Tour Auto 2024, Competition Group VHC

 

The winning 1962 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 of Emmanuel Brigand and Yann Albert.  Here they descend through the village of Bourpeuil in the Vienne.

This blogpost covers the top ten competitors in the Competition Group VHC of the 2024 Tour Auto.  These cars are 1965 and prior of a model type that competed in the original Tour de France Automobile.  AThe Tour auto is a long distance r5 day ally through France which this year started in Paris and ended in Biarritz.  I followed days 2, 3 and 4 from Gencay to Pau taking in the towns villages and countryside that the Tour auto passed through.

The second placed 1964 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 of Patrick and Alexandre Bonnardel in Gencay.

The third placed 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 of Frederic Wakeman and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards in Gencay.

The fourth placed 1962 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 of Laurent and Marion Desplaces.

The fifth placed 1962 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 of Jean-Marc and Sophie Merlin in Bourpeuil.

The sixth placed 1965 Porsche 911 2.0L in Gencay.

The seventh placed 1965 Porsche 911 2.0L of Rémi Terrail and Eric Zuccatti exits Martel in the Lot.

The eighth placed 1965 Porsche 911 2.0L of Steven Osborne and Chris Ward in Gencay.

The ninth placed 1964 Shelby Cobra 289 of Romain Belleteste and Christophe Gadais enter Gencay.

The tenth placed 1964 MG B of Benjamin Engrand and Théo Masurel enter L'Isle Jourdain in the Vienne.

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.

The MG B exits Boutx in the Pyrenees.

2022 Le Mans Classic - Plateau 4 - 1962 to 1965

 

Just after the start of the third and final Plateau 4 race with the GT40s leading a great field up the hill from the first corner to the Dunlop Chicane.

Plateau 4 is always one of the highlights of the Le Mans Classic and this year in 2022 it kicked off proceedings after the Jaguar, Porsche and Group C support races.  I enjoyed watching their first and third races and pictures from those races feature below.

Plateau 4 was always going to be a battle between the Ford GT40s.

This plateau really needs a Ferrari 250LM so I was very pleased to see this Dutch recreation present and running.

Lots of variety further down the field with Lotus, Alpine, Alfa, Austin-Healey, MG and Bizzarrini.

Most of the top cars in the field and many others are shown below:

The winner on scratch was this 1965 Ford GT40 of Diogo Ferrao.

Second was another 1965 Ford GT40, this one driven by Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford.

Third was Emile Breittmayer in a 1965 Ford GT40.

This 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé driven by Michel Lecourt and Raymond Narac came fourth.

Wonderful to see a competitive Ferrari in this plateau.  This is the 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO recreation of Nicky Pastorelli.  It came fifth.  Built in the Netherlands I believe and to very high standards including hand beaten bodywork. 

Ludovic Caron's 1963 Shelby Cobra 289 came sixth.

Seventh was Frédéric Jousset's 1965 Shelby Cobra 289.

Damien Kohler in his 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 was eighth.

Ninth were Gregor Fisken and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards in their 1965 Shelby Cobra 289.

The 1965 Ford GT40 of Dominique Guenat was tenth.

Eleventh was this 1965 Ferrari 250 LM recreation of Alexander van Der Lof and Yelmer Buurman.

This 1965 Ford GT40 was twelfth driven by Jean-Francois Decaux.

One of my favourite cars, this 1964 Elva GT160 driven by Michael Birch and Gareth Burnett finished thirteenth.

Fourteenth was this Shelby Daytona Coupé driven by Neurrisse and Rouchard.

Sixteenth was this 1965 Lotus Elan 26R but it won the Performance Index for Plateau 4 driven by Simon Evans.

Tenth in the Performance Index was this 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ driven by Claudio Scalise and Manuel Elicabe.

A good Jaguar E-Type battle led by the 1963 car (No.50) of Luc-Pierre Verquin.

The 1965 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS of David Clark and Pierre Fillon.

The fast 1965 MG B of Michael Boyle.

The 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 of L Desplaces.

The 1965 Marcos 1800 of Chris Marsh, Axel Lind and Robert Hamilton.

Malte Fromm in his 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ.

Julian Ellison in the 1966 Austin Healey Sprite Prototype.

1966 CD SP88 driven by T de Chesse and E Bruet.

1964 Alpine M64 driven by Mitch McCullough.

Christian Bouriez in his 1965 Bizzarrini 5300 GT leading a 1964 Lotus Elan 26R.

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.

1966 Marcos Mini GT driven by G. Carini, C. Gasco and J. Trousse.

One of the fastest cars was this 1965 Ford GT40 driven by Shaun Lynn but it spun out of contention in race 3.

