La 7ème Traversée de Paris Estivale

La Traversée de Paris is a big thing in the French Classic Car calendar with over 600 cars turning up and driving past Paris's famous landmarks between the Chateau of Vincennes and the observatory at Meudon.  If you weren't in Paris last Sunday, this is a sample of what you missed and represents my 20 favourites.

1926 Bugatti T35B with the National Assembly building in the background

We started off in the Place de la Concorde as you can see a number of iconic Paris sights from here.

A cute little BMW Isetta bubble car enters the Place de la Concorde complete with picnic box on the back

My favourite Ferrari of the day was this sixties 365 GT 2+2 seen here parked in the Place de la Concorde

The Eiffel Tower provides a nice backdrop to this Sunbeam Alpine

Alpine Renault A310 looking for a parking place

Lovely open top Citroen DS19

Lotus Elite with matching 2CV

Open topped Karmann Ghia

Unusual Cadillac with spare wheel each side

Anyone know what this unusual open top blue sports car is?

It was beginning to get crowded so we moved on the the Bois de Boulogne.  The Bois de Boulogne has a lot of motor racing history having hosted the first pre-war motor race meeting in 1945 and it continued to hold races up until 1951.  Winners included Jean-Pierre Wimille, Guiseppe Farina and Raymond Sommer.   After driving down the Avenue Hoche and before entering the Bois de Boulogne on Sunday, the cars all passed the memorial to Jean-Pierre Wimille on the outside of the roundabout at Porte Dauphine.  It lists out all his major victories including three in the Bois de Boulogne driving Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and Simca.  He might have been the first World Champion had he not been killed in 1949 in a race in Argentina.

The memorial to Jean-Pierre Wimille at Porte Dauphine

Very sporty looking Djet in the Bois de Boulogne

Un vrai vieux tacot (a true old jalopy)

A beautiful French sports car, a Facellia

Another one I need help in identifying!

Driving along with the doors open to cool the Lamborghini

Another sixties Djet - I love these early mid-engined cars

Is this a twenties Citroen B2?

A great variety of vehicles and many of the drivers and passengers dressed up

A beautiful Corvette and I love the hats!

Unfortunately not all the cars, and sadly not this beautiful Thunderbird, made it to Meudon under their own steam  

1966 Le Mans FORD GT40 MkII Slot Car Racing in H:O scale

Many people avoid H:O or 1:64th scale slot car racing because the cars aren't accurate enough for them.   However, there are always exceptions to every rule, and these Mega G AFX slot car representations of the Ford GT Mark II are certainly amongst them.  They look like the real thing and are painted and decalled to represent significant real cars.  For those of us old enough to remember motor racing in the sixties they are a must have!   If you are lucky you can pick them up new for about US$30 each.

Five Ford GT40 MkIIs line up on the grid

The first Ford GT40s appeared at the Le Mans test days in April 1964 and first raced in the Nurburgring 1,000kms at the end of May where theyproved competitive with the Ferraris but retired.  Three cars were then entered for the Le Mans 24 hours where Ford was obsessed with beating Ferrari having failed to buy them.  Remember that Ferrari were almost unbeatable at Le Mans at this time having won in 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1963. Again, although competitive all three cars retired.  Thus work began on improving the original Ford GT40 and also work started in early 1965 on the MkII.  The MII had a 7 litre engine compared to the 4.7 litre engine of the original Ford GT40.   It also had a different nose, distinctive intakes for the engine and was considerably beefed up everywhere.

1965 proved a more successful year than 1964 with Ford winning the Daytona Continental 2,000Kms and finishing second to Chaparral at Sebring.   However all six cars failed to finish Le Mans.   Thus more modifications were made to the MkII for the 1966 season.

1966 at last saw Ford achieve its objective with a dominant win at Le Mans.  However, the icing on the cake was that they scored 1,2,3 victories at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans!   This gave them the Manufacturers championship as well.

