Grand Prix Historique de Provence

[terence]

I thought all Alfa's had to run 2ltr twin spark ?

[SZRacer]

Well, Simon, I do know of one Coda Tonda in the UK, and one in Italy, that might be for sale.....PM me if you're interested!!

I should warn you that, in common with TZs (and I suppose quite a few cars in the last year or so, actually), SZ prices have gone a bit bonkers (up 400% in 5 years)! An unrestored (real, I should hasten to add!) SZ Coda Tonda has just been sold by Symbolic in California, for a price rumoured to be not far shy of $300,000. And Coda Troncas have usually fetched a 5-10% premium over Coda Tonda prices.....

Of course, I don't plan to ever sell mine, but don't tell my wife. She still reminds me we need a new kitchen....!!

Apologies for hijacking the thread, all. Back to the GP Historique de Provence!!

James

P.S. Shhh, Terence - My car doesn't have a 2l TS - I'm saving up for the 3.2 V6.... - And I'll PM you regarding the LMC...

Originally Posted by simon drabble

I have googled them already - there arent any for sale!!!!!!!!

[rogerwills]

A fantastic weekend. Incredible facility - like nothing I've ever seen. The track is very technical and not easy to sight lines, especially in a low slung sports racer. Something of an acquired taste as opinions on the circuit itself seemed mixed. The weather was amazing. Minus 8 in Moscow this morning was a real shock after plus 23 over the weekend.

Only negatives for me were the heavy handed rules of Mr B E. The lunches were ok and the setting incredible but €35 a head for the whole team was crazy after paying entry fees etc. And a cup of coffee - €2.50 please. Also finding a place in the paddock and getting pushed from one place to another, no access allowed on Friday night etc. Moan over.

We had a few issues with tired cars and probably tired drivers. A great result in the Elva in the 3 hour and quickest 1600cc car with Joe Twyman,

[rogerwills]

Hit the wrong button on my iPhone there.

The Cortina ran in third place in the first U2TC race before a wire broke off the coil and I had to retire. Very fortunate as we discovered the oil pump was split in 2 and was pumping oil out - high chance of running a bearing averted! That car is like Herbie and has a mind of its own!

Second U2TC race Peter Lanfranchi (him and his late brother Tony are previous owners of the car) started in 8th place and he ran around the middle of the pack before I took over after 30 mins. I got us all the way back up to finish 7th and first Cortina home.

The Corvette also had an oil leak in qualifying so I didn't even get out. Joe drove well but its a big brute of a car on a twisty track like PR and we started well down. I started and we were running in 8th when I handed over to Joe. Unfortunately the battery overheated and exploded so Joe was forced to retire with around 30 minutes remaining. We have the winter to prepare the Vette from a road car into a racer so 2008 should be great. After the Vette was towed into the paddock after the race my son (nearly 4) decided he would fix it and we let him climb in and out with his tool box. Next minute we look over and the car is filling up with foam - George has set off the fire extinguisher! A funny moment, albeit rather expensive! Another revelation - it is amazing how much foam is in one of those bottles, how long it takes to come out and how much of a mess it makes!

I heard the circuit has changed hands. Interesting to see how the new owner wants to run the place but I'd go back for an end of season bash next year assuming I don't need to pay to feed half an army!

Great to see all the 10/10thers there.

Roger

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by SZRacer

An unrestored (real, I should hasten to add!) SZ Coda Tonda has just been sold by Symbolic in California, for a price rumoured to be not far shy of $300,000. And Coda Troncas have usually fetched a 5-10% premium over Coda Tonda prices..... ...

affordable then, even for the modest income of City slickers, another 6 months and that'll be about £500

[Simon Hadfield]

A stunning weekend, the circuit makes you realise why Mr E chunters on about Silverstone, Paul Ricard makes Silverstone today look like Rufforth! Yes it was expensive but I felt it was like an exclusive members club to which we had been invited and in that environment it didnt feel too out of order! The circuit buildings you could happily live in, one actually felt guilty for getting the tarmac in the paddock dirty. I tested there before Mr E purchased the circuit and felt that it hadnt changed radically to drive on but the run-off areas definitely gave it a unique character. Personally I liked the "2 day" format, it was a little wham bam thank you maam but the running order seemed the same as ever, there was a great amount of track time and we only lost one day away from work. As mentioned the weather was outstanding, the port/resort of Bandol had every possible type of restaurant, really I didnt see a downside!

