Monthlery

[simon drabble]

so how was teh last ever meeting? Sadly family committments kept me from going

[josvandeperre]

Everyone else is probably still stuck in the car park - access was via a two lane road then alongside the track to be parked up in six parallel two mile long lines on a loop facing the wrong way to get out - this and the overflowing prewar facilities kind of put my wife off - oh yes and running late and the dust - so however impressive and historic the site was we only ended up seeing a little of the gentleman racers who were very impressive - the start straight must be two cars wide full stop - very scary - and then we came home...

[ss_collins]

twas mega 3 day of fantastic meeting. Huge grids 44 cars on a bottleneck grid - standing start - the pile up was no suprise.

The track was so evocative. - We had no problem with the car parking as we were based in the paddock. Jos did you realise that at the end of the car park was a 7+ km road course, that is simply breathtaking.

got home early this morning - so tired today

[simon drabble]

which race were you ss_collins? and were you the only pile up? hope only metal and pride were damaged...

[ss_collins]

I wasn't competing though was desperate to! working on a project with Gi_Gav who has some stunning pics from the event.

[simon drabble]

so which race was the pile up in?

[ss_collins]

GT & Touring over 1800 - I think... Victims were - pole siiting Alpine, silver 911, orange 911, Marlboro Alfa, and something else. Saw so much racing!

[simon drabble]

hhmm sounds like a domestic series - sorry to hear abt that. How was the Top Hat and the Gemntlemen Drivers races?

[josvandeperre]

Originally posted by ss_collins
Jos did you realise that at the end of the car park was a 7+ km road course, that is simply breathtaking.

I think that was the car park ! two miles long out and back completely solid with cars.......it stretches out inline with the start straight and eventually hairpins back to rejoin at the exit to the first hairpin before the really neat left hander - they had rented those seaside trains to help get people back to their cars parked on this section except they semmed to be breaking down the whole time so everyone ended up walking miles

Yeah evocative is a good word which I could not come up with earlier

[ss_collins]

thats right but at the end of the car park there was another 7 KM of mega track!

Gentlemen drivers was fantastic - as was top hat.

[simon drabble]

I would have been in both races..... the joys of parenthood!
I look forward to reading the various reports in due course

[josvandeperre]

OK - I've looked this up on the very wonderful Motor Racing circuits database - the car park on sunday stretched the whole extension of the 7.784 km track to the hairpin at the end called Cote Lapize - just think how much worse it would have been if the extra 5 km had also been covered in cars whole 12 km - as it was there was more than 25 km of cars parked....

[gi_gav]

That's one incredible race track...

As Sam said, evocative is definitely the word. That was the first time i've been there, but immediately felt such an affinity with the place - it is truly magnificent. The whole place is just drenched with the emotional side of racing, not least the number of memorials around the circuit...

The road course is like a miniture Nurburgring with blind crests, elevation changes and sequences of really challenging corners. Plenty of photos of it, but the hard part was doing it justice - it really is wonderful.

One of my shots from the weekend is on the Sports Car 'best photos' thread over on the Art and Photography forum, but here's another one that i think is a fitting tribute to a quite magnificent circuit...

[ss_collins]

Jos the car park was only as far as quatre Bornes - didn't get as far a Cote Lapize - at least on saturday.

[josvandeperre]

I was there !

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by gi_gav
That's one incredible race track...

As Sam said, evocative is definitely the word. That was the first time i've been there, but immediately felt such an affinity with the place - it is truly magnificent. The whole place is just drenched with the emotional side of racing, not least the number of memorials around the circuit...

The road course is like a miniture Nurburgring with blind crests, elevation changes and sequences of really challenging corners. Plenty of photos of it, but the hard part was doing it justice - it really is wonderful.

One of my shots from the weekend is on the Sports Car 'best photos' thread over on the Art and Photography forum, but here's another one that i think is a fitting tribute to a quite magnificent circuit...

Terrific shot.

[josvandeperre]

No, really

[simon drabble]

keep the photos coming - it looks like I messed a great meeting. Who won the Gentlemen Drivers? was it the normal Bendall/Wykeham combination?
What abt the Top Hat race?

