Here is a great first photo with
sellotape around the edges of the Scuderia Auvergne Ferrari 375F1 with Sergio Scaglietti centre seat body and de portago testing at ?? ??
Here is a great first photo with
sellotape around the edges of the Scuderia Auvergne Ferrari 375F1 with Sergio Scaglietti centre seat body and de portago testing at ?? ??
Looks like the banked part of the Montlhery track near Paris. According to Scott Thompson's "Roycroft Years", De Portago raced the car at Montlhery either late in the 1954 season or early 1955, before owner Louis Rosier found a (?)gullible Kiwi called A. J. Roycroft who bought it sight unseen.
Earlier in 1954, Rosier had placed 7th in the Buenos Aires 1000 Km Sports Car Champ Race, and 4th at Agadir in Morocco (a traditional French race) and entered it for Le Mans, but was offered a 'works' Ferrari drive instead.
Stu
More info : --
April 17 1955 actually, Coupes de Paris races, Montlhery, and De Portago finished 4th. Three weeks later, he had a big accident in a F1 Ferrari at Silverstone International Trophy meeting and was out of action for the rest of the season. He had a short but eventful life!
Stu
Another of De Portago at Monthlhery and one of Rosier at Agadir.
Photos from the depths of history!
The C-Type Jag in the Agadir photo will be Englishman Danny Margulies, whose unpaid mechanic and co-driver on this trip was one Graham Hill. This may have been Rosier's last race in the 375 Ferrari - he seems to have driven a Ferrari 750 Monza in other sports car races in 1955, and a 250F Maserati in F1. He was steady rather than fast, and nearly 50 years old at this stage.
Stu
what ever happened to the body of this??
Wish I knew - and one more from Buenos Aires 1000KmOriginally Posted by rogered
Last edited by Kwaussie; 09-19-2014 at 07:41 AM.
One more of Louis Rosier at Agadir
Second from left would be owner Louis Rosier. His co-driver for the 1000 km race was Maurice Trintignant, but I don't see him there.
Rod Coppins had the sports body on the Tec-Mec for the 1961-62 season, still in the original French blue at Renwick, and then painted black for the rest of the season. He put it through a brick wall in the very wet Dunedin Road Race in Feb 1962, but it was tidied up for Waimate races the next weekend, where he retired in the sports car race and didn't start in the main Waimate '50'.
The body may have been dumped then, as Coppins raced the car as a single-seater in 1962-63 with the original body slightly altered.
All hands to the pumps at Waimate Coppins-? G Peterson - Palmer, but only one of them is working. Photos from Scott Thompson's Waimate '50' History.
Tec Mec third in line-up after 2 Lolas
Just noted the colour shot at Agadir - quite spectacular scenery. Won't be the same now, there was a big earthquake there in 1960 with about 12000 killed - a lot of dodgy buildings collapsed. But they were holding races again only a year or 2 later!
Stu
Stu
Just picked this up tonight from another site who were talking about Agadir.
"spent a day or two in agadir in 1973 while on a traveling fellowship. as an architect it is a very interesting city. it was destroyed by i believe an earthquake in the fifties (apparently well before '55) and rebuilt by the french. thus it is a very concentrated collection of contemporary french architecture that may be unmatched anywhere. some of the modern buildings are clearly visilbe in the pictures."
edit - Stu,
My wife has been looking over a few posts that I made and just informed me that the Agadir earthquake was the very big one and occurred on 29 Feb 1960, so you are correct, huge loss of life.
Last edited by Kwaussie; 09-20-2014 at 09:58 AM.
It is interesting that there are not many photos around of the sports body in Ron Roycrofts hands prior to Rod Coppins attaching it to the TEC-Mec.
Lets say give it a week before posting any photos of Jack Morral's smashing Indianapolis body - just in case there a few unseen images out there!
I have seen only a few pictures of the car in sports-car trim in NZ and none of these even has a driver in it. I'm not sure when it actually arrived in NZ, but probably quite late in 1955. When it was first run, Ralph Watson noted that it wasn't running on all 12 cylinders, about 9 or 10, maybe due to bent valves, and owner A J Roycroft thought the transmission made some strange noises.