[Marcus Mussa]

Here are the results for the 3 hour race:

In the order:
Position, car number, driver names, car, class posiition and class, number of laps, total time, average speed, best lap, on which lap and average speed for fastest lap:

1 49 SCHRYVER M / HADFIELD S Chevron B6 1 S3 108 3:01:07.870 137.412 1:32.876 82 148.882
2 19 CHILES C / CHILES Jnr C Chevron B8 2 S3 108 3:01:21.804 13.934 137.236 1:32.858 92 148.911
3 12 QUINIOU M / BERMUDES P Chevron B16 3 S3 108 3:02:01.636 53.766 136.735 1:33.048 68 148.607
4 24 LINNEY N / HADFIELD S Lola T70 MKII 1 S2 107 3:00:25.922 1 Laps 136.667 1:32.147 96 150.060
5 14 ROSINA S / BENEDINI E / BENEDI Lola T70 4 S3 105 3:01:55.121 3 Laps 133.017 1:31.182 100 151.648
6 7 DEVIS M / PEETERS G Elva MK8 2 S2 101 3:01:27.629 7 Laps 128.272 1:39.416 43 139.088
7 21 OWEN A / OWEN M Elva MK VII 3 S2 101 3:02:00.040 7 Laps 127.892 1:36.380 36 143.469
8 2 WILLS R / TWYMAN Elva MKVII 4 S2 101 3:02:16.698 7 Laps 127.697 1:39.654 85 138.756
9 1 WRIGHT J/ GANS Lotus 23B 5 S2 101 3:02:36.771 7 Laps 127.463 1:37.290 45 142.127
10 23 DELPRAT G/ BERNARD F Lotus 23B 6 S2 100 3:01:56.477 8 Laps 126.667 1:39.462 52 139.023
11 51 DENEVE L / BRISON S Elva MK VII 7 S2 100 3:02:03.244 8 Laps 126.588 1:38.888 23 139.830
12 10 TCHERNIAVSKY B / MANTZ D / GAL Lotus 23B 8 S2 99 3:01:30.588 9 Laps 125.698 1:39.637 55 138.779
13 27 QUINIOU C / CARLINO R Lotus 23B 9 S2 98 3:03:25.517 10 Laps 123.129 1:42.692 27 134.651
14 3 CONWAY P / MERCER E Morgan Plus 8 1 G3 96 3:01:50.612 12 Laps 121.665 1:44.202 92 132.699
15 67 WILHELM B / GRANDIDIER J Y Jaguar Type E 1 G2 92 3:01:41.981 16 Laps 116.688 1:48.864 37 127.017
16 126 VEREY M / GRIFITHS M / PYE M Ford Mustang 1 T2 90 3:02:54.487 18 Laps 113.397 1:49.867 59 125.857
17 52 VAN LANSCHOT C / LE BLANC K Austin Healey 3000MKI 2 G2 89 3:02:08.252 19 Laps 112.612 1:49.404 40 126.390
18 5 DUTTON I / CHUDECKI P / L'ANSO Lotus Eleven 1 S1 88 3:01:26.194 20 Laps 111.777 1:48.955 17 126.911
19 15 BESSE J / VERZAUX L Porsche 911 2 G3 83 3:01:40.654 25 Laps 105.286 1:56.942 79 118.243


