Quote:
Originally Posted by grantp
Back in the mid 70's, in well practised carnet years, travelling to the Monaco GP we landed in France and found the March truck being thoroughly searched. The driver said he had been there for 2 days and the Customs people had opened and emptied every storage cupboard in the vehicle.
On the way back, after a stop off for testing at Dijon, I discovered the Williams team truck having a little difficulty returning to Blighty. Something to do with Carnets for engines that had not taken out for the event but the carnets had been taken and processed. So French Customs were asking to see the engines.
Absent the appearance of the engines the Douane assumed they had been sold and demanded duties be paid. Or so the story went.
All part of the game at the time and of course people were somewhat prepared for it.
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In the days of the DFV when engines were constantly being rotated for rebuild etc it was often easier to switch the number on the engine to match the carnets you happened to have rather than vice versa.
On one occasion I travelled to an F2 race in Vallelunga with a friends' F2 team; we only had a small Mercedes truck & with two race cars + all the equipment it was literally stuffed full. At Mont Blanc a diligent Italian customs man wanted to check everything against the carnets - he rolled up the side shutter, at which point everything virtually fell out on him, so he just threw his arms in the air, handed the papers back & sent us on our way!