Accordingly they put it aside and prepared the old Bugatti-Jaguar for the 1956 international season, but when that car had steering-box problems in Dunedin, Ron brought the Ferrari down to Christchurch for the Mairehau road race. I gather no work had been done on it, and not surprisingly, it broke a half-shaft on the starting-line. So the sports car body didn't actually have any racing miles in NZ. They took it back to Auckland and Ron's father decided to have a single-seater body built for it, although Ron apparently wasn't sure this would be of any advantage, and repairs to the tired engine were done by Watson and others.
This photo from Allan Dick's 'Classic Driver' magazine of a few years back, is the only one I can find of the Ferrari at a Race venue.
As for the sports body, I wonder if it went back to Ron Roycroft after Rod Coppins discarded it from the TecMec. Ron had a great collection of cars and bits of cars at Glen Murray, but no doubt all dispersed now.
Stu
Amazing thread and pics! Out of interest, does the Montlhery banking still exist?
Not sure Steve, will have a look around tonight.
Stu's historic information and photos are just great.
When you start to research information on a particular car like the Rosier / Roycroft Ferrari 375 you can come across some very interesting web sites for example - http://motorsportinangola.blogspot.c...ocos-1951.html
If you are interested click Grand prix de Agadir 1955 on the right hand side bar and you will see more photos of the 375 Sports #2
Montlhery website http://montlhery.com/autodrom_eng.htm
Last edited by Kwaussie; 09-26-2014 at 10:00 AM.
I have seen coverage of a number of recent French club events where it has been used. Renault Gordini, Alpine etc one make gatherings where the track is used at "enthusiastic" speeds. Usually with chicanes added to include some corners. Sorry, yes that does include both bankings which show as being concave in their surface and notably so, ie much steeper at the top than lower down.
Last edited by Oldfart; 09-27-2014 at 06:06 PM.
Google "Automobile de Linas-Montlthery" (or 48 degrees 37 minutes 30 seconds by 2 degrees 14 minutes 30 seconds) and you will find the track.
Here is another picture of the Ferrari body on the Coppins TecMec - at Renwick in November 1961. This might have been his first outing in the car, note the body is still the light colour, presumably French Blue; it was black by the time of the GP at Ardmore.
Here he is following the Coopers of Mansel and Shelly, but Pat Hoare won in the V12 Ferrari and Coppins retired.
This is the Montlhery "oval" from Google. As Oldfart says, it is still in use, and also there is a 90th anniversary scheduled for next year according to their website. They describe the track as : "It has a concave profile in the shape of a cubic parabola with a vertical axis.....".
For a 90-year-old track it looks to be in very good condition, Brooklands and Monza bankings were deteriorating after 20 or so years. French quality obviously, the Eiffel Tower hasn't fallen down either and it's even older! The website implies that the current circuit uses only the right half of the banking, with the left end using the road visible on the outside of the banking, with 2 hairpin bends, but the TV or video says otherwise.
Stu
Great photo from Renwick - never seen that one before!
Terry Roycroft said that his dad painted everything in Dulux 93 Delft Blue, I wonder if the sports body had a quick spray after arriving in New Zealand?
The old banked circuits in Europe were very special places - will be at this one in Spain next week.
Looks like it should be Sitges-Terramar south of Barcelona, even older than Montlhery. It didn't ever get much use, not helped by the prize money for the first meeting not being paid out, because the building contractors impounded the gate takings to cover unpaid cost over-runs.
The Spanish must have known a bit about concrete-work, just like Montlhery - 90 plus year old track looks good, and it certainly didn't get any maintenance, most of its life it seems to have been closed and chained up. Didn't get there on the big OE, but drove the Bedford camper around Montjuich in Barcelona when it was being set up for Motor-bike races in 1970. A great circuit.
Stu
Correct again Stu!
Here is a great link from 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-gCq2xpFzE
edit: sorry I forgot that it is in Spanish buth you will get the idea.
Last edited by Kwaussie; 10-03-2014 at 10:25 AM.
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