9ème Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic VHRS - 2024

 

The winning VHRS Subaru Impreza GT of Christian and Marie Lantres.

The Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic Rally 2024 attracted a good field of VHRS cars (Véhicule Historique de Régularité Sportive).  These are competitors who, rather than going for outright speed, attempt to achieve a set time.  They can choose from high speed, intermediate speed, moderate speed or low speed. In any zone their average speed cannot be more than 75kph or they start getting penalties.

The most successful of the VHRS cars on the rally and the most interesting cars of the 39 who were taking part are shown below:

The Podium VHRS cars

The second placed VHRS Volkswagen Golf GTi of Aurelien Carrasco and Nicolas Demptos.

Crossing the Dordogne River as they leave Castillon-la-Bataille is the third placed Subaru Impreza 1990 turbo of Renaud Canuyt and Laurent Jammet.

Other Winners

The best of those attempting a low target time were Patrice and Annie Gabarrou in their Talbot Samba.

Ready to leave for the start of the VHRS rally in Castillon-la-Bataille is the Audi Quattro of Francis Verbiguie and Jean-Louis Lacoste.  They were the best of those going for fast target time.

The Lania Fulvia 1600 of Vincent Mouret and Francois Cardon.  They were the best of those aiming for a moderate target time.

Interesting Other Cars

The oldest car competing was this Peugeot 203 C from the fifties.

An unusual car to see in VHRS rallies was this Buggy Sarap Buffalo.  This is a French beach buggy.

CG Simca  Type B 1200S.   One of my favourite French sports cars!  It was produced in the late sixties and early seventies based on a Simca 1200S but with coachwork by Chappe et Gessalin.

A Toyota Carina, I assume from the seventies.

An Alpine A310 V6.

Ford Escort RS2000 Mk2.

Lancia Beta Coupé GR4.  Lovely to see one of these again!

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.

Opel Kadett B Rally.

2ème Rallye Val de Boutonne, Régional VHC, 2023

 

Winner of the VHC rally was this Lancia Delta Intégrale crewed by Paul Paille and Christophe Gaudin.

The second ever Rallye Val de Boutonne managed to attract a good entry of 17 cars for its VHC / Classic section.  The rally was held over one day on Sunday 26th March 2023 over 2 different stages each run three times giving six special stages in all and 40km of competitive driving.  I took these photos on the last corner of the stage between Lussant and Cabariot in the Charente Maritime department of France.  The cars are shown in the order they finished.  Most of the cars were nicely turned out in liveries that reminded us of famous rally cars from the past and the faster cars were driven quite aggressively and were on opposite lock as they exited this corner.  The Lancia won every stage and won by just over 1 minute from last year's winner the Renault Alpine.  Most of these pictures were taken on ES4 when the weather was rather sunny but it turned rather rainy later on.

2nd of the VHC cars and winner of the Groupe 4/5 was this Renault Alpine A310 V6 crewed by Bruno Mainguet and Thierry Bonavent.  They had won the VHC rally here last year.

3rd of the VHC cars was this Porsche 911 SC crewed by Pierrick and Nathalie Chauvel.

4th in the VHC category was this BMW 325i of Patrice Rault and Christophe Beauchaud.

Winner of the Classic Group was this Ford Sierra 4x4 crewed by Jacques Suire and Clare Pallaro.

Second in the Classic Group was this BMW 323i of Alain and Antoine Kieffer.

5th in the VHC category was this Peugeot 205 GTi of Daniel Dupont and Laura Cadillon.

3rd in the Classic Group was this BMW 323i crewed by Christian and Céline Longe.

6th in the VHC category and winner of Groupe 2 was this BMW 323 of Richard Guibert and Mickael Murzeau.

7th in the VHC category and winner of Groupe NJ was this Opel Kadett of Eddy Allard and Bryan Derosier.

8th in the VHC category was this Ford Sierra Xr4i of Samuel Charron and Sylvia Dufau.

9th in the VHC category was this Peugeot 205 GTi of Nicolas and Jean-Claude Berard.

10th in the VHC category was this Ford Fiesta Xr2i of Michael and Mathieu Robin.

11th in the VHC category was this Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Sébastien Sullam and Jean-Philippe Le Cam.

12th in the VHC category was this Fiat Ritmo of the all woman crew, Carla Hayet and Laura Bohler.  Here they can be seen kicking up the rain from the puddles.

4th in the Classic Group was Volkswagen Golf GTi of Anthony Verola and Alexandre Arrive.

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.

This Peugeot 205 Rallye of Florent Maillard and Marina Talut did not finish.

12ème Rallye de Saintonge VHC, 2021

Overall winner was this Peugeot 205 Rallye driven by Bruno Cadillion and Julien Bichon.

It was with great pleasure that I attended my first motor sport event of the year on July 17th.  The occasion was the twelfth running of the Rallye de Saintonge for Vehicule Historique Competition.  Saintonge is now the area where I live in France and thus to have a great rally less than an hour away was even better!  The VHC rally was a national event counting for the Coupe de France des Rallyes.   I took all the photos on the third special stage at Bussac during the early afternoon at one of the first corners where the Chemin du Grand Fief met the Route de Beauchail.   A nice position to be sure of getting a good photo of each car that passed.  Sixteen cars took part in the third stage and thirteen of these finished the rally.   They put on a nice display for roughly one hundred spectators present at this location.  I particularly enjoyed seeing the Lancias, Opels and BMWs on this special stage.  Well done to the organisers and marshalls who made it possible.

This lovely Lancia Delta came second in the hands of Yannick Legloinec and Vincent Micheau.  On this stage he was the fastest.

Third overall and first of the Groupes 1/2/3/4/5 was  Jean-Philippe Le Cam and Sébastien Sullam in this Opel Kadett.

 

Forth overall was this Opel Ascona B of Michel and Sébastien Porcher.

Fifth overall was Dominique Tolmais and David Delabriere in this Porsche 911 Carrera 2.

Sixth overall was this Porsche 911 SC of Pierrick and Natalie Chauvel.

Seventh overall were Bruno and Karine Chaudet in this Porsche 911 SC.

Eighth overall was this Lancia Delta Integrale of Henri Couillaud and Jean-Francois Palissier.

Ninth overall and winner of the Classic Groupe were Christophe Monnetreau and Bertrand Tourneux in this VW Golf GTi.

Tenth overall was this Peugeot 205 GTi of Nicolas and Jean-Claude Berard.

Eleventh were Thierry and Mickaël Bled in this Talbot Samba.

Twelfth was this BMW 323i of Christian and Céline Longe.

Final finisher were Christophe and Margaux Augeral in this Peugeot 309 GTi 8S.

This BMW 2002 did not finish.

This Audi 80 GTE did not finish.

This BMW 1600 Ti did not finish.

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.

Another picture of the BMW 323i.