ALD

Racesport · 18 Apr 2007, 09:03 (Ref:1894522)

I own the ALD (Automobile Louis Descartes) BMW C2 1989 Chassis #06, the sixth and last alluminium chassis built by ALD.

Summarizing, the chassis #06 (3.5 L6 BMW) built on 1989, raced:
1989: World Championship 480 km of Dijon: Gerard Tremblay/Didier Bonnet: did not qualify
World Championship 480 km of SPA: Francois Wettling / Thierry Lecerf: 22th place
24 Hours of Le Mans: Didier Bonnet/Jan Luc Colin (race number 179): did not qualify
1994: 24 Hours of Le Mans: Sylvain Boulay/Bernard Robin/Dominique Lacaud (race number 7): retired after 96 laps (engine).

Then, as historic car, on 2005: Monza Coppa Intereuropa: Group C/GT Racing race: Carlo Del Conte: Race 1: retired; Race 2: 8th place (first in C2 class)
Le Mans LM Story: WSM Race: Carlo Del Conte: Race 1: did not start; Race 2: 6th place.

I believe that my car is the only survived ALD still running. I know that in France there is one of the two carbon chassis, without engine, in a tyre shop, but I don't have any other infos about other ALD.

I have the photos of all other ALD Cars built ... I know that many of them were destroyed ... someone has infos about surviving chassis?

I would be interested in write down the history of this little enthusisat French driver and contructor (Louis Descartes) and his cars ...

Thank you for you help!

**John Turner** · 18 Apr 2007, 09:14 (Ref:1894531)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racesport

I have the photos of all other ALD Cars built ... I know that many of them were destroyed

Are we are certain that 6 were built? Can you list the chassis nos of those destroyed? Do you know their previous history? We can then focus on those unaccounted for.

Racesport · 18 Apr 2007, 09:25 (Ref:1894544)

Yes, I'm quite sure that 6 aluminium chassis plus 2 (or 3?) carbon chassis were built.

I met in Le Mans some mens who worked at the Descartes factory, they recognised my car, gave me the photos of all the ALD cars built and some other infos.

I met also the wife of Mr. Louis Descartes!

It was nice to see how much they were still enthusiast!

I hope to meet again at LM Story 2007 and I will try to collect other information about ALD and also about surviving/destroyed chassis.

Racesport · 19 Apr 2007, 15:30 (Ref:1895568)

This is the list of the ALD Chassis Numbers from Classic car.com:

01 BMW 1985 C2 Louis Descartes
02 (C2/02) BMW 1986 C2 Louis Descartes
03 (C2/03) BMW (Audi) 1987 C2 Louis Descartes Experiment with Audi Turbo
04 BMW 1988 C2 Louis Descartes
05 BMW 1989 C2 Didier Bonnet
06 BMW 1989 C2 Didier Bonnet (This is my car)
C289-01 DFL 3.3 C2 1989 (Carbon chassis) Louis Descartes - sold (1991) For 1990 season moved into C1a and fitted with DFZ 3.5. Sometimes called C190.
C91-? Ford C1a 1991 (Carbon chassis) Louis Descartes

AMICALEMANS · 23 Apr 2007, 11:51 (Ref:1898468)

Just to add some information about ALD; you will find here un extract of
http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans...orique_fr.html
with ALD entries in the 24hours of Le Mans.

Year Cars Number Team Drivers

1985 ALD 1 N°93 Automobiles Louis De... Descartes , Hubert...

1986 ALD 2 N°92 Louis Descartes Heuclin , Descartes...

1987 ALD 3 N°177 Louis Descartes Lacaud , Heuclin...

1987 ALD 2 N°178 Louis Descartes Tremblay , Boulay...

1988 ALD 4 N°177 Automobiles Louis De... Descartes , Heuclin...

1988 ALD 3 N°178 Automobiles Louis De... Lateste , Tremblay...

1989 ALD 4 N°176 Louis Descartes Serfaty , Boulay...

1989 ALD C 289 N°177 Louis Descartes Descartes , Serpaggi...

1989 ALD 5 N°178 Didier Bonnet Bonnet , Tremblay...

1989 ALD 6 N°179 Didier Bonnet Bey Rozet , Cardon...

1990 ALD C 289 N°106 Louis Descartes Migault , Tremblay...

1991 ALD C 91 N°7 Louis Descartes Taverna , Gonin...

1992 ALD C 290 N°60 Marc Pachot Touroul , Pachot... (this one was with a PRV engines but DNQ)

1994 ALD C 289 N°7 Stealth Engineering ... Lacaud , Boulay...

Racesport · 23 Apr 2007, 18:57 (Ref:1898796)

Thank you amicalemans!

My car is the chassis #6 (the one with race n. 179 on 1989 (with and n. 7 on 1994).

I could make a scan of the photos of the various cars at every race in LM and publish on the post ....

Anybody has infos about the surviving cars today?

AMICALEMANS · 24 Apr 2007, 05:46 (Ref:1899052)

From who did you buy it ?

Do you have picture for this one ? The engine was a PRV Peugeot from the 605. (Raymond Touroul passed away last year). The car was DNQ. i remember a red car..
1992 ALD C 290 N°60 Marc Pachot Touroul , Pachot... (this one was with a PRV engines but DNQ)

The only one driver who is still coming at Le Mans is Sylvain Boulay. I will ask him in june if he know something about other cars

In addition, 2 links in french :

http://www.sportscaruniverse.com/Spo...ldC289ford.htm

http://www.sportscaruniverse.com/Spo...nuGroupeC1.htm

Racesport · 24 Apr 2007, 18:57 (Ref:1899538)

Hi,

yes, I think to have a photo of the ALD with Peugeot Engine. Now I'm going to Hockeneheim, but next week I will have time to scan and post some photos.