[gi_gav]

thanks Ayse (never did get a chance to meet up at LM, and all my 24hrs shots are still unsorted - it's been a busy week!)

Jos, were you trackside too? There was a surprisingly small number of photographers trackside for such a historic event.

I'll get a couple more photos up soon enough, but i don't want to drag the thread down with too many snaps!

cheers,

Gavin

[josvandeperre]

Oh alright - if you insist

[gi_gav]

another one then...

[ss_collins]

Has anyone got a closer shot from the meeting!! - how about the shunt pic gav?

[gi_gav]

I got closer when a BMW decided it was turning into the pit lane at the race start!

I'll get a little crash sequence up later on - quite an eventful start that one...

[josvandeperre]

If he was still standing there he probably caused the shunt as the cars tried to avoid him ! Fab shot...

[salmson]

I was there and this is my report. You may have read it on www.prewarcar.co.uk

THE TEARS OF MONTLHERY

The atmosphere of this “war to end all wars” was one of sadness. The clouds even poured their sympathetic tears Saturday in the morning.The weather was an expression of what we all deeply felt in the depths of hearts.
This edition was marked by a very beautiful demonstration of "cyclecars", these cars of the Twenties which were born at the same time as the motor-racing track and competed on the banked circuit. Bugatti, Salmson, Amilcar, Bentley and others
Vintage cars by their presence only rendered more nostalgic these days of
good-bye. They made the glory of the circuit, gave its history undoubtedly independent on that of the French car.
The majority of the pilots wanted to pay a last homage to Montlhéry and to taste one last time the happiness to go up highest possible in the ring before plunging in the baffles.
A rare pleasure for a pilot, tinged with a kind of excitement at the time of descent and the admiration of the crowd of the dexterity of some and the masterliness with which they drove "their machine". More moving without any doubt was when the pilots waved to the public at the time of their last turn. A simple hand spouting out above a roof or an arm raised above a windscreen was at the same time a sign of good-bye to the circuit, a thanks with all the people present but also the expression of a perfect symbiosis between a public and competitors living the end of a myth. The emotion of the event brought forth abnormally vigorous thunders of applause, as they fought against their tears. Sunday evening the moroseness reigned along with frustration and a feeling of impotence and a hope to return one day all mixed. Some before entering in the tunnel of exit, were taken by a kind of anguish, wondering whether really they would have the occasion to return. I saw some taken by weakness, remain
sitting in their vehicle, driving, turning and could not bring themselves to leave the place. They looked at the ring wanting to engrave forever the image in their spirit. Others did not hesitate to jump over barriers once the races finished, to press the track and to imbue themselves with a kind of intoxication and meditation to being where so many racing cars clashed. There puerile this kind of attitude will be to consider but there isn't rather the expression of a refusal that the history of this circuit stops? The Golden age, a great automobile festival whose magic was due to the motor-racing track and its configuration, will certainly continue but the environment could not be the same one. Many are those which want some with the organizer to have muzzled several people wanting to denounce the closing of the circuit. Fear of reprisals on behalf of the UTAC? Yes surely! We are in a "Republic", we preach Freedom, the Equality and Fraternity but we must absolutely remain "politically correct" and nothing to say which can disturb the "forces" in place. The freedom of words was ridiculed this weekend, the equality was not the same one for everyone, of the journalists were seen disadvised interviews with certain judged people dérangeantes! Fraternity it, was fortunately present and palpable among all the defenders of the circuit. It would seem that the Foundation O' Born is collected still this weekend a number impressing of signatures to try to save the motor-racing track. There was until 15mn tail to affix its signature on the petition! More than 15000 people of all nationalities have felt implied for one year in the fight against this closing. Can the authorities and particularly the ministry of culture become aware that the motor-racing track of Montlhéry is not only a place to make "toy" with its car but indeed a place which belongs to the automobile cultural heritage that one must preserve continuously to make it live.

I piloted in Montlhéry, I made party of the public, I cannot accept its closing.