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A little idea back in December that became a great big rolling road of reality come the event!
As mentioned here previously, one of our members spotted a posting on a forum out there, inviting participants to a rally event out of Bethune, an hour or so in from Calais just over there in French France. Now, the Sunriser's have had some good runs in France for track days, multiple Le Mans trips and various touring holidays and, well , the roads are better, petrol's cheaper and the French public seem to enjoy the cars as much as we'd wish people over here would. The French hand signals, flashing headlights , turning heads and 'tres bons' are always in encouragement to 'vite, vite, allez allez!!'...rude not to oblige.
Ever seen a 'tulip' diagram in a road book? Neither had some of us before:
Holes in training!?
But this is what you get in the nicely bound road book instead of a map. Clear, concise pictograms with distances in kilometres between each, with 6 instructions to a page ...easy, if your trip counter was in kilometres..and your speedo was working ! ('Packed up on the way onto the ferry, officer, nothing to do with running the video camera, no.') Simple 'shout out' instructions from the co-driver (co-pilote) are expected from these diagrams ...but it stops you working out short cuts for an early coffee or lunch stop, miss one of these suckers and you're right up the merde de rue.
So the gathering took place , Sunday morning in the town square of Bethune ....first one :
...and eventually more and more:
The ancient belfry would chime the countdown to departure at 13 and 3 minutes to and past the hour, tunefully, but timelessly, each of the four faces of the clock reading an approximation of the other, the chimes matching none. Faceless chimes then?
This is the fifth Daffodil Rally (for that is what 'Jonquilles' are, n'est pas, Rodney?) run by the Ecurie La Grange Aux Damiers, a local and enthusisatic car club. It was the joint organiser, a certain Bruno Le Cocq that extended the initial invite to us, and promptly won the award for the best name in my in-box! It's the reverse of 'your first pet's name and your mum's maiden name' game isn't it? At a guess, James was his hamster and Smith his mum's name.
The doors of Bethune's great gothic revival town hall were opened to serve croissants, coffee and orange juice to the participants in welcome of the day to come.The level of organisation was pretty astounding already, is there anywhere in the UK that would contemplate handing the keys of the square (freshly jet washed overnight) and the town hall to an enthusiasts car club for a Sunday? I won't mention how little the fee was to participate in this event, suffice to say : an amount that wouldn't have paid for the lunch alone in Blighty, not sure how it's done...might be something to do with their liability laws and socialism framework?
The staggered start, with PA announced departures and details of the cars, was MC'd by Jean-Pierre Degand of the 'Ecurie'.The surreptitiously spread collection of British 7even'esque cars still made up a larger % of the numbers than was probably reasonable in our class, but we made for some good noises as we cobbled our way off the square, clutching at the first bunch of tulip directions. Close behind: another 7 of Mark's SKCC , an original mini and an Alfa...we'd lost them by mile 3 ...or was that kilometre?
It was junctions thick and fast from the outset, it needn't have been, but the sense of being pursued, and wanting to catch, had the instructions pages turning rapidly.
So,with clear blue sky overhead, tarmac rally roads ahead ,welcoming spectators (willing direction givers) in each village and a Château destination for lunch, what more could we possibly want for? Other than petrol... at some point. Ian kept an eye on the wavering gauge. Of the other Sunrisers and SKCC chums? Occasional news of a broken clutch cable and an unhappy text of navigation issues, but the spirit of the rally would persist and the pages kept turning.
Co-pilote: 'Right at the big tree, follow that Testarossa!' 'See if you can get passed, he's being too careful'
Pilote: 'He's being too bloody wide'
We did pass the Testarrossa, mid village, when he hesitated just for a fraction...oooh nice feeling!
Sharing the roads with such a great selection of classic cars was a real treat. The theme of the rally is to run on roads originally used for three regular tarmac rally competition events held up until the mid 80's : Le Béthunois Rally, Les Routes du Nord and the Cedico Rally. The cars participating in our event were chosen to reflect that era, but not restricted to the actual types of cars that competed at the time. Which is how we managed to mix Caterham 7's , a Ferrari Testerossa and a Lancia Montecarlo all on the same farm track enjoying the incongruity of the moment! The 'newcomer' class (of which we were one type) was at the discretion of the organisers and allowed for a few 'crowd pleasers' of modernity. We listened to a DB9 bouncing off the limiter for it's audience at the first champagne stop, a clutch of latter day TVR's were in the mix and, of course, a selection of Lotus Elises and Exiges made up a few more in our class. All perfectly well placed in the French countryside on a Sunday morning of course ...and mainly British cars. The Ecurie La Grange Aux Damiers are supporters of British marques,and with Triumphs and MG's a plenty, we felt at home.
