Paris-Biarritz, 20th - 25th of April, 2015
It is almost two weeks ago that this year’s Tour Auto Optic 2000
became history when the majority of the 233 drivers and
navigators starting from Paris on Tuesday arrived at the sunny
Atlantic coast at Biarritz. Back then we reported on a daily basis
from the different stages with the stops in Vichy,
Clermont-Ferrand, Toulouse and Pau illustrating the changing
scenery on their journey, now with the timely distance it is time to
have a closer look at the participating cars. The gallery sorted by
race number should give you an idea of the typical entry list
ranging from small Touring cars like an Austin Mini to the brutish
sports prototypes like the Ligier JS2 DFV.
... MediaCenter Car by Car Gallery ... with 468 Peter Singhof
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In last year’s report we took a small look back into the classic
days of the original Tour de France and therefore the eligible cars
for the classic car interpretation of the Tour through the Grand
Nation and certainly nothing changed for this year so the main
contingent of cars dates from the sports and touring car era of the
1950s and 60s with the later sorts prototypes in an own class.
Again the entrants had to choose from two different categories,
either the regularity event with a given time for the special stages
and circuit laps or the sportive competition with wheel-to-wheel
battles on the race meetings and working against the clock on
the closed off special stages.
The regularity classes were divided in three different time groups
with low, medium or high average speed depending on the
application of the teams. Again about half of the cars of this
year’s event have chosen this more relaxed form of competition
that does not need that much preparation upfront and service
during the days including tyre changes. Just like in the
competition this is a very colourful mix of Italian, French, German
and British cars from most of the major marques of the era. This
includes the more common entries seen at many of today´s
driving events like Porsche 356 and 911, Jaguar XKs and E-Types
or Austin Healey but also more exotic machinery.
Like every year 2015 had a special feature dedicated to a single
marque or theme, this year to the small Barchettas, open sports
cars without weather protection. Back in the 1950s these small
racers were very popular and in today´s market they are some of
the collectors’ favourites. Certainly it is a risky undertake to face
a 5 days drive in changing conditions over 1900 km without any
hood but still a few cars were lined up at the Grand Palais in
Paris for the scrutineering. The Porsche 550 a Spyder is an old
acquaintance as it is a regular entrant but this years it was joined
by its former rivals from Italy in the 2 Litre-class, the Maserati 200
SI and the Ferrari 500 Mondial. Both cars were already seen in
the past on the Mille Miglia so they are proven to be capable of
driving the distance but the high rev 4-cylinder engines are always
good for a surprise. The Ferrari (0424MD) started its life in France
and therefore raced under the light French blue racing colour
rather than red and although the car was repainted later in its life
it was brought back to the original colour scheme by sanding the
upper layers of paint down to the original one. Representing the
national colours this was certainly one of the main attractions at
the Grand Palais but unfortunately the car did not finish the first
day of driving with engine problems and was replaced by a Citroen
2CV for the next days. The Maserati on the other hand did finish
the entire tour showing that the reliability issues that costed
several victories for the marque with the trident are sorted today
by a proper preparation.
Remarkable enough is the fact that the amount of very expensive
Ferrari was not much further reduced from the previous years
although one of the “standard” cars of the Tour Auto, the Ferrari
275 GTB is now very well in the million dollars. Again 9 examples
could be seen, most of them known examples of the previous
years including a competition version that unfortunately was
abandoned after the first day as well.
Even much more expensive was the Ferrari 250 GTO that was
entered again by Lord Laidlaw. Although the dark red examples
could be welcomed several times over the last year it is still very
brave to enter a 40 million plus car in a driving event over a
gruelling 5 days on small bumpy French country roads. Although
the car did not finish as well it was certainly one of the highlights
on the first days and the car was surrounded by people at every
stop. It was accompanied by a trio of 250 SWB Berlinettas, one
in the regularity and two in the first competition group including
the 1960 Tour de France winning example, an all alloy
competition version (2129GT).
