Gauld on the Valescure Concours, French Riviera

However, amongst the Alpine A110’s was the bright pink race car that was one of a team from Ecurie Aseptogyl, run by Robert “Bob” Neyret. Bob was a well-known dental surgeon who at one time raced and hill-climbed a GTO (Chassis 3943GT now owned by Tom Price). He also had set up a team of three pink Alpines to be driven by three of France’s top female drivers. Not only was Bob Neyret at the concours but one of his star drivers, Christine Dacremont was there along with her co-driver Francoise Conconi. It was quite a reunion.

I am always surprised at the different cars that suddenly turn up at Valescure and this year was no different. For example, who would expect to find a Kellison J4R here in the South of France?After all, was not a major production car and extremely rare even in the U.S. Jim Kellison and Bob Devin, who produced the popular glass-fibre bodies, worked together on a very attractive coupe towards the end of 1959. Based on a Corvette frame, motor and transmission, they attracted a lot of attention.

The car at the Concours was owned by Marc Coschieri and had racing history in the States before it was brought to Europe. Indeed, Marc may even have two of them as he raced a similar red one at Paul Ricard last year. Sitting next to it was a Porsche 550A Spyder and I know what you are thinking; replica. Well, I am not so sure… it had the proper coachbuilt body by Wendler but even trying a handstand I couldn’t quite read the chassis number for verification. I will be at the Porsche Museum on Friday and hope to find out more about it. The car is owned by Claudio Roddaro.

Joel Humbert’s aluminum Ferrari 275GTB2 racer (Chassis 08249) was originally raced by Edoardo Sprefico. I know that famed Ferrari expert Marcel Massini has studied this car, and it is interesting that Joel has had it refurbished but kept it in the bare aluminum as when it raced back in the 1960s. He has not even tried to have all the day to remove dents and bumps.

Another fascinating Ferrari was a one-off owned by artist Roland Bloch. This is a normal 330GT Berlinetta ( Chassis 6029) that had been involved in an accident early on and was rebodied by Sergio Scaglietti. It is unique and shows that even the rather dull looking 330GT could be made to look stunning with Scaglietti’s help.

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My old friend Nick Harley lives near Monaco and has an interesting selection of cars. He frequently drives his 1913 Alfonso Hispano Suiza to Paris but for the Velascure Concours, he brought along his Delahaye 135MS tourer with special English bodywork.

He explained: Delayhaye sent two chassis to England in 1938 and this one was bought by Joe Fry – of the Frys chocolate family – who was also well known in racing for his “Freikaiserwagen” built by his brother David Fry and Dick Caesar. Joe had the Carleton Coachbuilding Company build an elegant aluminum body for the Delahay which makes it unique. Fry did sprints and hill climbs with the car, and I first saw it in the 1960s, parked at a garage near Honiton and always stopped to look at it. However, about six years ago a car dealer friend came up to me at Retromobile in Paris with a book of photographs of cars he had for sale, and there was the Delahaye. I couldn’t help but buy it. It is a beautiful car to drive as it is very light to handle.