THE TEARS OF MONTLHERY (france)

[salmson]

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.

[ss_collins]

I was there too - real shame its gone

[Fab]

I went, in the late 70'/early 80', to the Silver Bowl (Bol d'Argent), and was impressed by what could be a race ; one of the last memories with my father sharing with me the astonishing show of a race...

Thinking of what we spent at Magny Cours, see that part of history dying is a real shame for France...

[klb]

I had never heard of this track, so I looked it up (used Google). That was some layout, high banking too. Sorry to hear of its demise. They definitly don't make tracks like they used too. How long was it??

[salmson]

Well, I believe you might like to read some about the track history.So I found something already translated. Thanks for your support. We are so sad about this closing! But we hardly want to believe that the O'Born foundation could save it!


(translation courtesy www.PreWarCar.com)
The daily Magazine & Marketplace dedicated to the pre 1940 car

L'age d'Or / The Golden Era
The man responsible for the creation in 1924 of this racetrack 24 kms from Paris close to the towns of Linas and Montlhéry, (the reason for its official title of " Linas-Montlhéry's motor-racing track ") was an industrialist: Alexandre Lamblin. The owner of a factory producing radiators for cars and planes and of a sportsmagazine, "l'Aero-sport", he had the idea of providing France - and more particularly the Paris area which was at that time one of the principal centres of the French car industry - with a racetrack.

The early 1920s were a time of records and competitions of all kinds (car against plane...). In addition, Great Britain had already built the Brooklands track in 1907, the United States had a racetrack in Indianapolis since 1911 and Italy in Monza since 1922.

In 1923, Alexandre LAMBLIN, after having made some projects for the acquisition of a hundred hectares on the plateau located between Montlhery and Nozay, bought a field located on the Saint-Eutrope plateau, in Linas, close to Montlhéry. Two studies were undertaken and the least expensive, envisaging a 2,5 km length ring, possibly supplemented by an external road circuit, was chosen.


Engineer Raymond JAMIN was hired to design the track . It is oval with two short straight lines of 180 meters. In the turns, it has a concave profile in the shape of a cubic parabola with a vertical axis and connections are traced according to a spiral logarithmic curve, which constitutes one of the characteristics of the design. The ring is calculated so that cars of 1 000 kg can reach, in the top of the turns, speeds of approximately 220 km/h. Its development, measured in the middle of its projection on a horizontal level is 2 548.24 metres (centre line). Two thousand workmen, masons, metal workers, scrap merchants, carpenters and truckdrivers worked for six months on the construction of the track, using 1 000 tons of steel and 8 000 m3 of concrete. Many ready-made units were used, making it an avant-garde construction for that time.

Montlhéry soon attracted a great number of pioneers of speed and their monstrous record cars, coming over from England because of the many noise restrictions (assembly of silencers, prohibition of races at night) imposed by the neighbours of the Brooklands circuit. Over one hundred records, were established or beaten justtwo months after the opening. It was the make Rolland Pilain which was the first to do so, and the solo circuit record on the ring was to be held for a long time by Gwenda Stewart in a Derby-Miller with an average of 234,681 km/h.

Linas-Montlhéry was also a place where races were organized. The Automobile Club de France Grand Prix was held for the first time in 1925, after the addition of a road circuit built in record time (the complete circuit totals 12.500 kms). It attracted a considerable crowd including the President of the Republic himself. The cars went clockwise whereas the records were carried out in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, during the race, Antonio Ascari died while driving his Alfa Romeo P2 on the new portion of the circuit. Eventually, it was Robert Benoist in his Delage 12 cylinders who won. The ACF GP was held from 1931 to 1937 (except 1932) according to various formulas which always attracted many spectators, coming to attend the duels between Alfa Romeo and Bugatti and then, on the arrival of the Auto-union, Mercedes and Delage.

The war, the revival and decline
The increasingly high operating costs and the state of the concrete coating which made it impossible to turn single-seaters at high speed, led the administrators of the motor-racing track to sell the site in 1939 -consisting of 750 ha at that time - to the French government, who placed it at the disposal of the War Ministry. The motor-racing track serious deterioratedduring the war. In December 1946, the Technical Union of the Car, Motorbike and Bicycle (UTAC) took over management of the tracks and installations of the motor-racing track, its renovation and maintenance, and the organization of competitions from the War Ministry, under the terms of a long lease and against payment of an annual rent. The renovation lasted two years. It was accompanied by major adjustments such as the control tower, a stand with 1 000 places, a fuel station, tracks on special surfaces and the creation of laboratories.

Since that date, activities have never stopped, mainly technical and experimental trials but competitions have continued to be organized. Les Coupes du Salon during the Paris international motor show in October and since1956 at irregular intervals, the 1 000 kilometers of Paris. However, the profile of the circuit is not really suitable for the great speeds reached from that moment.


