Pau Classic Grand Prix 2023 - Exhibition runs

 

Two early cars of Tico Martini.  The lead car is a 1970 Martini Mk4 Formula France car.  The one behind is a 1973 Martini Mk11 Formula Renault.  Beautiful cars that I was grateful to see.

Interspersed amongst the races at the Pau Classic GP were a number of exhibition runs.  Whilst disappointing not to see any F1 or F3000 cars amongst these, there were a few F2 and F3 cars and a host of Formula Renault cars plus some old French single seaters and a few interesting oddities.

Formula Two

The star of the exhibition runners was this ex-Jo Siffert Chevron B18 F2 car from 1971.   Francois Mazet finished fourth in the 1971 Pau GP in a B18.

Another F2 car was this GRD 272.  Reine Wisell drove a GRD 272 to sixth place in the 1972 Pau GP.

Formula Three

The ex-Andrea de Cesaris March 793.

An ex-Nigel Mansell March 783 car, but why paint it to look like James Hunt's Hesketh?

Formula Renault / Formula France

In the early seventies some Technos were used in Formula Renault.  This is an example from 1970 although this doesn't look much like a Renault engine of that era to me.

This is a 1969 Martini Mk4 Formula France car.

This pretty little car is a 1972 Hampe HFR72.

This is a later Formula Renault car by Hampe, the HFR75 from 1975.  Another pretty and unusual car.

We are apt to remember Jean Ragnotti as a rally driver but he was a dab hand in race cars as well.  Here is a 1975 Martini Mk15E that he drove in Formula Renault Europe races and finished second in the championship, including a victory at Pau.

Another ex-Ragnotti car, the 1976 AGS JH14.  He finished sixth at Pau in this car.

A 1974 Formula Renault Martini Mk14.

A 1985 Martini Mk 44.

A 1989 Martini Mk57.

Other French Single Seaters 

It was difficult to believe at times that these MEP-Citroen Formula Bleue cars weren't having a race!  These cars were used in the later sixties and early seventies as racing school cars.

This was a car that the Albi based MEP built as a publicity car for Esso.

DB Panhard races from the early fifties.

Another early fifties DB racer.

An eighties Formula Ford 1600 car built by Rondeau.  The M585.

Some oddities

I am not sure exactly what this is but it looks street legal and vaguely like an overweight Alfa Romeo GP car.

In a similar vein is this much better looking "Maserati".

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page

1970 Martini Mk4 Formula France.

Lucchini sports car from the eighties.