Jean Blaton "Beurlys" Ralt RT1 history

[jamesl]

Does anyone know any thing about the ex Jean Beurlys Ralt RT1?
Past history, results or ownership?
Its a 1978 chassis, with F2 front suspension, F3/Atlantic tub, and BMW engine frames. The rear suspension is F3 type with triangular wishbones, but look very substantial.Its on 10" and 13" wheels.The car looks like it hasnt been run for at least 10 years, probably more. Its white in colour. We plan to run it as an atlantic. Any info greatfully received.

[allenbrown]

My first thought was the Hervé Bayard F2-spec hillclimb RT1-BMW which appeared towards the end of 1977. Bayard doesn't appear that often in French hillclimbs after 1975 but won the Belgian title ten times from 1982 to 1993. As Jean Blaton/Beurlys is Belgian, that's worth looking into.

Allen

[PeterMorley]

Can't help much but a few random thoughts:

Its unlikely to be a car Blaton would have bought for himself.

He does have a younger relative (nephew probably) who was into racing (someone contacted us a few years ago looking for something that he could drive at Monaco, unfortunately I can't remember any more than that).

He did have a few surprising cars that he presumably owned because of their Belgian connection, so it could be the car had a Belgian history???

His TGP cars were prepared by someone in England for a while, could be worth trying to find them.

I doubt he has much to do with it, but his company's name is CIT Blaton, their website should be citblaton.be

But you might do better to try to contact him through one of the Belgian car dealers like Paul Grant vdvgrant.be

[jamesl]

Peter,

Your hunch about Blaton seems correct. A previous caretaker of the car has told me that the car came from Blaton's collection and it was used by his mechanic (also a family member), the car was run while in Blaton's care with a M12 BMW and FG gearbox. The rear callipers, support this, they are for ventilated type discs. The AM number is 78 201. Any further info welcome.

Many thanks,
James

[allenbrown]

With the help of Adam and his list I can approximate that tub number 201 would have been part of a very late 1978 car, somewhere around RT1-147. There are two white RT1s at about that point but both went to North America for Formula Atlantic:

146 Robertson (Blank) FAt BDN White 5.12.78
147 Robertson Gl…? FAt BDN White 12.1.79

So what would Blaton be doing with an ex-Atlantic car? The other possibility is that 201 was a replacement tub for a F3 or hillclimb competitor who'd bent his original. If that's the case, it will be much harder to find out its history. You need to find out where Blaton got it.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

147 probably Tom Gloy's early season car in 1979, in which case it stayed in the USA to at least 1982

Chris

[fazzaz]

Jean Blanton had an extensive collection of cars (probably 30 or more) in his private museum inside his house. Many -- but not all -- had a Belgian racing connection; for instance, there were several cars raced by Theirry Boutsen, including at least one Williams F1. There were a number of ex-LeMans cars, and several open wheelers, including one or more Indy/CART cars. (I don't remember more details, as it has been over ten years since I saw these cars.) Blanton's tastes were quite universal, with large back-lit photos around the balcony overlookin the collection; these included the Indy 500 and start of the NASCAR Daytona 500 among other scenes.

At least one or two of the Ferraris from this collection have been sold off in recent times, and I rather suspect this car comes from his collection, rather than being anything he may have raced or sponsored.

Jack Swaters would likely have more specific information if you can reach him.

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by fazzaz

Jean Blanton had an extensive collection of cars (probably 30 or more) in his private museum inside his house. Many -- but not all -- had a Belgian racing connection; for instance, there were several cars raced by Theirry Boutsen, including at least one Williams F1. There were a number of ex-LeMans cars, and several open wheelers, including one or more Indy/CART cars. (I don't remember more details, as it has been over ten years since I saw these cars.) Blanton's tastes were quite universal, with large back-lit photos around the balcony overlookin the collection; these included the Indy 500 and start of the NASCAR Daytona 500 among other scenes.

At least one or two of the Ferraris from this collection have been sold off in recent times, and I rather suspect this car comes from his collection, rather than being anything he may have raced or sponsored.

Jack Swaters would likely have more specific information if you can reach him.

It seems that Jean Blaton has lost interest in racing cars and has sold of most if not all of them by now (the Lotus-Renault turbo car and others were sold at auction in France fairly recently).

I think he had an interest in Garage Francorchamps, which was run by Jacques Swaters.
Swaters now has a museum in the Ferrari garage (which is now owned by one of the English Ferrari dealers).
You might be able to contact him through Garage Francorchamps, but their website seems to be more geared towards selling Ferari accessories and some cars.

