1975 Martini Mk15

Marc Poix, Martini Mk15, Course de Cote du Mont Dore VHC 2015.

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Martini, Magny Cours, France.  Martini was a French constructer who produced mainly single seater cars for F3 and Formula Renault.  The car above is a Formula Renault car from the mid seventies. and has a 1,600cc Renault Gordini engine and a Renault 5 gearbox.  In 1975 Christian Debias won the French Formula Renault championship using a Martini Mk15.  The Mk15 was used in both the French championship and the European championship with slightly different specifications.  Rene Arnoux won the 1975 European Championship in an FRE spec Martini Mk15.   The car for the FRE national series had a 1,600cc Renault Gordini engine and a Renault 5 gearbox.  Both then and now they were also used in French hillclimbs.

1976 Axone 1600 FL

Jacky Bonnot, Axone 1600 FL, Course de Cote du Mont Dore VHC 2016.

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Axone Compétition, Bourgogne, France.  The car is the work of Chantal and Jacques Bonnot and their friends in l'Abergement Ste Colombe .   The first Axones were produced around 1972.   I believe two Axone 1600s were built in 1975/1976.  All seem to have been used mainly for French hillclimbing as they are Formula Libre cars. They have tubular chassis with 1.6L Renault Gordini engines and a Hewland gearbox.  Top speed is 220kph.

1963 Alpine M63

Jean-Charles Rédélé, 1963 Alpine M63, Le Mans Classic 2016, Plateau 4.

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Apline, Dieppe, France.  This was the first sports racing car developed by Alpine. Designed in 1962 it competed from 1963 to 1965.   It had a 1 litre Renault Gordini T55 engine, chassis designed by Boyer and Bouleau, suspension designed by Len Terry and a plastic berlinette body designed by Marcel Hubert.  In 1963 it won its class at the Nurburgring.  In 1964 it won its class at Le Mans and won the Index of Thermal Efficiency.  A beautiful and successful little car.  

1966 Alpine Renault A210

The Von Oppenheim and Middendorf Alpine Renault A210, Le Mans Classic 2016

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Alpine, Dieppe, France.   The A210, originally designated the M66, was designed for the Le Mans 24 hours of 1966.  Originally they had 1.3 litre Renault Gordini 4 cylinder engines.  Some of these were upgraded to 1.5 litre engines for the 1967 Le Mans.   They won their class in both years and continued to do so in 1968 and 1969.  Thus a successful car for the marque.  The car was designed for fast circuits and thus had a long tail which also acted as fins.  It was small and aerodynamic and had a maximum speed just over 160mph.

1950 Simca-Gordini T15S Compresseur

1950 Le Mans Simca-Gordini T15S, Autodrome Linas-Montlhery 2015.

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Gordini, Paris, France.  This car was apparently raced in the 1950 Le Mans 24 hours by the two great Argetine drivers Jean-Manuel Fangio and Froilan Gonzalez.  Unfortunately it retired after 13 hours and 95 laps with ignition problems.  The other works Gordinis also retired.  It had a supercharged 1.5 litre 4 cylinder engine.  During the 1950 Le Mans it was bodied as a coupé and had the number 33 but like many racing cars was modified over the years.

1950 Simca Gordini 1200

Simca Gordini, Montée Historique d'Epieds 2016

More photos of the Montee Historique d'Epieds coming soon.

Simca-Gordini, France. I think this has a motor and other components from a Simca 8 and it has Gordini on the grill  but it is unlike any other Simca-Gordini I have ever seen so I assume it is either a special or has been much modified (I am happy to be corrected).  It has turned up at a lot of events but I don't know its history.  Amédée Gordini, nicknamed Le Sorcier,  was a famous tuner and builder of racing cars who providing sporting interest to the Simca and Renault marques. Shortly after the war he built cars based on Simca-Fiat parts and in 1950 he made F1 and F2 single seaters and Le Mans sports cars based on Simcas but the relationshiop was to finish at the end of the 1951 season.

1976 Marcadier Barquette Can Am

Tony Gomis, Marcadier Can Am, Course de Cote d'Etretat-Benouville 2015.

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Marcadier, Lyon, France.  This French kit car maker made a number of Renaut or Simca powered cars that looked like Can-Am cars in the early to mid seventies.  Most had Renault 8 Gordini engines. This one has a 1,598cc Renault R12 engine, unusually a Hewland rather than a Renault gearbox and a non-standard rear wing.  It is mainly raced by Londoner Tony Gomis in English hillclimbs and sprints and who has had the car since 2000.

Read about another beautiful Marcadier car, the Barzoi, by clicking on this link. 

Renault 8 Gordini 1300

Bernard Boilaive, Renault 8 Gordini, Course de Cote de Mont Dore, 2014

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Renault, Flins, France.  The Renault R8 was a small rear engine rear wheel drive car produced in the sixties and early seventies.  The more powerful Gordini version was produced from 1964 and the Gordini 1300 from 1966.  It was much used as a rally car and scored a hat trick of wins in the Tour de Corse between 1964 and 1966.  in the late sixties there was a one make series of Renault 8 Gordini races in which drivers like Jean-Pierre Jarier competed.  It had a top speed of about 175kph and a 0-100kph time of 11.5 seconds.  A very popular classic car in France nowadays and deservedly so with its nationalistic blue and white stripe colour scheme and reputation as an affordable sporting saloon car.