RE: Retro on the Riviera: PH Footnote

[Madfraz]

I was there and it was a nightmare for me! I couldnt drive my coach round the circut as usual and the coach park at the casino was closed because of the team lorries. My passengers had to walk from the stadium and no transport or shuttles laid on! On the other hand i enjoyed the cars and noise they made. My passengers didnt appreciate them though.

[chris333]

PistonBroker said:

Then I saw on Twitter that Quest were showing it and that was 4 hours of my Sunday afternoon sorted. I'm sure Mrs PB had thoughts about gardening or something, but so be it!
.

How on earth did you stick if for 4 hours? The racing was great, but the commentators were shocking! I had to give up after one of them recounted a story about arguing with a German airport security guard over some asparagus...

[PistonBroker]

chris333 said:

PistonBroker said:

Then I saw on Twitter that Quest were showing it and that was 4 hours of my Sunday afternoon sorted. I'm sure Mrs PB had thoughts about gardening or something, but so be it!
.

How on earth did you stick if for 4 hours? The racing was great, but the commentators were shocking! I had to give up after one of them recounted a story about arguing with a German airport security guard over some asparagus...

Had to pop out at one point so recorded some of it and fast-forwarded through. I can't say I remember that bit so it was obviously a good decision!

[Oz83]

MrGeoff said:

Interesting you took your two year old. I couldn't go this year as I have a one month old but next time this rolls around he'll be 2 years old. Did your daughter enjoy it?

We did 5 days in Nice and the surrounding area and the Historique just happened to be on ;-) I guess she enjoyed seeing 'racing cars' but we had to bribe her with her favorite treats to keep her from escaping in the tribune :-)

To be honest though it was mainly for my benefit. Friday entrance is free so we thought why not. But the trains from Nice are still busy and getting around Monaco with a push chair is a nightmare, especially when half the place is closed off. We followed one street down to find it was barricaded at the bottom and the only way up was a flight of 70+ steps.

I don't know if it was worth it really. But don't forget to take some ear defenders for the little one if you do go.

[Quickmoose]

Try camping in Sospel with the Col de Turini outside your tent, for a week... soak up atmosphere....nip to Italy.... then on race day get the train from Menton to Monaco with a GA ticket for peanuts and then sit on the bank at Saint Devote with a baguette and some vino.
It doesn’t feel cheap despite hardly costing anything....

[dinkel]

The Penthouse car in 2010.

[Oz83]

Quickmoose said:

Try camping in Sospel with the Col de Turini outside your tent, for a week... soak up atmosphere....nip to Italy.... then on race day get the train from Menton to Monaco with a GA ticket for peanuts and then sit on the bank at Saint Devote with a baguette and some vino.
It doesn’t feel cheap despite hardly costing anything....

Sounds perfect! I'll be doing something similar next time.

When I tell people about the F1 in Monaco they always ask how much it costs. I usually say you can spend £100 or your life savings.
It's a nice experience but it is easy to get carried away.

[markBXTR]

I was there for a week with Porsche Club GB Region 3. We stopped in Nice and just hopped on train on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to Monaco. The Cote d'azur is a stunning place, Nice, Cannes, Villefranche sur Mer etc are stunning. As for Monaco, the experience was superb, great racing and even saw a crash right in front of us. Fortunately the driver was fine, however It took half an hour to remove the rear spoiler from out of the crash barrier and the car spilled its guts all over the track, so practice was cancelled while they cleaned up. We sat in the Cafe de Paris (you have to do it) and enjoyed a 19 euro pint of beer, great place to sit but you cannot see any of the racing, just the top of the heads of the drivers. Great to visit the pits and get up close to the legendary cars and chat with the mechanics. Visited the palace and the old part of Monte Carlo which is stunning and there is a superb car museum.

As for Monaco itself, its a grid locked, congested concrete jungle and it would do my head in if I lived there. Christ knows what its like on F1 weekend with 200,000 visitors descending. The Historic is a great experience and very good value for money. We paid £60 for our tickets for the weekend. The same seats for two days for F1 are £879!!! My advise is, make a holiday of it and explore the rest of the Cote d'Azur, it's stunning. We even popped in to Italy on the train and it only took forty five minutes from Nice.

[ChocolateFrog]

The best article we had for a while.

I didn't know about the event but sounds like a great way to experience Monaco when you're not on pop star wages.

[TWPC]

This sounds absolutely brilliant. I have never even contemplated going to the Monaco GP for all the reasons stated but the Historique in 2020 would be a great thing to do.
Thanks for the excellent article and for providing the spark for a plan.

[GreyGray]

I've just looked at the auction report and a Ferrari 430 Challenge was sold for 57k Euros (about £50k). This seems like not a lot of money for a lot of car. I understand that's it's track only, but if you can spend the same money on an Atom or a Caterham but get a track-focussed Ferrari, am I missing something?

Also, how difficult would it be to convert to road legality?

Just curious, I'll never be in a position to buy one!

[paulyv]

It was a great event and interesting to see how many members of the public heading into Monaco for the day simply weren't expecting it. I am not sure if it made their day trip better or worse.

Still, I had a great time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulvinternet/albums...

[Oz83]

GreyGray said:

I've just looked at the auction report and a Ferrari 430 Challenge was sold for 57k Euros (about £50k). This seems like not a lot of money for a lot of car. I understand that's it's track only, but if you can spend the same money on an Atom or a Caterham but get a track-focussed Ferrari, am I missing something?

Also, how difficult would it be to convert to road legality?

Just curious, I'll never be in a position to buy one!

I've seen a 360 challenge for road use. They use the same engine/gearbox as the 360 Stradale with the same service intervals etc. I'm not sure about the 430 but I guess it's possible. Even so, it's not a straight forward job. There is no handbrake, passenger seats, locks, safety equipment, they have plastic windows that don't wind down, no proper AC etc. I think you'd spent a lot of time and money sourcing parts. Might aswell just buy a 430 coupe. It would be a better road car.

But yeah €57k sounds cheap. Could have been crashed/repaired/thrashed with a service due and no clutch left.

[Agent XXX]

Absolutely brilliant event.

[exceed]

I went this year and 4 years ago, will be going again next year.

I always stay at the Fairmont as you can see the hairpin and get great access to drinks/food/etc.

Definitely worth doing it if you can, and the helicopter ride in if you're feeling especially fancy (I am/was).

[renrut]

I went 6 years ago. It was the best motorsport event I've been to. So much variety, beautiful cars and glorious engines, all driven so hard as though the cars cost £5 to fix and the track walls were all made of the softest marshmallow, rather than genuinely priceless one off historic icons that could be irreparably destroyed with one wrong move by the driver. Only let down was the rain late on the sunday that stopped the 80s and onwards cars from racing, so I'll just have to go back another time to witness those.

[roland82]

Thanks for the review, I might give it a go one day.