Images of Tour Auto 2008

On Monday, April 14th 2008, the Grand Palais in Paris hosted the 230 cars that took part in the Tour Auto Lissac, in a tribute to the legendary race which dates back to 1899, the Tour de France Automobile (TdF). One could admire the chrome and steel icons in the unique setting of one of Paris’ land-marks the Grand Palais, whose history is intimately linked to that of the automobile. From 1901 to 1961 the Grand Palais, built for the World Expo in 1900, was the venue for the Paris Motor Show. In 2007 the automobile made a triumphant return to the renovated Grand Palais during last year’s Tour Auto Lissac, an improvement to the Tour as cars and competitors are sheltered from European spring weather. In Paris we had quite some heavy rains on Saturday and Monday and if all the years before 2007 the event would have been started from the Place de Trocadéro everything would have been soaked through. Monday was the day for final checks and scrutinizing.

This year's Tour led the competitors from Paris to the Old Harbour of Marseilles. Nothing is easier than a Paris-Marseilles journey: jump into a train, take an airplane or get into a car and 770 km further you have reached your destination. Most convenient! But, the Tour does not aim for a handy solution, only looking for a pleasant trip. Thus, this Paris-Marseille 2008 route took five days, from race track to race track and from timed road stage to another, covering over 1800 km mostly on secondary country roads and leading through some of France’s most scenic regions like Burgundy, Auvergne with Volcanoes National Park and Dordogne river valley, the Cevennes Mountains with the Tarn river gorgeous and the Luberon Mountains close to the Mediterranean coast.

Each crew had the choice to enroll their car in either Competition or Regularity class. Along the road sections, it was obviously the French Driving Code which layed down the law, hidden speed traps were in operation. Regarding the timed sessions (race track or closed road stage), in the Regularity section the most precise was the winner; in the Competition “pedal to the metal” was the motto, the fastest gained the crown.

As each Tour Auto Lissac is themed, this year the Tour celebrated the 55th anniversary of the overall victory on TdF by OSCAs in 1953. Small engines, big achievements, the OSCAs shined on the TdF from 1952 to 1954. In 1953, an 1100cc MT4 spider won the event outright ahead of a 3-litre Gordini driven by Jean Behra! The OSCA MT4 can boast of having been driven by such racing luminaries as Alfonso de Portago and a regular on the Tour Auto Lissac Sir Sterling Moss, who drove an MT4 to victory in the 1954 12-Hours of Sebring

Short history of O.S.C.A.

In 1937, the Maserati brothers sold their parts to the company of the Orsi family. Ettote continued his career at Maserati. Bindo and Ernesto founded OSCA (Officine Specializzate Construzioni Automobili) to construct racing and sports cars. After their company had been taken over by MV Agusta in 1962, it disappeared in 1967.

The MT4 (Maserati Tipo 4 cilindri) was constructed between 1948 and 1957. This car with a kerb weight of only 500 kg had an excellent weight to performance ratio, was a real performer and gained many victories. Its engine with double overhead camshaft and a high compression ratio of 9:1 was built in various versions from 1100 to 1500 cm3 (53-88 kW at 6000-6300 rpm).

But back to 2008. On Tuesday, April 15th, the Tour official start was given from Fontainebleau 70km outside Paris by the end of the morning, avoiding the usual morning traffic jam inside Paris. The recent years many cars with the most fragile engines had problems (over-heating, vapour locks in the carbs, …) with the morning traffic hazards in Paris. The main court of the Château de Fontainebleau was just the right place to start such an event. All 230 cars, eligible models are those that entered in the original event between 1951 and 1973, got off on the right foot for today legs destination, Beaune. But the crews in their barchettas, exposed to the four winds anyway, also had to struggle with winter temperatures and a rare sun, which didn’t shined enough to dry up the particularly wet roads.

The Fast and the Furious

The first special road stage of the Tour is always longingly expected by the competitors, but care should be taken as all drivers, peppy and full of beans, have to get used to the road and weather conditions. After some rain and a hailstorm the mountain roads in the land of vineyards of Chablis were slippery like soft soap. The German Jürgen End on his extremely fast Alfa Romeo Giulia Super TI, en-route in the “pedal to the metal” group Competition, managed it very well and summed up: “The corners with gravel on the road should have been clearly marked but during a rally you can bargain for everything – and you have to have a way with it”. Some did, others don’t, they had an unexpected rendezvous with a ditch or found themselves somewhere in a vineyard. If there are some bottles of French Chablis less on sale next year, one can’t only blame the weather for it.

The special road stage of Chablis also showed that this year the AC Cobras were candidates for the highest step on the winners’ rostrum, two Cobras in front of a Porsche 911. AC Cobras also accomplished the best time on the circuit of Dijon Prenois in front a Porsche 904 GTS. The Lotus Elan, winning car of the last seven years, had to struggle with technical problems or with the French scenery as two of those cars did not survive the first day. In Regularity it was once again the Linwoods who showed their skills in synchronizing gas pedal and chronometers. The English couple, regularity winner of the last two years on Giulia Super TI resp. Citroen SM , started this year on Porsche 911 RS 2.7L.

The little “Green Hell”

One of the highlights of the Tour was the well known Circuit de Charade close to the City of Clermont-Ferrand. According to Sir Stirling Moss the Circuit des Charade was in its original layout of 8.055 km a mixture of the “Nürburgring Nordschleife” and Spa Francorchamps and a real fun to drive on. In the 60s and 70s the circuit hosted four Formula One races until it was displaced by the circuit of Le Castellet-Paul Ricard. Due to security reasons the Circuit de Charade had to be shortened to 3.975 km in 1988 and it is still a great fun to drive on.

Usually it’s a cloudy day when the Tour Auto stops at the Circuit de Charade. But not this year, we even had some sun until the last laps of the last group of cars as finally the rain set in. There had been some great fights between the Alfas and the Jaguars, especially as the German Jürgen End on his innocent looking Giulia Super TI surprised the other competitors with his driving skills and the abilities of his car.