Angoulême car rally

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mach2andy
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Joined: Wed Jun 21, 2017 9:31 am
Great Britain

#1 Angoulême car rally

Post by mach2andy » Fri Mar 30, 2018 11:33 am

Have any of you been to the above, or do you intend to go this year? If you have been before, any thoughts on the event? Any tips? Things to do or to avoid? My cousin lives near Angouleme, so I have somewhere to stay fortunately.
As you can see from the pics the E will be nowhere near complete, so I'll be taking the Vette. I'll post an update as to how I'm getting on with R20498 at the end of next week.
ATB
Andy
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Andy
1970 S2 FHC
1965 SB Corvette Ragtop

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BRM
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Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:00 am
Location: Essex
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#2 Re: Angoulême car rally

Post by BRM » Sun Apr 01, 2018 3:42 pm

Hi Andy,
We took the E type down to Angouleme in 2015. The car had been in bits until about a month before and it was touch and go if we would make it but in the end it was back in one piece just in time. Thanks again Angus ! We set off with a newly rebuilt engine and the car covered 1000 miles faultlessly.

We did the rally on the Saturday - about 100 miles touring round the Cognac countryside with hundreds of other classics, lunch and other refreshment stops all included. For us it was the highlight of the weekend with locals lining the route and waving, and finishing in the town centre. The day wasn't cheap though and having done it once I'm not sure I would do it again.

The racing on the Sunday I found slightly disappointing, to be honest, not from the quality point of view - that was excellent with some wonderful cars - but from a spectator friendliness point of view. We had seats in one of the grandstands which were good, although the heat got a bit unbearable at times. Without those, viewing would have been rather difficult. With the circuit being round the streets of the old town, there are large parts of it which are inaccessible for spectators or only visible from a distance. The few places you can get near the track you are, not unexpectedly, behind a huge chain link fence. On the plus side you can wander freely around the cars in the paddock area which is very good.

We found it a very pleasant town and somewhere I wouldn't mind visiting for its own sake. There are plenty of eating establishments. Parking was a bit of a nightmare over the race weekend - after the rally we just left the car at the hotel and took a taxi in, though that was probably more to do with the intended consumption of copious wine and beer !

In summary we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and I'm glad we did it once but I'm not sure I'd pay the cost of the rally again and without that I don't think I'd go all that way again just for the racing.
Brian

1969 S2 FHC 1R20267
1960 Austin Healey 3000

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