Celebrating One of the World's First Hillclimbs

Chanteloup les Vignes, a little to the west of Paris, held one of the first hillclimbs ever held in the world on 27 November 1898.  They claim it was the first but at least one other site in France claims to have held one in 1897 (*see bottom of the blogpost).  Whatever, it is a charming location that still commemorates this historic occasion with some demo runs up the hill.   The original course was 1,782 metres but nowdays the re-run is over a hill that is 900 metres long.   There are many cars that take part that are Pre-Second World War and there are more modern cars and also motor bikes as well.   A fun little event that this year was on Sunday 15th June.

A Barré exits the second corner and makes the climb up the Chanteloup hill

One of the vehicles to climb the hill was none other than a Solex!  Keep pedalling hard!

A somewhat faster two wheeled machine

This Yamaha entertained us with a wheelie!

A Volvo P1800 takes the flag at the start

A Facel Vega takes the first corner

Lancia Fulvia soon after the start

Alfa Romeo enters the second corner

A Hurtu exits the second corner

Perhaps my favourite car of the day, a pre-war Simca-Fiat Berlinette Le Mans

An MG enters corner three

Vintage car passes equally beautiful house on the exit of turn three

A Delehaye in turn four

Further up the hill

A fun little car

Bugatti T35 makes the climb

A rather modern Renault powered single seater

Ford GT40

A Sports Racing Car makes a rapid ascent

Which we hqd earlier seen having an interview in the paddock

Healey Silverstone gets to the top of the hill

As does this Porsche

Monument celebrating the first event at the top of the hill

Thanks to the town of Chanteloup Les Vignes for an enjoyable afternoon

For those interested, the first Chanteloup hillclimb in 1898 had over 50 participants and was won by Jenatzy in an electric car at just over 28 kph.   Amazing how it is only now again in the 21st century that we race electric cars again.  Watching the older cars run today made one realize just how challenging hillclimbs were for cars back in the early days of racing.  Jenatzy of course also drove the first road vehicle to go over 100 Kph and he achieved that in nearby Acheres.

Wonderful character driving a wonderful Hispano-Suiza

* Historical footnote:  Chanteloup lers Vignes appears to have a claim to have held the first hill climb that was held as a separate event.  La Turbie had a hill climb in January1897 but this was part of the Marseilles-Nice-La Turbie 240km event.   Interestingly, the Marseilles-Nice-La Turbie race was won by none other than Count Gaston de Chasseloup  Laubat, the great rival of Camille Jenatzy who won the Chanteloup event.  I  note that some lists of hillclimbs list Charles River Park near Boston, USA as having had a hill climb just before the original Chantloup runs in November 1998.  However, this was not a Course de Cotes or Speed Hillclimb as we would know it today as it was more a test to see if cars could negotiate specially constructed wooden ramps of varying gradients.

The Marque CG at Sancerre

I had seen a CG climb the hill in the Course de Cotes de Sancerre the previous week, and on Saturday 7th June 2014, the CG club made a visit to Sancerre.

Pascal Simonot in his CG Simca at the Course de Cote de Sancerre 2014

CG is a French Marque that existed from 1966 to 1974. They produced sports cars using components from Simca production cars and their own fibreglass bodies.  In fact CG started as a body work shop named Chappes Freres et Gessalin; amongst other things they did the body work for racing driver Charles Pozzi's Talbot and Delehaye.  They also worked with Bonnet, Panhard and Alpine.   In 1966 they decided to launch their own marque.

The CG that particular took my eye was this spider parked outside the Hotel Panoramique in Sancerre.

CG Simca Spider

CG Simca Spider

Driver's eye view of the controls of CG Simca

There were a number of models of the CG Simca, the CG 1000, the CG1200S and the CG1300.  Most had Coupe and Spider versions.  the marque really took off after it gained extra power with use of the Simca 1200S Bertone components.  

The Simca 1200S Bertone was a pretty car in its own right.  Seen earlier this year in Sancerre.

Below see some other pictures of CGs seen in their "concentration" in Sancerre.

A CG modified for competition use

No problems seeing using night rallies

CGs come in many colours

CG Spider with its hood up

Thanks to CG Amicale for bringing their nice cars to Sancerre

Not a car you see much outside of France

COURSE DE COTE DE SANCERRE 2014

Having been to this event for the first time last year, I had to be back again this year.  Sancerre is a
beautiful setting for a hillclimb and there was the a good number of regional drivers attempting to beat the hill record, get fastest time of the day or win their class.

Didier Thorin in a Marcadier Barzoi goes past the house after the finish line

There were the usual selection of road cars, GT cars, modified saloon cars, sports racing cars and single seaters to entertain us.  Some which particularly caught my eye were the French kit cars such as the Scora and the Marcadier.  For instance there was the beautiful Marcadier Barzoi inspired by Colin Chapman's Lotus and built by Andre Marcadier from 1970 onwards.  Later kit cars were the Scora built by Jacques Durand from 1974 as pictured below and which look more modern and aggressive.

Let me take you on a photographic ascent of the Sancerre Hillclimb and later introduce you to the winners and take you through a trip around the paddock which was the old Sancerre railway station.

The Scora Maxi of Jean-Claude Thirault

The hillclimb starts in Menetreol sous Sancerre and then quickly turns left under the viaduct

Quickly the route goes right before a quick climb to the third corner

Steve Braillon brushes the hay bales on his rapid exit from turn 3 in his Honda Civic

Franck Alloin applies opposite lock going through turn 4 in his Mygale Susuki

Guillaume Mouche exits turn 5 in his Mitsubishi

and then continues up the straight past the paddock entrance towards turn 6

A single seater exits turn 6 past Joseph Mellot's winery

One of the sports prototypes goes through the fast left hander at the end of the straight

David Thorin negotiates the final hairpin in his Peugoet Coupe

Nicolas Buguellou on the long exit from the final corner in his Peugeot 205 Rallye

Bruno Beyer in his old March 803 makes the short dash to the finish line

Welcome to the paddock

which is the site of the old Sancerre Railway Station

We had seen Rodolphe Simonot's Alpine Renault A110 out on the course

in the paddock, I was surprised to find that it had a Toyota engine!

Last year's winner, Serge Thomas in his Norma M20F was unbeatable again and took FTD

Closest came Sebastien Chabin in his 2nd placed Dallara F396 

Completing the podium in 3rd place was Gael Boisson in his Dallara 399

Anthony Dubois won his class in his beautiful Scora Maxi

Top lady driver was Stephanie Tordeux in this Ligier JS49 seen here after the end of her run

Come and join us next year to watch cars like this Apine Renault A310 climb the Sancerre Hill

and for Gareth, a picture of a Nissan, the 350Z of Alain Langumier

In the GTTS class was this Porsche GT3 Cup car of Steve Compain

In France you can take your dogs to watch motor racing!  They seem unconcerned as the Norma 20F races by.

A la prochaine.

All photos copyright John Etherton.  For your information all of these photos were taken by a compact camera but a good one - A Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ18.