[DeTomaso] Hotel de France

[Charles McCall]

Here's a picture I took of a picture hanging on the wall at the Hotel de
France
Anyone recognize anyone? Playing cards at the same table where we had a beer
or four... parking in the same parking places as we parked... it was really
pretty cool!

-----Original Message-----
From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com] On Behalf Of
MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sent: jueves, 8 de mayo de 2014 16:35
To: algisby at hotmail.com; detomaso at poca.com; admindra at detomasoregistry.org
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Hotel de France


In a message dated 5/8/14 0 51 57, algisby at hotmail.com writes:


> Ciao Panterians - enjoy!!
> From Classic & Sports Car May 2014. Article relates to a hotel 40kms south

> of Le Mans that many teams used in 1950's to 80's
> 
>>>That's a legendary spot!   Charlie McCall selected it purely by accident 
as an overnight stop on a Le Mans Classic tour several years ago.   The 
hotel is quaint by modern standards, but filled with memorabelia, as it has
was 
used as a 'team' hotel for many years.   John Wyer based the Aston Martin 
team there in the 1950s, when Shelby raced for him, and Shelby then used it,

which in turn led to Ford using it for their GT40 effort as well.

> >De Tomaso photo caption says:"A trio of De Tomaso Panteras loaded up on 
> their transporter post-race and ready to head home after a fruitless 
> weekend at La Sarthe in '75. Top finisher was 16th"Can the race date could
help 
> identify the cars? This race results link does confirm the 16th place, but

> lists car as race car #43. Maybe the yellow car over the cab was 
> #43.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
> 
>>>This is an Italian team truck.   The #43 car was #2860, entered under 
the Team Claude Dubois banner, although Claude actually had nothing to do
with 
the effort, as he was busy elsewhere (by coincidence, Lori and I had dinner 
with Claude in San Francisco two weeks ago as he was passing through).   

2860 was/is a factory Gr4 car that Claude had actually entered in the 1972 
race; it was the only Pantera to finish, also coincidentally in 16th place.

 It is now owned by Guy Trigaux, who was Claude's head mechanic for 25 
years; he emigrated from Belgium a few years back and runs a high end 
restoration shop out of his home in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

The #7 car is, I believe, #5855, and after failing to finish, it was 
privately converted to Group 4-ish spec (homemade flares with a completely 
different shape from the factory flares, for some odd reason), and it had a
highly 
successful life as a privateer racer in Italy.   It is currently in England,

after a rather miserable performance at the 2010 Le Mans Classic.   (It may 
have been sold after that, I don't actually know).

To be honest I'm rather surprised to see the other two cars there, as 
supposedly they 'didn't show up' for the race.   The yellow one is the Team
Wicky 
Gr3, but I don't know which car the red Gr4 is--2873 perhaps?
> 
> >GT40 photo caption says:"The 1968-winning GT40 rests outside the hotel 
> after the race, while the team and drivers Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien
Bianchi 
> celebrate inside"
> 
>>>Yes, John Wyer remained true to form and always used this hotel as his 
base.   Amazingly, the race cars would be driven over the road some 40km
from 
the hotel to the track each day for practice etc.   We live in different 
times today!

> >Hotel website is:www.thehoteldefrance.com
> 
>>>Really neat place.   Don't expect any luxury; this is a hotel that time 
has left behind.   But it's fun to stay there and imagine that one of your 
racing heroes may have stayed in the same room once upon a time....

Mike
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