Tour Auto 2021

[Frogelan]

Bonjour everyone

I popped to the Champs de Mars temporay exhibition building in Paris this afternoon to see the cars taking part in the Tour Auto, which is the modern equivalent of the Tour de France Automobile (the cyclists having successful retained the TdF signification).

The event starts tomorrow morning and as I will be writing a small article for Via Retro, a Danish blog that I get involved with, I thought you might like to have a scoop on the Elan front. I will post the link to this article later.

Lotus Elan's have done quite well in the past, most lately in the hands of Raphaël Favaro (who has defected to an E-type of late). This year there are 149 cars in the Regularity section and 146 in the competition section. Both the sections follow the same route: but the latter have timed / closed special stages and a 40 minute blast around 4 different tracks (Dijon / Bresse / Lédenon / Le Castellet).

Here are the details of the competitors, all from France unless otherwise indicated:

Regularity:
N° 132 : Hugues de Beauregard / Blaise Boucomont (1963 S1 - Sherwood Green (?), with convertible top and LHD)

Competition:
N° 208 : Joachim and Christina von Finckenstein (1964) from Germany - green with yellow bumpers
N° 235 : Guillaume and Augustin Brajeux (1965 - green with a yellow strip on GB plates)
N°236 : Thomas Duchêne / Etienne Michelez (1965 - entered but I did not see it)
N° 237 : Philippe and Jeremy Colançon (1965 - silver and blue)
N° 243 : Jean Laurent-Bellue and Ombelline de Clermont-Ferrand (1962 - dark blue fastback)
N° 246: Pascal Duhamel and Michaela Eycheverry (1964 - silver with black hard top)

There were three other Lotuses an Elite, a Cortina a Europa.

All the photos are shown below (please note that these were the nosiest photos I could take as a member of the public!). I may have to upload them in small batches...

[Frogelan]

Here are the next few photos...

[Frogelan]

More photos...

This is the fast back car with smart blue paint. The radiator has been placed in a forward position.

There are a few interesting items to look at in the photo above. The most glaring one seems to have been the decision to cut the left hand bulkhead down to the chassis. I hope the co-driver (Madame de Clermont-Tonnerre) is aware of this modification!