Stage 1 included a 'stamp' stop at the club house of the Ecurie La Grange Aux Damiers. It turned into a longer stop to take advantage of the facilities, and Bladder Boy , who we hadn't seen all route,was right there in the line up waiting his turn! He's go to get those kidneys checked out.
What a great place, a petrolhead's clubhouse in your own back garden. Just brilliant.It even had a chandelier to add occasion to those awards dinner nights! And the 'facilities' themselves? Best bog in France I'd say! only here,with the matter in hand , could you share the passing moment in the company of the most relevant of all benefactors...Colin Chapman of course!
And on to the lunch stop.
Parked up on the drive in front of Château Tilques is not the usual Sunrise Seven habitat, compare and contrast Delia's Diner on Hayling Island or Loomies Cafe on the A32, but today, it suited very well. Picture the French in their pressed trousers, elegant denouement and string backed gloves (yup, I actually saw some being worn, and not on a stall at the Goodwood Revival)... and then there's the 7even driving Brits: in oil filmed Craghoppers , long passed event emblazoned poloshirts and tourette laden conversation about passing a Testerossa this or Alfa Romeo that. All with a slightly boiled tinge to our complexions.And with this, we sat at the reserved Union Jack flagged tables for an immaculate multi course meal, served by string back gloved waiters (not really.)
There was wine a plenty on offer too: co-pilotes drank their fill whilst pilotes took Evian well chilled.
The afternoon's Stage 3 was to begin again with a staggered departure. Not as a consequence of the long lunch you understand, but so as to maintain the traditions of Rally starts with appropriate timing intervals.Despite the relaxed nature of this event, for us in car 92, these intervals gave us a target to 'catch' and a gap behind to 'extend', which is what rallies are all about in real life, so, in this instance, a TVR behind and that Teterossa ahead...again! What is French for move over wide boy!?
This stage was relatively straight forward by comparison, no additional nav duties to perform in naming French villages that you didn't go through, or spotting and noting locations of carefully camouflaged jars of Foie Gras at the side of the road...or was that a wind up? Just some more great roads that simply needed dispatching on the loop back to Bethune.
Back across countryside and canal side we set off in pursuit of the wide Red Italian Fiat. Ahead, under a tree, in shade, the familiar green and yellow flash of Cannonball Bob's 7, Miss England...taking the 'elegant pace' option and having a moment's respite from the ever present and beautiful sunshine. By now, with only a few miles to go, the pack had caught up with itself on the relatively open roads. Ahead, now, an MGA, a Lotus Elite, a Lotus 7, another Elite, an original (looking) M3, That Red Fiat, us and, behind, a Chimera TVR with wind screen wipers all awry in their default 'failed' configuration ! An open view into a tight 90 left would see all but the 7evens braking into the bend (best not accelerate to take this one at speed) and then, the evocative view across the field as the convoy accelerates away, a selection of 4 , 8 and 12 cylinder engines harmonising when the sound wave nodes synchronise...I wanna' join the road side locals and watch this stuff!
And so our parade makes it's return to the square at Bethune. Back onto the cobbles and the madly chiming clock.This time to a reception of Sunday afternoon enthusiasts lining the street, camera and phones flashing/clicking accordingly (when was it that 'phones' could colloquially be described as flashing or clicking and that factually be so?!) All great fun, such attention for such a small car, I kid myself...perhaps it was the Red Fiat just ahead? Or maybe Ian's long locks attract the Gallic eye?
Did we win anything? Nope, just some sunburn, an oily sheen and a whole bag of smiles. The award presentation did see mark of the SKCC collect a 'spirit of the rally' award on behalf of the British contingent, he got to shake hands with the mayor of Bethune, which was nice. We felt that Mark represented us well in his 'two day's later' stained Gulf T-shirt as he mixed with the elegance of the French winners. Champagne under the chiming madness of the belfry had us finishing the day off in style. Pizza's and beers would have our feet right back on the ground come the evening though ...and all was well en-Francais.
Thanks to Bruno and Jean-Pierre of the Ecurie la Grange Aux Damiers for having the Sunrise Sevens and the SKCC to your brilliantly organised event.Thanks also to the weather men for sunshine for the whole weekend in France... but not for the sharp downpour on the M20 on the final stretch home! Thanks to the French public and authorities for still embracing our enthusiasm for such an eco/politically incorrect activity, how many times was it repeated during the weekend that 'this would never be allowed in the UK!' Vive la France! And a final What-Ho! to the Sunrisers and 'Sunbeams' © :-) for making it a great few days...so much so, that we wanted to stay longer and missed the ferry!!
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great stuff - French roads are superb ! (Not a pothole to be seen ...almost !)
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