Slot Car re-construction of the 1966 Le Mans finish (yes, I know the 3rd car isn't right and I didn't simulate the rain!)

The finish to the 1966 Le Mans was staged by Ford so that they could have a great photo of all their 3 cars finishing at the same time.  Unfortunately this robbed Ken Miles and Denny Hulme of the victory they deserved in the No1 car.  If it hadn't been for this, Ken Miles would have won the triple Crown of Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans in one year.  Sadly, it was not to be and in August 1966 Ken Miles died in a race at Riverside.  Incidentally, although he lived in California from the early fifties and was a mainstay of Carroll Shelby's American team, Ken was born in England.

Le Mans start, anyone?

There were only 13 Ford GT40 MkIIs built in real life and today one of these would cost you a small fortune.  A slot car is a more reasonable option.  Many are available in all scales and there are many available in H:O scale or of course why not paint the one you want.   The five you see here are:

Light Blue No 1 - The second placed car in the 1966 Le Mans 24 hours driven by Ken Miles and Denny Hulme.  This car, entered by Shelby American, was leading until the staged finish.

The Miles/Hulme car from above

Black No 2 - The All Blacks winner of the 1966 Le Mans 24 hours driven by the New Zealanders Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.  Again this was entered by Shelby American.

All Black winner of the 1966 Le Mans 24 hours

Red No 3 - This was the 3rd Shelby American car at the 1966 Le Mans and was driven by the Americans Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant.  Dan Gurney was both the fastest qualifier and took fastest lap in the race with this car.  However, it eventually retired.

Pretend you are Dan Gurney in the No3 car

Gold No 4 - This was the lead Holman and Moody entered car and was driven by Paul Hawkins and Mark Donohue.  Unfortunately, although fast, it retired after 12 laps.

Mark Donohoe's No 4 car

Dark Blue No 6 - This was another Holman and Moody entered car.  Driven by Lucien Bianchi and Mario Andretti, it retired after 97 laps.

Mario Andretti's car roars down the long straight

The Number 4 and 6 cars have clear bodies and clever cardboard inserts to show more detail.  I use these for racing whilst the other 3 remain on the shelf and for photo shoots.

See who wins on your track.  McLaren or Miles?

Tyco HO Scale Can-Am McLaren M8 Slot Cars

For those who have been complaining under the trade description act that my blog contains nothing yet about HO Scale slot cars, you can stop moaning!

Tyco Pro McLaren M6B being overtaken by Tyco McLaren M8F

Here is the first of a series of posts on some of my favourite slot cars.  Where to start was difficult, especially as all my slot cars are currently packed away awaiting yet another house move.  So these were picked almost at random.

Vintage Tyco McLaren HO Slot Cars

Both are the usual very approximate 1/64th scale and are made for home racing rather than the display shelf.  Although, relatively common in the USA, they did have a little rarity value in the UK.  For those interested in such things the photos were taken on some old Faller track bordered by fake turf from the garden centre.

McLaren M6B leads the McLaren M8F

The No 4 car seen here is a McLaren M8B but was originally sold as just a Group 7 GT due to royalty reasons as it came out in the early seventies just as the F1 teams were seeking new revenues under the tutelage of Bernie Ecclestone.  This is not one of the early white cars which were made not to look like a McLaren but a slightly later model but still on its original  Tyco Pro chassis.   The number 4 was of course carried by Bruce McLaren himself when racing in the Can-Am series.   The McLaren M6B took  Bruce to his second and final Can-Am championship in 1969 with wins at Mosport, Watkins Glen, Elkhart Lake, Michigan, Laguna Seca and Texas.  1969 was the year when every race that season was won by Bruce or his team mate Denny Hulme in their McLaren M6B-Chevrolet cars.  Sadly Bruce was killed testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood in 1970.