The accident which cost the lives of Peter Lindner, Franco Patria and 3 flag marshalls in 1964 are a sad demonstration of that problem. The 1 000 kms was only held again in 1966 and, more recently, in 1994. The Coupes du Salon and the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or constitute the two last sporting events on the ring. In 1996, the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or was the third French automobile demonstration after the 24h of Mans and the France F1 GP but, for lack of volunteers, the Coupes du Salon could not be held.



The future
The circuit was confronted in April 1997 and again in 2001 with the renewal of its permit by the national speed circuits commission. The current permit was renewed on May 9 2001 for 4 years (OJ N° 114 on 17/05/2001). Without obtaining this permit, no races can be organized. To hold the Coupes du Salon or the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or again, some refitting work has been completed - in particular the installation of a protection net able to resist speeds of 300 km/h. for spectators in the straight line going from the stands to the turn of "des deux ponts" as well as at the top of the ring.

The problem of the circuit permit comes back every four years. To save the motor-racing track, a long-term project is necessary ... (see the association of the users of the motor-racing track of Linas-Montlhery).

[gi_gav]

Just as I said on the Montlhery thread just after the Age d'Or, I really fell in love with this circuit when i visited and am really quite upset that it's closing.

The atmosphere was truly incredible though!

[klb]

Digging around on the internet, I found this track map.



That long course was something else, almost 8 miles, assuming I'm converting the metric system correctly.

[PaulSands]

That looks an amazing circuit

[salmson]

what about a picture!

[pirenzo]

Shame
Rouen, Reims, the old Clermont, now Montlhery...

Fab mentions Magny-Cours. What a waste of space that track is.
It is sad that they get rid of all the old great tracks and then go and build hyped up airports like Bahrain and Sepang.
Like I said elsewhere on this forum, do we go racing to watch cars go fast or to sit in a grandstand?

[Slippy Diff]

Rose tinted specs. I raced there in 2002. The track surface was **** and the facilities were truly awful, basically there is none. Three toilets for the whole paddock!!!! And they were the hole in the ground type which when the temperature reached 100 plus, well you can imagine. The banking was reasonably exciting to begin with but the rest of the circuit was just stop start. I personally would keep on driving south until I got to Dijon.

[Kicking-back]

Always sad when a circuit closes

[pirenzo]

Well, maybe lack of toilets isn't good.

Basically, all you need at a circuit is a bar, plenty of earth banking to stand on, some food stalls, and lots of toilets

[pounetbf]

Originally posted by salmson
what about a picture!

Many years ago i have been flag marshall in Monthlery, and could run with my family car on this ring.
It is impressive how it was difficult to get on top of it. The track turn right and you need to turn your weels left !

Very impressive also is the need to look your way through the side windows to go to the middle "chicane"

But the whole Monthlery has had almost no evolution since 30 or 40 years ago, and the only way is a sloppy narrow road, overjammed each race, so the closure is not surprising.

[Gilles]

I just hope it won't finished like Brooklands, destroying banking to host a Tesco car park...

[gi_gav]

Originally posted by klb
Digging around on the internet, I found this track map.



That long course was something else, almost 8 miles, assuming I'm converting the metric system correctly.

Apparently it's quite hard to get access normally to the road course (maybe due to the military base nearby).

Nonetheless, ss_collins and I managed to walk the whole course and I photographed it in full for the book that we're working on.

What the map doesn't show are the elevation changes, cambers and blind corner entries that make this a truly impressive track.

[Gilles]

Originally posted by gi_gav


Nonetheless, ss_collins and I managed to walk the whole course and I photographed it in full for the book that we're working on.

Please let me know as soon as this book is released !

[ascarracinguk]

YEH ME 2

[Rob29]

Originally posted by gi_gav
Apparently it's quite hard to get access normally to the road course (maybe due to the military base nearby).

Nonetheless, ss_collins and I managed to walk the whole course and I photographed it in full for the book that we're working on.

What the map doesn't show are the elevation changes, cambers and blind corner entries that make this a truly impressive track.

That agrees with the map I have from 'Motor Racing Circuits of Europe' by Klemantaski/Frostik.12.5km without the chicanes,a long walk! Does not seem to have been used for racing since 1950.

[Rob29]

delete

[gi_gav]

although it still has tyre barriers and all the major corners are named by signs.

Also, into some of the tighter braking areas are tyre marks that look as if someone knew what they were doing (in terms of late breaking and a good line).

what we wondered was whether it's still used by French car mags as a test circuit

[ss_collins]

The book will be out in 2005, see www.veloce.co.uk for details soon (though theres nowt on there at the moment), or if you are in the UK keep an eye on Motorsport News / Motorsport as it will be advertised there