Tour Auto 2022, Compétition Indice de Performance

The winner of the Indice de Performance on this year's Tour Auto was this 1954 1,500cc Porsche.

This blog post includes another thirty plus cars not featured in my VHC, Group G or Group H-I posts.  Many represent the older and lower cubic capacity cars that do well on the Index of performance in the Tour Auto.  The photos were mainly taken on special stage EC8 near Puisseguin or during the races at Circuit Val de Vienne.

In the Index of Performance each car is given a coefficient depending on its cubic capacity and its age and then this is multiplied by the times set on each stage to determine the classification.

The Top Ten Cars in this years Tour Auto Index of Performance were:

1st.  Jean-Michel VILLOT / Sébastien VILLOT, Porsche 356 (Pre-A) 1500 coupé 1954 (158)

 2nd.  Gilles COURAUDON / Marielle COURAUDON, Porsche 356 (pré-A) 1500 S Coupé 1954 (170)

3rd.  Carlos DE MIGUEL / Luis DELSO, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint 1961 (178)

4th.  Jacky LAGUERRE / Adrien LAGUERRE, D.B HBR5 1958 (151)

5th.  Pierre MACCHI / Isabelle MARTROU, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale 1300 1961 (177)

6th.  Jean-Yves BEAUPIGNY / Géraud DUNESME, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 1961 (179)

7th.  Claude CASSINA / Tomy GRUELLES, Austin Mini Cooper S 1275 1964 (191)

8th.  Raphaël FAVARO / Thomas DE SAULIEU, Lotus Elan 26R 1965 (211)

9th.  Ivan VERCOUTERE / Alex MÜLLER, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA 1965 (247)

10th.  Germain Aunidas / Zoran BARNJAK, MG A 1600 1960 (172)

Other top fifty Index of Performance cars not featured in my other posts:

161 - Georges ROCCHIETTA / Frederic LORENZI, 1966 Austin Mini Cooper S 1275

175 - Laurent PAULUS / Elisabeth PAULUS, 1954 Austin-Healey 100-4 

180 - Thierry LAFONT / Sydney BEYNAT, 1964 Ford Cortina Lotus

198 - José DA ROCHA / Jean-Claude HECTOR, 1960 Jaguar Mk 2 3.8

192 - Philippe BRESSON / Philippe LANTERNIER, 1956 Austin-Healey 100-4

226 - Luc-Pierre VERQUIN / Guy DUPONT, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L

237 - Rémi TERRAIL / Eric ZUCCATTI, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L

219 - Oliver BRYANT / Grahame BRYANT, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L 

159 - Jean-Pierre GAGICK / Laetitia GAGICK, 1965 Morris Mini Cooper S 1275

186 - Baptiste GUYOT-SIONNEST / Mathieu GUYOT-SIONNEST, 1965 Ford Mustang 289

153 - Bruno SCHOCH / Romain LENORMAND, 1956 Austin-Healey 100 M 'Le Mans' 

167 - Thierry ROGEON / Bruno MILLET, 1965 Morgan Plus 4 Super Sports

169 - Stéphane COLLAS / Jules COLLAS, 1965 MG B 

224 - Alexis FALCON / Marc-Antoine FALCON, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L

 

197 - Fabrice BOURGEOIS / Ombeline DE CLERMONT-TONNERRE, 1962 Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato

248 - Etienne MICHELEZ / Thibault CLEBANT, 1965 Lotus Elan 26R

196 - Pierre NOVIKOFF / Matthieu LAMOURE, 1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV

278 - Frédéric FOURGEAUD / Christophe AYGON, 1975 Ford Escort I RS 1600

Other cars I enjoyed seeing on the Tour Auto that show the variety of cars entered:

152 - Simon DUCHASSIN / Guillaume CONTI, 1959 AC Ace Bristol

154 - Yann GRAU / Nicolas GAND, 1963 Fiat 2300 S Coupé

188 - Jean-louis FOURNIER / Angélique FOURNIER, 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi

162 - François ZENNER / Véronique ZENNER, 1955 Triumph TR2

176 - Antoine BLANC / Didier VEST, 1961 Lotus Elite

250 - Pascal SILIO / Alex SILIO, BMW 3,0 CSL

195 - SEGOLEN / Quynh PHAM, 1975 Renault 12 Gordini

256 - Didier MENNECHET / Christopher BROUESSE, 1971 Porsche 914/6 GT

290 - Gérard BESSON / Bruno MAINGUET, 1979 Alpine A310 V6 Gr.IV

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 aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Regularity Cars:

I didn't get time to see the regularity cars this year, which was a shame as I love the very special cars that this section always has.  Here is one that I caught in Coulonges-sur-l'Atize.

A 1953 Panhard Dyna X87 running in the Regularity section of the rally.