Tyco Can Am McLaren race cars

By the time the No.5 car came out a few years later, it would appear that Tyco and McLaren had come to some sort of agreement.  This is the McLaren M8F that was raced in 1971.  It was the final year that McLaren won the championship, this time with Peter Revson driving the top car.  The No.5 car was raced by Denny Hulme to second place in the championship with wins at Mosport, Edmonton and Riverside.  This originally came out on a Tyco pro chassis but is seen here on a 440X2 pan chassis to give it higher performance.  The colour scheme is perhaps more reminiscent of a 1972 M20.  Toy HO slot cars never were that worried about accuracy.  Of course 1972 was the year when McLaren were beaten for the first time since 1966 to the Can Am championship, by George Follmer in the Porsche 917/10K .  Denny did come a distant second in the standings winning only at Mosport and Watkins Glen.

Tyco McLaren M8F Chevrolet Can Am Car ahead of the M6B

When I was a serious racer of slot cars in the early nineties I used to sometimes travel with a diorama to show off my Can Am and other slot cars as shown below.

Can Am HO Slot Car Diorama from 20 years ago

Meanwhile the Indy Car crews are practising pitstops in the paddock

Some of the Can-Am tracks were also used as a base for the meetings I organised in Mortlake.  Watkins Glen and Riverside were two such examples and are shown below.  The Riverside esses were rather awesome!

Practice session for the Mortlake GP held on the Watkins Glen track in 1993

Practise on the Riverside circuit for the 1994 Mortlake GP

Tyco Can Am McLarens

A Bargain Basement Sixties Ferrari V12

If you want to buy a V12 Ferrari from the fifties or sixties, the price tag can often set you back millions, or sometimes, tens of millions of dollars.  Thus this Ferrari that I saw at the Chanteloup-les-Vignes hillclimb recently is really something of a bargain.

The Italian Job!   Two Minis and a rather magnificent Ferrari, both fit the description

It was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 Coupe with bodywork by Pininfarina.   It has a 3 litre Ferrari V12 engine developing 240 bhp and yet recently sold for just €235,200.   Quite a bargain for a Ferrari 250 V12!   You could buy this and still, maybe, not be a millionaire.   OK so I personally would need to sell my house to buy one. Unfortunately, even although there are two small seats in the back there is not enough room to live in it.   Perhaps, I need to find a Ferrari 250 camping car conversion!  Sacrilege, I hear you say.   My mind wandered back to seeing the Ferrari Breadvan earlier in the year; could one possibly fit a bed in the back?

Ferrari Camping Van?

Then I remembered that the Ferrari Breadvan is not quite in the same price range. Anyway, there is only room for a few loaves, not for two people, two dogs and a cat!

Enough, of these musings, here is another picture of the bargain Ferrari.  This a real Grand Touring car in the real sense and to be appreciated as such.

A Ferrari built to compete with Aston Martin on the road rather than the race track.

However, the fact that it doesn't have a racing heritage and is a Ferrari of a type that didn't race completely explains its value.  People love Ferraris because of their racing heritage.

Having loved Ferraris for over well over 40 years, I finally got to drive one earlier this year.  My wife gave me the choice of a drive in a Formula Renault, or a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin etc.  It took me a couple of seconds to choose the Ferrari. The Ferrari F430 I drove is also certainly very much a road car, although a 2 seater and with a steering wheel operated sequential gearbox.  It was great fun around the Magny Cours Club circuit.  Nice present Jane and it didn't cost us the house!

Jane's photo of me driving the Ferrari F430 at Magny Cours

THE WORLD'S FIRST MOTOR RACE

It is nowadays generally accepted that the World's first motor race was the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris held in 1895 on the 11th and 12th of June.   Some 109 years later, being an eternal optimist, I decided to go up to the start finish line at the Porte Maillot and see if there was anything there that still remembered this momentous occassion.  Frankly, I wasn't that hopeful as Joe Saward hadn't mentioned anything in his 2001 article in Grandprix.com on the area and I hadn't bothered to do any real internet research other than this.  It was just something to do whilst waiting for Jane to finish a demo and before taking her out for a slap up meal of frogs legs, and yes, this is really true!

