Fuhrmann engine. The next step was the 906 (or Carrera
6) the first pure race car, although road legal it was produced
entirely for track racing. Together with the following 910 this was
intended to win the popular 2 litre class before Porsche took the
next step with the 907/908 for overall victories. No less than 10 of
these light sports cars were entered this year, the 906 in class G,
the 910 in class H. In class G finally one of the 906 came second
behind the GT40 of Vandromme/Vivier, a very respectable result
when comparing the engine capacity of these two cars.
The class H was won by the Lancia Stratos driven by former
Formula 1 driver Erik Comas. The short wheel base Stratos was
fastest car of all participating not just because of the superior
road holding of the Stratos at the special stages but also the
driving abilities of Comas. This might be the sportiest possibility
to drive with the Dino engine the Stratos shares with the
numerous Ferrari Dino 246 GT in the regularity class.
The last group I is a little bit special as this just consists of a trio
of Ferrari 308 GTB Group IV Michelotto built in 1976/77, this
class was won by Beverly/Humphries.
There are two ways of looking on the entry list of the Tour Auto
2013: first one can compare it with the list of previous editions
and then you can see that especially the special Ferrari become
rarer. Basically the Ferrari 275 GTB and the little Dino are holding
up the banner for Maranello, with the increasing value of the 275
one is curious how many of them will be entered in the near
future.
The 246GT Dino is a cheaper alternative for some of the Ferrari
owners to have fun during a week in France without worrying too
much about the costs.
But this is just a development of the time and says nothing about
the quality of the event as other major classic car events suffer
the same problem. So when comparing the entry list with similar
event it is still of very good quality and the yearly features add a
lot just as the Porsches this year. Furthermore the concept of the
Tour Auto is very unique as one could see race cars both in their
normal surrounding on the race track but also driven through
small villages, a Ford GT40 or a AC Cobra Daytona Coupé
climbing a French speed bump is an unusual sight that should
not be missed.
Report & images .. Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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