Marathon de la Route, 84 Hours of Nurburgring?

[Fiorentina 1]

What can you guys tell me about this amazing race? I can't believe I haven't seen a story about this marathon on Motorsport magazine or anything. I know the race ran from 67 to 70 and combined the 28 kilometres of the Nord and Südschleife of the Nurburgring. The race was run by production cars (MGB, 911, 914, Volvos, etc).

Why did it stop and what is the story behind it? Man, I can't believe they held such an event......

[WANHER]

The 84 hours were in fact the substitute for Liége Rome Liége and
Liége Sofia Liège rally, the latest one was too dangerous and imagine a rally on open roads with mule , trucks, bus etc ? and also tourist

Robert

[Frank de Jong]

On my site there's some information about these races (1965: http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...g%2082hrs.html ); there's no general consensus if this was a rally or a race; it had elements of both!

[Fiorentina 1]

Frank, that's the site I saw with the results. What's the home page address, I want to check it out.

About the Liége Rome Liége, how long did the race last and what years did it run?

[Frank de Jong]

http://etcc-history.it4us.nl
Oter (semi) internatinal races - 60's and 70's.

[D-Type]

This was how Jackie Ickx learned the Nurburgring so well leading to his incredible German GP performances in the F2 Matra.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Fiorentina 1
About the Liége Rome Liége, how long did the race last and what years did it run?

The Liège-Rome-Liège was not a race. It was a rally, as was the Liège-Sofia-Liège. They were also known as Marathons de la Route, and so was the Nurburgring event which replaced them. Whether the German event became a race in later years I do not know, but it certainly started as a rally.
The Liège-Rome-Liège rally itself dates back to at least the 1930s

[Anuauto]

The last "proper" Liege rally would have been 1963 or 64? Final title was "Spa-Sofia-Liege"?
There was a local stage rally within the Belgian Championship run by the same club and called the "Boucles de Liege" until comparatively recently, but the route was very local typical Belgian stage event.

[Fred Gallagher]

I think you're confusing it with the "Boucles de Spa", a Belgian and European championship event.

The Nurburgring Marathons were not races. The cars were allowed a certain amount of service time in the pits each few hours and had to maintain a certain speed.

[Anuauto]

No. The Boucles de Liege was a different event from Boucles de Spa, run by a different club. Spa was (and is?) in the Belgian Open Championship. The Boucles de Liege was Belgian National Championship (but run under an International permit and open to foreign competitors).

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Fred Gallagher
The Nurburgring Marathons were not races. The cars were allowed a certain amount of service time in the pits each few hours and had to maintain a certain speed.

Thanks for that, Fred - presumably from firsthand knowledge?
It's a point I've been trying to make here and elsewhere for years - at the same time being too lazy to check!

[Fred Gallagher]

Originally posted by David McKinney
Thanks for that, Fred - presumably from firsthand knowledge?
It's a point I've been trying to make here and elsewhere for years - at the same time being too lazy to check!

I'm just a bit too young at 52 to have competed there! My work colleague Alec Poole did however. Maybe I can get a bit of first hand knowledge from him. Somewhere I have an excellent book on all the Marathons so when I find it I'll post some more stuff.

[WANHER]

For the 1968 edition the rules were modified
Every minute for a pit stop there was a penalty of 30 km +- 1 lap nor and sud schleife . Maximum stop 20 minutes.
Every lap shoulb be lapped in 24 minutes . Other point if the car dint had the same amount of laps in the last 12 Hours as the past first 12 hours, the car was automatically take off from the track .
The first stop between the 75 and 80 laps wasn't with penalty.
I know it s very confused.
There is no speaking about stop durung an amount of hours it was may be before but not for the 1968 edition.
Source l'automobile Philippe Toussaint driver and journalist at this event.

Robert

[GolddustMini]

so was it like last man standing wins then? the last 2 days must have been easy on the marshalls, no cars on the track and only so much tarmac you can kick! :P

[WANHER]

1968 26 finishers out of 59 starters

Robert

[GolddustMini]

really, thats fairly impressive considering the stringent rules

[WANHER]

Correction 59 entrants 51 starters 26 finishers

Robert

[Mekola]

The Marathon de la Route was an unforgettable race for Argentinians... The 1969 edition saw the entry of an Argentinian team ("Misión Argentina") managed by Juan Manuel Fangio with cars prepared by Oreste Berta. The cars were three Torinos (Argentinian cars based on the 1964 Rambler American 440 modified by Pininfarina) driven by the crème of the Argentinian drivers like Eduardo Copello and Luis Di Palma. Only one of the Torinos finished the race in 4th position, although it was the moral winner cos it was the car that more laps made to the circuit (but had suffered of time penalisations that retrieved it to 4th).

[WANHER]

3 Torino 380 W 4 doors + 1 training car

Robert

[ss_collins]

Vic Elford?

[Fiorentina 1]

In 1967 Porsche ran the 911 with the Sportmatic transmision & won the race with Elford, Herman & Neerpasch. I think I read that Elford raced only at night, and each did 8-hours at a time. I saw in add for the 911 with the Sportmatic in an early 70's Road & Track stating this fact.

If this was a race or not, it was an amazing event that really tested drivers, cars and teams. I'd love to read a story on it in Motorsport some day.

[Fiorentina 1]

After reading "Marathon de la Route" by Jean-Paul Delsaux and "Kings of the Nurburgring" by Chris Nixon, I found out a lot more about this amazing race.

First: The cars were given a curtain time to complete each lap (more time was given at night). If they were late, they would get a pennalty. 1 minute late, you lose 1 lap. They modified the rules every year. In 1970, the cars had to complete the same amount of laps they did the first 12-hours, or get penalized.

Second: Drivers would drive up to 14 hours at a time. That's crazy, because tomorrow, you are back in the saddle.....The first 2 years, only 2 drivers per team, the next years you were allowed 3.

Third: Some years the race actually started and ended in Liege like the old Liege-Rome-Liege rally. The running from Liege to Nurburgring, didn't count.

The final race was held in 1971, this time the race lasted 96 Hours! The pre-event favorite, a Ferrari Dino, broke down after the first lap. Way to go guys, only 95.8 hours to go........