Thus I was really happy when I stumbled across a magnificent memorial to Emile Levassor who finished first in the World's first motor race.  I nearly missed it but curiosity meant that I eventually found it.

The monument to Levassor by Porte Maillot in Paris.

Emile Levassor was an engineer and partner with Rene Panhard in the early automobile manufacturing company of Panhard et Lavassor located in the Avenue d'Ivry in Paris.  They produced their first car together in 1890 and their cars are widely recognised as introducing many concepts that turned the horseless carriage into the automobile.  Emile also liked to drive and he took part in the Paris-Rouen event in 1894 that is not considered a race as it was judged not just on speed.

The early city to city races were quite epic events held on unsurfaced roads in unsophisticated vehicles and over incredible distances.  Just imagine driving from Paris to Bordeaux and back on bumpy roads rather than a modern motorway.   In 1895 Emile Lavassor drove his yellow Panhard et Lavassor with the number 5 on it for 48 hours and 48 minutes at an average speed of 24.5 kph to be the first home.  The next car finished over five hours later and third car finished eleven hours later than Emile.  This third car, also a Panhard et Levassor and driven by Koechlin was declared the winner as it complied with the rules of having 4 seats whereas the first two cars past the post had only two seats. I'm rather surprised they didn't spot that at scrutineering!   However, funnily enough it is the moral victor, Emile Levassor who is remembered today and has the memorial at the Porte Maillot.

Some of the characters we have met in earlier posts such as Leon Serpollet and Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat also took part but didn't finish.

A magnificent memorial to Levassor and the first motor race

Levassor should have been relieved by his co-driver in Bordeaux but as Levassor got to Bordeaux way ahead of schedule, the co-driver was still asleep in the hotel and thus Levassor had a quick break and some refreshment and set off again back to Paris.  After spending over two days behind the tiller of his car he finished back in Paris.  Quite a feat of endurance and it certainly proved the reliability of his car.

One of the next great races was the Paris-Marseilles-Paris of 1896.  Again Emile took part but was seriously injured, crashing his car whilst trying to avoid a dog.  He never fully recovered and died the following year of an embolism aged 54.

Perhaps, one of the best motor racing statues

If you want to see this memorial that was built in 1907 and the place where motor racing began, then go to Porte Maillot and head towards the Bois de Boulogne.  It is not far from the more modern looking memorial below.  If you do go, don't forget to take in the memorial to Leon Serpollet in the Place Saint-Ferdinand and also the memorial do that great French Grand Prix driver Jean-Pierre Wimille by the Porte Dauphine.  Both are only a relatively short walk away.

EARLY LAND SPEED RECORDS FOR AUTOMOBILES

Today after walking the dogs by the Etang du Corra in the Foret de Saint Germain en Laye, we attempted to find the location where Jenatzy set the first flying kilometre in an automobile at over 100kph in April 1899.  I was not sure if it was marked at all but I was looking for a long straight piece of road near Acheres.   To my surprise we found it very quickly and  there had been three memorials to this achievement erected there to mark the 100th anniversary and so we were certain that we were in the correct spot.  If you want to go and find this spot head up the N184 and then turn first right after the Etang du Corra car park onto the D31 Route Centrale / Route de Conflans just south of the River Seine.  You will be heading for a travellers site and a water treatment plant!

The first marker for where the run started

The rear of the first marker

The road at the start of the run, flat and straight but nowadays with a speed limit unfortunately!

The Compte de Chasseloup-Laubat established a record for the one-way kilometre on the 18th December 1898, also in this spot near Acheres.  Driving a modified Fulmen battery electric Jeantaud touring car, he drove at  63.15kph (39.24 mph).   Jenatzy was inspired to beat this and took along to Acheres an electric car that he had built and achieved 41.42mph on Jan17th 1899.  On the same day, Gaston de Chanteloup-Laubat took back his record at a speed of 43.69mph.  Thus started a real battle for the land speed record for automobiles. It, perhaps, should be mentioned that trains could go faster at this time but I wouldn't want to belittle these two gent's achievements.