20 134 GUERMONPREZ J M / GUERMONPREZ Grac MT14S 5 S3 79 3:02:09.331 29 Laps 99.949 1:36.821 71 142.816
21 37 HOOPER J/ PYE M Chevron B8 6 S3 76 2:25:06.332 32 Laps 120.704 1:36.632 34 143.095
22 4 CLARK D / WARD J Elva 10 S2 75 2:28:22.275 33 Laps 116.494 1:38.416 31 140.501
23 9 GRANIER J L / FONTENEL B Lotus Elan 3 G2 56 2:05:19.504 52 Laps 102.978 1:50.333 22 125.326
24 6 SYTNER F / BELLM R Lola T70 7 S3 46 1:18:24.667 62 Laps 135.199 1:31.170 26 151.668
25 58 STEPAK H / GASO P Alpine Renault A210 8 S3 44 1:24:14.243 64 Laps 120.376 1:44.712 27 132.053
26 29 STEPAK S / ORTELLI S Alpine Renault A220 9 S3 41 1:23:36.997 67 Laps 113.002 1:30.856 18 152.192
27 16 KOHLER D / ZURSTRASSEN L Diva F10 4 G2 33 1:08:19.455 75 Laps 111.310 1:44.397 19 132.452
28 124 CLUBB M / STRETTON M Elva MK7 11 S2 33 1:35:18.374 75 Laps 79.797 1:36.184 27 143.761
29 26 WANTY M/ VAN DE WAUMER Lotus 23 12 S2 31 57:27.423 77 Laps 124.340 1:38.689 18 140.112
30 8 VOYAZIDES L / YOUNG J Lola T70 13 S2 9 19:08.371 99 Laps 108.369 1:38.276 8 140.701
31 81 BEIGHTON C / FINEMORE J Lola T70 10 S3 4 9:04.494 104 Laps 101.581 1:39.613 1 138.813

All the best
Marcus

[John Turner]

Many thanks, Marcus, and well done Simon, for modestly omitting to mention your victory with Michael Schryver, but having a second drive in T70 is being a bit greedy isn't it? Since, in effect you were driving for the whole 3 hours, I guess you were pretty shattered.

Looks like a few quick cars had problems judging by the lower half of the list. Anyone got any stories to tell?

After the Goodwood saga, the irony of Ray Bellm driving Frank Sytner's car does not escape me, but good on them both!

[john ruston]

Frank and Ray in one car -no problem.Goodwood was a problem for others not them,Sure they had a good time at Goodwood and they have something in common of both being banned in Sussex,very exclusive club which I can probably get a membership.(difference is I've got life membership.)
Well done Simon /Michael,good to see Franks man win

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by john ruston

Frank and Ray in one car -no problem.Goodwood was a problem for others not them,

My point was that (at Goodwood) after the redflag and before the restart Bellm was interviewed and made a point of saying that he had spent most of the first part of the race looking at all the illegal bits on Sytner's car. Not too subtle, I thought, and it surely came back to haunt him when his own car was found to be illegal. Clearly none of this concerned Sytner, but the irony for me, remains!

[simon drabble]

he was just making a note to himself to put them on his next year!!!!!!!! as I have said before theirs was a great Goodwood race to watch bent cars or not. John have you gone through your WHT photo's yet?!

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by simon drabble

John have you gone through your WHT photo's yet?!

Patience, young man. I've got Goodwood, See Red and HSCC Finals on the go
and I shall shortly start on the Holly Birkett and WHT. Struggling to keep up but at least now the season is over, there is (slightly!) better progress.

[zefarelly]

John, I'm sure you could speed up for a 'financial consideration'

we'll soon see how desperate young Drabble is

[Marcus Mussa]

I made a short film about the Stepak/Ortelli Alpine Renault A220:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs_UhIMA0Yc

All the best
Marcus

[delta]

Thats 2 great vidios i have seen of yours Marcus which are both excelent. But i do need to talk to you on your taste of music. Reading Hadfields post made it even more misserable not getting there. "Next year "