Even more interesting were a duo of early 12-cylinder cars, the
Vignale bodied 225S (0168ED) and the even older 212 Export
Touring Berlinetta (0088E). This car was the star of last year’s
Bonhams Scottsdale auction when it was fresh on the market
after a superb restoration. It was later shown at Pebble Beach by
its new owner who passed the car to the current one. After
entering the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Breadvan last year the now rally
prepared 212 Export was another highlight brought over from
Austria by its enthusiastic owner who even challenged in the
competition category against the younger 250 GT. Being a
concours car previously the car obviously needs some more
sorting out for the events to come as it was not seen on all the
days on the road as well.
On the other end of the Ferrari spectrum were the 5 entered 308
GTB in Group 4 specification who competed for the newest
category I in the competition. The Ferrari line-up was rounded of
by two special versions of the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, a 1975
competition conversion (16717) and a Michelotti Targa NART
version (15965).
A more common sight of the Tour Auto in the previous years are
the Alfa Romeo GTA. Obviously representing the most fun to
value ratio the fast Alfas are getting more and more popular
among collectors and the Tour Auto is the perfect event for them.
Fast on the circuit on one side but reliable and comfortable
enough for the long stages on public roads. Since a few years the
GTA are part of the second competition group rather than in the
first where they went from race victory to race victory whereas
now they have to compete with the large big bangers today. In the
last years it was Bernd Hahne in the black GTA running well in
front of the pack but as this car was not entered this year it was
up to the team Furiani/Werner to take over the challenge. As the
former is renown for his race preparation and restoration of classic
Alfas the car was perfectly prepared for the experienced and
quick vintage racer Max Werner who was even able to outperform
all of the bigger cars on several special stages. Unfortunately the
car was without chance on the race tracks lacking the horse
power of the engines with much more than double the capacity
but still able to finish an impressive 5th overall. Further GTA
finished 7th and 11th with the fastest ladies team
Ellerbrock/Rohwer in their bare alloy version.
But as mentioned in our report during the Tour it was again up to
the Jaguar E-Type and AC Cobra to fight for the overall victory. No
less than 5 Competition AC Cobras 289 were lined-up to
challenge a bunch of Jaguar E-Type in light weighted configuration
for the top place on the podium. As most of the entered cars are
regulars to the Tour Auto the service teams do exactly know how
the cars have to be prepared and the 1900 kilometre are normally
not a big challenge for them. But as the cars are so close
together performance wise it is the small things that make the
difference. With the two fastest cars well within half a minute all
days one could not have a single weak special stage or race. On
the first day it was the black Cobra (CSX2127) of Ludovic Caron
that took the lead but already on the second day the later winner
Jean-Pierre Lajournade in the Jaguar E-Type took over. Second
last year only by losing because of a penalty for road offensive
Lajournade was able to keep the lead over the following days in
front of Caron and last year’s winner Shaun Lynn in the red
ex-Willment Cobra (CSX2130).
Again a couple of Ford GT40 were entered, for some confusingly
all in red but in different categories. One was driven in the
regularity (the red P/1042 of the Scuderia Brescia Corse), one in
the GT category (P/1070) and the very late P/1089 of Philippe
Vandromme who could defend his victory in the category H after
taking the lead on the very last day from the BMW 2800 CS of
Gauduel/Delaye.
After this superb week with lovely weather the European classic
car rally season is opened and in the next week many of these
cars are seen on various race events all over Europe. Next week
the Italian premium event, the Mille Miglia will be on the schedule
and as the heydays of the Tour de France were just after the Mille
Miglia disappeared this will bring a lot of earlier cars to Brescia
than seen in France making these two driving events a perfect
combination both to visit and to join.
The organizers of Peter Auto on the other hand are busy with
several race meetings including the upcoming Spa Classic and
even in the uneven years without Le Mans Classic they have a lot
more to offer including the second annual Concours d´Elegance in
Chantilly in September. And certainly plans for the 2016 Tour
Auto are well under way and one could be curious where the
journey will lead next year.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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