Ten days later on January 27th 1899 Jenatzy took back the record with a pass at 49.92mph only for Count Gaston to retake the record again with a jump to 57.60 mph on 4th March 1899.  All of these records took place along this strip of road near Acheres.

This inspired Jenatzy to build his very streamlined cigar shaped La Jamais Contente.  Powered by 2 electric motors that were geared direct to the rear wheels it ran on pneumatic Michelin tyres and was steered by a tiller.

La Jamais Contente 1899 Electric Car

If you wish to see this car, I believe it is in the Musee Nationale de la Voiture et du Tourisme in Compeigne just to the north of Paris.

Jane standing by the second memorial stone and old house at the mid-point of the run.

The mid way memorial commemorating the Fulmen batteries used.

So who was Camille Jenatzy?   He was a red headed and bearded Belgian, born in 1868, who initially trained as a civil engineer but set up a business in Paris manufacturing electric cars, cabs and delivery vans.  He used racing and land speed record attempts as publicity for his business.  Later in his career he drove other manufacturer's cars and scored a significant victory for Mercedes in the 1903 Gordon Bennet Cup over 328 kms in Athy, Ireland. He took over his father's Belgian tyre manufacturing business in later life.

A portrait of Camille Jenatzy.

The final memorial stone at the end of the run

So on April 29th 1899 Camille Jenatzy in his CITA No25 electric car named La Jamais Contente raised the World Land Speed record for Automobiles to 65.79 mph or 105.882kph.  This was the first time anyone had driven on the road at over 100kph.

The rear of the final memorial erected in 1999 and commorating the 100th anniversary

Looking back down the course that now includes a roundabout!

There were I believe a number of other record attempts at Acheres but it was the first run at over 100kph that was the landmark and deserves to be commemorated.  I believe Count Gaston gave up further attempts after this marvellous performance by Jenatzy.   It is worth remembering that up to and including this run all of the Land Speed Record cars were electric battery powered.

The record stood for nearly three years and then Leon Serpollet took his short chassis Gardner-Serpollet steam car called L'Oeuf de Paques down to Nice and raised the record to 75.06mph on 13th April 1902.  Apparently he took over a kilometre to bring the car to a stop after hitting this speed!    Leon Serpollet's early successes with steam cars, often referred to as phaeton at the time, are commemorated by a statue in Paris near the Porte Maillot.

Where to find the statue of Leon Serpollet

The statue of Leon Serpollet and his steam car

A rather strange statue to this automobile pioneer!

These early motoring heroes achieved much public adoration.

Leon Serpollets's record stood for less than a year and then internal combustion engined cars took over the record for a while.

Leon Serpollet, as well as being a holder of the Land Speed record, is remembered as the inventor of the flash boiler that made steam power suitable for automobile use. He built both steam cars and steam trams.  As a racing driver he won the Coupe de Caters Quatre Chemins in 1902 and the Course de Cote du Val Suzon in 1904.  Born in 1858 in France he had his factory in the Rue des Cloys in the 18th arrondissement.  Nowadays, there is a park there named after him.

Neither, Jenatzy nor Serpollet lived long lives.  Leon Serpollet died from Tuberculosis in 1907 aged 48.   Camille Jenatzy met a stranger death.  In December 1913 he was hunting with friends when he decided to play a practical joke on them; he went behind a bush and made animal noises.  Unfortunately, they thought he was a wild boar and shot him and he died soon after, aged 45.

The author of this blog and the Jenatzy LSR memorial

Thanks to those who fought for and sponsored these important memorials to the LSR pioneers.

Tags:  Where exactly did Camille Jenatzy set his land speed record near Acheres?