[jamesl]

Thanks for all the good info. Interestingly, on the American theme, the body work has American style no. 3's. This could just be a coincidence, or it might be that Blaton bought the car back from America and it just sat in his collection and was rarely used, if at all. Indeed the tub is far too good for a typical RT1 hillclimb car, the rear baulkhead is unmolested as are the side pods.
James

[Chris Townsend]

James

If it was the Gloy car [147] it would have yellow paint as the first coat over an original white gelcoat. Is the white bodywork original coat or painted?

Chris

[jamesl]

Chris,

The white looks like it is a secondary coat. The paint work is in good order, so it was my intention initially to run the car as it is. I will check to see if there are any chips in the paintwork, to see what colour is underneath the white.
The nose is also slightly different to a standard RT1 nose, there are more flip ups, and it looks like a prototype development nose from 1980 onwards. The original nose carrier has been modified to carry it.

James

[allenbrown]

James

I assumed when you said it was white that was the gel coat colour. We'd need to know the gel coat colour to match it up with production records.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

James

Does it look like the nose might have been adapted to carry a small wing over the radiator?

Chris

[phdm]

Jean Blaton did hillclimb an RT1 many years ago but I don't remember the details.

[phdm]

This car was in a Poulain auction in 1999 in Paris. The description is not very detailed in terms of history. It just says that Blaton hillclimbed the car in the early eighties.

[jamesl]

Allen,

I've inspected the tub, and underneath the white is orange. Looking at the Ralt records if orange is the original colour it could be the Gowdy car? Does anyone know if the Gowdy car is accounted for?
Phillipe - thanks for the Belgian inside info about Blaton hillclimbing a RT1 in the 1980's, my Father hopes to run this car in HMR.
Chris - the nose / radiator carrier does not look like it has been modifed to carry an extra wing. Was this a period mod or a hillclimb mod?
James

[allenbrown]

That car is a whole 8 months and 26 vehicles earlier which makes no sense given that it's tub number 201. Are you sure the orange is the base colour? Could there be something else under the orange?

If the base coat is orange, the most likely scenario - unfortunately - is that 201 was a replacement tub for a wrecked car and of course there's no likelihood that the colour of the replacement tub would match that of the original order. If it was a replacement tub, tracing it will be very hard. You'd need Ralt invoice records and I'm not sure they survive.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

James

The nose modification was not unusual amongst American Atlantic teams to carry an additional nose wing.

However, if I'm looking at an orange gelcoat on an RT1 with a BMW M12 installation, my thoughts are drawn to the Project 4 team car for Stuck from 1977. This is as likely as the Gowdy car I think.

Chris

[jamesl]

Allen - I agree its not easy tracing the history.
I have just been told that the owner of the car before Blaton was Willi Deutsche. (When I google his name he seems to be a ex F3 / F2 entrant - but with no mention of running a RT1) Does this mean anything to you?

On the front suspension there are two pick up points for the top wishbone, about an inch further out. Was this a later mod?
It could fit your theory of this being a replacement tub with later improvements. The car also has from the cockpit front and rear adjustable roll bars - something which I havent seen on an RT1 before.

James

[allenbrown]

Willi Deutsch (without the 'e') was a F2 irregular in the mid-1970s and just the sort of person who may later have had a Ralt in minor German races or in hillclimbs. Plausible...

Allen

[phdm]

Any connection with Horst Deutsch who races a Toj in Orwell Supersports ?

[Dan Rear]

James raises a good question re the Gowdy car, was this OTOH -138? Anyone know where it wents after him?

I don't recall Deutsch in a F2 RT1 in the mid-late 70s at all, mostly Marches I think. Re the P4/Stuck possibilty, didn't these cars go to Ariel Bakst for 1978, after P4 got the Marches?

[Chris Townsend]

Dan

Gowdy's car [chassis 120] is for sale in A/S at the end of 1979. The car doesn't seem to appear in Irish Atlantic after that [though 1980/81 results are far from complete HINT HINT] Given the collapse of Irish Atlantic at this time and the lack of enthusiasm for the British series, I guess this car went into speed events of some kind [where a two year old RT1 would have been a reasonable proposition].

Ariel Bakst had a new car in 77 [chassis 87 which he retained in 1978] His team mate at Mader in 1978, Romeo Camathias, had the ex Cheever P4 car, but I don't know where the Stuck and Hoffmann cars went.

Chris