Line up at the Reims GP circuit
Good food and service at the Red Pepper
Dave uses hand gestures to augment his French to place our orders
Fixing the squealing brake pad
Stacking 72 plus cars into the small car park in St. Agnes was a real feat of logistics.
Dauphine looks quick, but only 3 cylinders not so good in the Alps.
Managed to line our cars up in a row.
Jim Paterson poses with the T shirt with him and the car , snapped on the way into the event.
More photos of the event | | |
 | Trans Alpina - 4 to 16 October
2011 (Part 2)
Report
by Jim Paterson
Getting
to Menton 5th
& 6th October
 The
idea on this tour was to
head as quickly as possible down to Menton to join the Nuit du
Mentonnais on the 8th October, so our first port of call after Reims
was Lyon. But not before we detoured out to the Reims race circuit for
a photoshoot. In the 2009 tour it was pouring rain but the sun shone
for us this time. As the Porsche and Ferrari left a small Peugeot with
blue flashing lights followed! Not sure who he was after. We used non
motorways for a spell, but it is a long way to
Lyon and eventually most crews took the péage for a spell to
L’isle D’Abeau on the south side of Lyon.
We
encountered our first disappointment with Ibis when it was discovered
there was no restaurant. Being located on a motorway rest area we
thought there would be a food outlet there. No chance! The Ibis staff
did recommend a restaurant, though this was 6 kilometres away. A
shuttle taxi run took us to what turned out to be an excellent choice,
and the Poivre Rouge (Red Pepper) staff looked after us very well.
 The
run to Menton took us over the Route Napoleon. Last time Jim, Dave
and Roddie drove this it was thick with snow on the Monte Carlo
Historique back in January. Once again we climbed the Turini before the
drop to Menton via Sospel.
 To
celebrate our arrival in Menton we decided to eat Vietnamese, as you do
when in France! Having eaten there earlier in the year on the Monte, we
were warmly welcomed, though I think the party of fourteen probably had
more to do with it.
A rest day on the
Friday allowed those who had not seen Monte Carlo and the Monaco GP
circuit to to take their cars along and drive the circuit. Others just
lazed around in the Mediterranean sunshine, all 26 degrees of it.
The
Sprite had developed squealing brakes again. New pads fitted before the
event had not made any difference. Tom used "cadence" braking which
helped, and a couple of strips of "gaffa" tape on the back of the
offending pad, fitted in the hotel car park, provided a bit of a cure.
Nuit
du Mentonnais - 8th October
 The
7th Nuit du
Mentonnais started this year from Saint Agnes, the highest coastal
village at 750m above sea level in Europe. Only 4km from the coast it
is a 12km climb up narrow and twisty roads. The village is famous for
its Fort, built by the French between 1932 and 1938 as part of the
Maginot Line. If you have seen the Guns of Navarone film then it could
have been set here. The mountain is completely hollowed out and gun
emplacements face the Mediterranean and the also to the Alps, with
munitions, accommodation, eating facilities and a hospital buried
inside the rock.
 We were warmly welcomed as
“Team Ecosse” and joined some 72 competitors from
across France Belgium and Italy. How they got so many cars into the
village was quite a feat, and ordinary tourists had nowhere to park!
We
enjoyed a light lunch, French style. Four courses later, though we
passed on the wine, we were ready to start. We thought the lunch may
have been a French plot to sink us before we started but everyone
seemed to take time to enjoy the meal.
At just
over 100 miles the event took us up and down the Maritime Alps in three
stages. We visited the Turini twice and had a break at Sospel. The
Sprite puffed its way up the climbs, being passed time and again by the
local Simca's, Renaults, Lancia's, though no Abarth 500's this year.
The
Sprite lost all its auxiliary lights, including the fog lights which we
turned at an angle to “see” round the hairpins. As
we were near the end of the event we pressed on until I noticed the
water temperature rising. The electric radiator fan had stopped as
well. A temporary rewire, battery to fan got us to the finish, and a
dodgy connector identified in the Menton hotel car park the next
morning.
Thanks to Automobile Club du Menton for
putting on a great event again, and awarding us cups for our teams
efforts.
Part 1 - Getting to the start at Reims
Part 2 - Reims to Menton and the Nuit du Mentonnais
Part 3 - The Col Bashing
Part 4 - Through the Black Forest to Nurburgring
Part 5 - Nurburgring and Home
|
| Updated 27 November 2011
Webmaster
| |
Home | About | Events
| News| Committee | For Sale | Links
