Letter from Europe

[By means of which the Continental Correspondent, while he is motoring abroad, keeps in touch with the Editor.]

Dear W. B.,
Recent races have kept me very much in the north of Europe and have allowed time for a leisurely look round some parts, though motoring has not been so exciting, there being little urgency in the trips. This has made a change from the hectic first part of this season, but I’m glad it is not always so leisurely or I’d be tempted to trade the Jaguar in for a half-a-dozen 2 c.v. Citroëns! I made an interesting excursion into Holland, which started off badly when I was pinched for doing 66 k.p.h. in a 60 k.p.h. area. The Dutch police were very pleasant, with infallible faith in their radar meter, just like the English police, and explained everything to me in good English. I wondered how many English policemen could tell a visitor from Holland all about it in Dutch! I was glad I was touring or their radar machine might have read 166 k.p.h. While pottering about the Dutch islands north of Belgium it was intriguing to use a ten-year-old map and see the work of land reclamation that has been done. Where you expect a ferry boat there is a bridge or an enormous dyke with a concrete road across the top, and in some places all signs of water have disappeared completely and there are crops growing on areas that used to be part of the North Sea. The two most impressive things were a really large and efficient ferry boat service between the mainland and the first island, that cost a few shillings to use, on a trip of some miles that would cost a pound or two in most countries, and a fantastic concrete bridge between two more islands that was three miles from water’s edge to water’s edge. Dutch engineers do not make a lot of noise, but they certainly get on with the job in an efficient manner, however they still build roads that appear to be motorways, but have country crossings on them from which tractors and bicycles can emerge. Very unnerving.

Staying the night in a small French town, not far from Reims, I was able to see a spectacular Motor Rodeo on a floodlit road in the local park. This was by Jean Sunny and his group and you probably recall Sunny visiting Silverstone a year or two ago and driving round in a Simca 1000 balancing on two wheels. He now has a group of drivers who can do this balancing act, using Simca Arianne saloons and it is all highly skilled, especially when two of them approach from opposite directions, stop about a foot apart, still up on two wheels and then drop down on to four wheels in a sort of duet. They are also masters at hand-brake skid turns and to see three of them rush along at 30 m.p.h. in line ahead and then execute a 180-degree spin in unison was good stuff, worthy of an English driving test meeting. The big stunt of the evening was their “Crash Car” act, in which they take some ordinary old production French saloon, remove all the glass and loose bits, wire up the doors and then push it along at 45-50 m.p.h. with a large Plymouth VA. The driver in the old car aims the two left-hand wheels up a wooden ramp, while the push car veers off, and the “Crash Car” then soars up into the air and cartwheels end-over-end down the road in an apalling crashing and rending of metal. The intrepid driver, who is strapped in, climbs out of the wreckage, and bows to the crowd while the trumpets play. That is what is supposed to happen, but the night I watched, Jean Sunny apologised for a lack of drivers as two of his group were in the local hospital! They had done the two shows the previous day and one driver had hit a tree head on and the other one had landed upside down, all the wrong way and had broken a collar bone. This final show only had one driver and he had three cars to crash. The first was a Simca that misfired a bit and merely spun round and round on its roof, the second was an old f.w.d. Citroën that really demolished itself going end-over-end and finally there was a Peugeot 203. Long before this one reached the wooden ramp it was completely out of control in lock-to-lock slides, with the driver of the Plymouth that was pushing, equally out of control and his “fishtails” all out of step with those of the Peugeot. We all turned and ran from the edge of the road as the Peugeot hit the wooden. ramp going completely sideways and next thing there was wood and metal in all directions. When the dust settled the driver of the Peugeot climbed out of the wreckage, dazed but unhurt, and started a big argument with the driver of the Plymouth.

That was the end of the Rodeo for that night and we all went home, while Jean Sunny gathered up the wreckage and prepared to move on to the next town. I felt that there must be easier ways of making a living if you like driving cars. Are we in the middle of the “silly season” or something?

On a much more serious note I went to Rouen and this, of course, meant staying at the Hotel du Cheval Noir, at Cleres, just north of the famous Normandy city. The Pichon family who own the hotel also own the Automobile Museum, which is opposite, and last year this was the centre of the V.S.C.C. gathering that went to the Historic Car Race at Rouen. While we were there we saw a Renault 45 h.p. being rebuilt into a replica of the 1926 record-breaking single-seater saloon Renault. The reason behind all this activity was that Roger Pichon, the father, was the mechanic on the Renault record-breaking runs at Montlhéry in 1926 and he and his son Jackie decided to build a replica of the original car to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the event. They took a touring Renault 45, or 40 c.v. as they know them, and transformed it into a near-perfect reproduction of the original Renault record-breaker. It was finished last October and Jackie Pichon drove it at 100 m.p.h. round Montlhéry and it now stands proudly in the centre of their museum, while in the hotel is a large photograph of the original car, long since broken up. The single-seater fabric-covered saloon bodywork and long bonnet would be difficult to fault, even by someone who knew the original car, and is the work of Marcel Chodon who has a small bodywork and painting business behind the museum. The high-pointed tail body carries the original registration number, while a brass plate on the instrument panel says that the car was constructed by the Pichons and Chodon in 1966. Jackie Pichon apologises for two small mechanical differences to the original, it has only one carburetter whereas the record car had three, and it has a production dyno-starter that drives the crank by enclosed chain, whereas the record engine had the dyno-start on the end of the crankshaft, while Pichon “père” points out that they could not find any genuine RAF hub wheels and had to use Rudge-Whitworth.

This fantastic job of building, which took just over 12 months, is something more than enthusiasm for the great days of Renault, before the firm became Regie Renault. Jackie Pichon points out that if it had not been for the 1926 record-breaking car he would not be here today, nor would his fine collection of vintage and veteran cars. When Roger Pichon was at Montlhéry in 1925-26 on test with the original record-breaker he met the French girl who became his wife. His son says quite simply “Because of this car I am here.”

On the Saturday before the Rouen races the French equivalent of the V.S.C.C. had a small gathering at Cleres, with Type 57 Bugatti, Delahaye, Talbot and Salmson cars present and after lunch there was a gentle run out into the Normandy countryside. Jackie Pichon invited me to ride with him in the great Renault as there was just room for a small one in the pointed tail. It was very impressive as the vast 9½-litre side-valve engine got into its stride, bellowing from its stub exhausts and it was all legal as there was a registration number on the tail!

Unfortunately this sort of constructional project is not really appreciated to the full in France, at least, not like it would be in England, but equally it is refreshing to meet someone who is prepared to do something for his own personal satisfaction, without a lot of bally-hoo and the inevitable nonsensical publicity like we have in England. It must have been a fine sight thundering round the Montlhéry bankings at 100 m.p.h. Any V.S.C.C. member who visits France should make a pilgrimage to Cleres to pay homage to this remarkable achievement. Pichon “père” smiles contentedly and remarks “As we say in Normandy, it’s not bad.”

With any luck and the help of the B.U.A. air ferry I hope to be back in England, to take my summer holiday at the Vintage Silverstone race meeting. — Yours, D. S. J.