F1: The Abandoned and Deserted.

[TrapezeArtist]

It's not F1 but the old banked track at Sitges near Barcelona is an amazing place to visit. The steepness of the banking is just staggering. Unfortunately my photos of the place were taken on an old-fashioned film camera (remember them? ) and I don't know where the prints are. For anyone holidaying in the area, the location is 41.238732, 1.780605. Well worth the trouble.

Then while you're in Barcelona, go up to Montjuich Park and walk around the old Spanish GP circuit as used circa 1975.

[bella]

sitges is privately owned though, so if you did go and visit be respectful and try and seek permission before doing so.

[Mosport Fan]

I know we're meant to divert to the other thread, but just wanted to see if those pictures in France are actually Reims, and not Rouen?

[wdave0]

Originally Posted by Mosport Fan

I know we're meant to divert to the other thread, but just wanted to see if those pictures in France are actually Reims, and not Rouen?

My eye says one of each.

[mountainstar]

The McLaren show car has some real parts but much of it is plywood underneath. McLaren built a show car for Hercules in Utah, USA to use for display purposes. Hercules, if some recall, built or helped build McLaren's carbon fiber monocoques and other parts back in the 1980's as carbon fiber construction was still in it's infancy.

I believe it has a Hercules built monocoque and McLaren added spare parts and body panels to a plywood frame. Later on Hercules was bought out by another company and the car and it's connection ended up forgotten. The new company was made aware of what the car was and apparently it has been cleaned up now.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Are there any buildings now left at Rouen? I was under the impression that the locals had effectively erased the track from memory...... Stunning sacrilege.

I think Motorsport magazine did a track visit around 10 years ago and there were still some signs left of this and that, but I did hear from somewhere that even more of it is gone now.

Kinda sad about a lot of this but everything and everybody eventually ends up as landfill and not everything stands the test of time. Even if you look at motorsport and F1 from the 1980's it's amazing how much of that is gone now. Teams gone, tracks gone, drivers, mechanics and team owners that have passed on and so forth.

For a while now I have wanted to tour Europe and visit a lot of the old tracks and museums but it always seems like I either have plenty of time and no money or plenty of money and no time.

[Yannick]

Wasn't the Valencia Marina GP site looted for scrap metal a few years ago?

I would have loved to have a walk with my environmental ex-girlfriend on the hiking path that now leads around the old Ostkurve when we were still together. But now, I might as well go directly to the grandstands ;-)

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by bella

sitges is privately owned though, so if you did go and visit be respectful and try and seek permission before doing so.

Is it? When I went, a few years ago, I had a confrontation with a gypsy who seemed to think that he 'owned' it. So proceed with caution.

Thanks for posting these photos. Yes, it's a pity about Hockenheim. It's funny how even the simple straights and chicanes form of it is fondly looked upon now when it was so disliked upon its inception.

Re: Valencia, yes it was a vanity project. It's a lovely city, but Valencia cannot afford that race and some of that area is rough round the edges despite the fact it should be better-constructed. The Arts and Sciences buildings designed by Calatrava have had a host of dodgy faults, which have left tiles falling off one side of one of the buildinds and other problems. Well designed it was not.

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by wnut

I take it the McLaren Honda above is one of the display cars, and not a "real" car. Did they allow engine covers purely because it is so much easier to produce a show car without all the engine pieces on display in a 60s car?

You're off by about 25 years, give or take....


edit: My bad...I hadn't gotten to post #30.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Is it? When I went, a few years ago, I had a confrontation with a gypsy who seemed to think that he 'owned' it. So proceed with caution.

any web report of visits state that it's privately owned. taking an average of those suggests that's probably the case!

[Deleted]

The only positive thing about the current state of Hockenheim is that the removed areas are now covered by Mother Nature, not urban asphalt carparks or ghetto junkyards.

Had to laugh at someones suggestion (at Autosport forums with this same exact thread) that Estoril would be in a sorry state today, far from it. The European Ex-F1 tracks have been been saved for the most part...