I met Silvain Boulay at LM Story 2003, I hope to meet again at LM Story 2007!

Thank you for the links; my ALD is also known as ALD BMW 94 because of his last race at LM 1994.

I hope to see you at LM Story!

Kind regards.

Carlo

AMICALEMANS · 17 May 2007, 09:19 (Ref:1915210)

thanks for thr pic :
people on the pic are : 2 mechanics, Marc Pachot, Philippe Couesnon (Espace Racing) and Raymond Touroul.
Difficult to know which chassis it was...

AMICALEMANS · 17 May 2007, 09:44 (Ref:1915226)

i think you know Dominique Lacaud ...
http://www.therrteam.com/dominique/dominique_cv.htm

May we know which chassis are destroyed ?

Racesport · 17 May 2007, 10:47 (Ref:1915259)

He drove my car at Le Mans 1994!

Just to complete the infos on my Car (Chassis 06):

Ownership track:

1989:
ALD (--> Didier Bonnet LM 1989)
At the end of the season (December 1989): ALD---> Mr. Desnoes
1994:
Mr. Desnoes ---> S. Boulay (for the Race LM 1994), after the race
S. Boulay ---> Desnoes
2001:
Desnoes ---> Richard Butler (UK)
2002
Richard Butler ----> Sherwood Restoration
Sherwood Restoration ----> Tony Dunderdale
2003
Tony Dunderdale ----> Carlo Del Conte (I) (current owner)

ensign14 · 17 May 2007, 10:23 (Ref:1915245)

Can I just say I have a soft spot for these cars? I always liked the "tilting at windmills" efforts in C2 of teams like Ceekar or Alba, and there's a cheeky charisma about the cars themselves. Good to see that one at least is still out there.

I seem to remember there were chaps called Colin and Cardon involved with no. 179 au Mans (was it red and sponsorless that year?) but they DNQd - IIRC Descartes had 4 entries but only one qualified. I am around 190 miles away from my yearbooks, but I don't remember either driver ever doing anything else. Makes me slightly sad - a dream ruined...

Racesport · 17 May 2007, 10:55 (Ref:1915262)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ensign14

Can I just say I have a soft spot for these cars? I always liked the "tilting at windmills" efforts in C2 of teams like Ceekar or Alba, and there's a cheeky charisma about the cars themselves. Good to see that one at least is still out there.

I seem to remember there were chaps called Colin and Cardon involved with no. 179 au Mans (was it red and sponsorless that year?) but they DNQd - IIRC Descartes had 4 entries but only one qualified. I am around 190 miles away from my yearbooks, but I don't remember either driver ever doing anything else. Makes me slightly sad - a dream ruined...

Ensign, the n. 179 at Le Mans 1989 was my car (chassis 06 in the "Liqui Moly" colours) driven by Jan Luc Colin / Francois Cardon:

ensign14 · 17 May 2007, 11:12 (Ref:1915269)

Great stuff! That's the best pic I've ever seen of it.

AMICALEMANS · 17 May 2007, 13:29 (Ref:1915346)

Colin and Cardon was journalit at l'Action Automobile ! (look at the stickers on he rear) I dont know if they still work fo this magazine (maybe they are retired now) Bey Rozet was also a journalist from Action Automobile.
They were cars testers for the magazine.

AMICALEMANS · 17 May 2007, 13:33 (Ref:1915348)

S

Racesport · 17 May 2007, 13:37 (Ref:1915350)

Thank you for infos, Amicalemans. Are you coming to LMStory 2007?

ensign14 · 17 May 2007, 14:20 (Ref:1915367)

Googling "Jean-Luc Colin" comes up with a bunch of websites that seem to be about Turkish oenology.

But if they were journalists did they perhaps write an article about it?

AMICALEMANS · 17 May 2007, 18:30 (Ref:1915512)

I will try for LM story... BUT i will be all the week at scrutenering of Le Mans 2007; will you come ? everybody should come !

I worked in 1986 at Action Auto (for telematics stuffs) I did not met these journalists but i think Yves Bey Rozet is still somewhere...at "ARGUS"

They wrote a preview before and a very short things about DNQ ! The sponsor Liqui Moly was not happy, you know !

AMICALEMANS · 18 May 2007, 08:25 (Ref:1915843)

Just to precise : Jean-Lou Colin, and not Jean-Louis Colin (he works now at Equipe)

Racesport · 23 May 2007, 18:11 (Ref:1919746)

Here is a photo of my ALD BMW #06 at LM story 2005

AMICALEMANS · 3 Jul 2007, 06:36 (Ref:1953050)

hi Racesport,

I will see you 'in live" at LM STORY, this week end...

AMICALEMANS · 9 Jul 2007, 07:35 (Ref:1958229)

Hi racesport
It was a good time at LMStory to discuss about ALD with you.
I got some names and i will do some research after summer vacation...

For everybody reading this thread, everything about ALD is welcome here !

Racesport · 9 Jul 2007, 18:03 (Ref:1958883)

Hi Amicalemans!

it was a pleasure to meet you in Le Mans!

Unfortunately, I had a serious problem with the fuel pump so I did not race on Sunday, but finishing the Saturday race of Group C Cars with the ALD in Le Mans was really a great experience to me!!

Saturday I met Silvain Boulay, the driver of Le Mans 1994, and Sunday Jean Paul Sauvèe, the men who prepared the ALD for Le Mans 1994. He was rally excited to see the ALD again ont track and he has a lot of documentation about the car and the make!

Kind regards.

Carlo

AMICALEMANS · 10 Jul 2007, 19:26 (Ref:1960008)

hi,
here is a pic with Sylvain at the phone trying to cntact another ALD owner (the ALD in the tyre store) I willcontact this man ASAP (The car is not so far from my home !)