Table of contents
- Review of the Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017 Pre-war classics on the racetrack
- Enormous background noise
- Replica of the North London Garages machine
- They all have oily fingers and the same enthusiasm
- Great feeling to drive here
- Contagious atmosphere
- More information about the Vintage Revival Montlhery
Michael Orth
23 pictures
Michael Orth
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
Michael Orth
2/23
The steep curves of Montlhery are raised by 51 degrees, three chicanes in between slow down the pace.
Michael Orth
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At the start: Alcyon, Terrot, Douglas, Griffon, Koehler-Escoffier and in the foreground a Thoman and two Monet-Goyon.
Michael Orth
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Excelsior with a beautiful patina.
Michael Orth
5/23
Expensive, shiny, classy and fast: HRD-Vincent from the National Motorcycle Museum.
Michael Orth
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Friendly negotiations on the parts market.
Michael Orth
7/23
Loud that it hurts: 500 Rudge Ulster.
Michael Orth
8/23
Pavel Malanik on the 2.7-liter NLG-JAP that he has reconstructed.
Michael Orth
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It’s good that the driver himself is just as slim as the 113-year-old Lourquin et Coudert 614 under him.
Michael Orth
10/23
It’s written in nail polish – an important note to remind yourself of the reverse scheme of the Albion gearbox.
Michael Orth
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Excelsior board tracker, built in 1925.
Michael Orth
12/23
Reconstruction of the Torpedo V4 from 1909 – and four connecting rods on a common crank pin.
Michael Orth
13/23
1928 Cotton Special from the Brooklands Museum, the one with the reference to the reversed circuit diagram.
Michael Orth
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The right atmosphere and the best mood in the paddock.
Michael Orth
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
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Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
Sports & scene
Events
Review of the Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
Review of the Vintage Revival Montlhery 2017
Pre-war classics on the racetrack
Content of
Nowhere else do so many and so different pre-war classics come together in such a unique atmosphere as at the Vintage Revival Montlhery. Unfortunately only every two years.
Michael Orth
08/03/2017
Up for down, down for up. It is better to make a note of that. So, because there is nothing else there, write “Up for down, down for up” on the metal plate in the field of vision in front of the handlebars with red nail polish. It is impossible to imagine what happens if he messes up and at 120 does not shift to last gear but shifts back to second. “It’ll be okay,” James yells at him as the two stand next to each other in the pit lane, James on a 1000 Vincent HRD from 1938 and Tony on the reconstruction of a 1928 Cotton with a JAP Speedway V2. Tony just nods and gives a quick thumbs up, talking a lot doesn’t help anyway. Around the two of them, almost 40 Grand Prix and racing machines roar up to temperature, the oldest such as the Norton CS 1, the 500 AJS or the BMW R 63 Sport almost 90, the youngest 78 years old, a Velocette MAC MOV 350.
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Enormous background noise
It’s so loud that you can hear a chirp in your ears even minutes after the machines have accelerated one after the other onto the track. The area around the pit lane was generously fogged by a very aromatic cloud of badly burned fuel and methanol. Even at the pre-start it was almost unbearable and the poor announcer had as little chance against the machines as the chansons they played in between because of the nostalgic atmosphere, even though he was overturning in his enthusiasm.
Replica of the North London Garages machine
“Isn’t that crazy?” Asks George Davidson with wide eyes as the motorcycles are on the move. “Have you seen how the valves go on the NLG and how you can hear it every time they open and close? Fffffft, fffffft, fffffft, fffffft, ffffffft ”, George makes and with his index fingers as if it were the rocker arms pressing the valves. George came specially from Kentucky to the Vintage Revival Montlhery, and although as a Bugatti driver he is mainly there for the cars, he cannot get rid of this thing. That thing is the replica of the North London Garages machine that W.E. Cook reached a speed of 90 miles an hour in Brooklands 98 years ago, beneath a 90-degree JAP-V2 with a displacement of 2.7 liters. The Czech Pavel Malanik built the replica in more than two years of work and had to make every single part, every single one.
They all have oily fingers and the same enthusiasm
The Vintage Revival Montlhery is the perfect stage to let the gigantic machine run. Every two years, the Revival brings together around 400 cars and almost 200 motorcycles from pre-war times 30 kilometers south of Paris on the old steep face of Montlhery. “There is no better pre-war meeting than this,” says Patrick Bouton, a big cigar between his fingers and a beard glued to his 1920s suit under his nose. “The machines that you can see and hear here are sensational, and so are the people.” Olivier Mahe, he prefers a pipe and a gray workshop overalls, agrees with Patrick.
Michael Orth
1928 Cotton Special from the Brooklands Museum, the one with the reference to the reversed circuit diagram.
“Nobody is imagining anything here, but they all have oily fingers and the same enthusiasm for the old stuff.” They don’t let the lousy weather take them away. It rains, more or less, all the time, but it’s just a shame because nobody can dare to approach the upper edge of the mighty banked curves with the motorcycles. There a heavily dented double guardrail secures all courageous people against flying off into nowhere. Unlike in Brooklands or Sitges with their artificial embankments, the approximately 2.5 kilometers long and up to 20 meters wide concrete runway from Montlhery rests in the elevated curves on 18 meter high reinforced concrete columns.
Great feeling to drive here
With an incline of 51 degrees, the curves are more than twice as steep as those of modern Nascar courses in the USA. “All you have in front of you is a concrete belt that curves towards the sky, and when you go into the banked curve for the first time, you think you have to fall off. But the physics, ”says Jean-Frederic Frot,“ the physics works. And when you’ve got used to it, it’s a great feeling to drive here, it’s the perfect balance. ”Together with Vincent Chamon, Fred organizes the Vintage Revival Montlhery on a private initiative. And you don’t have to ask them why they are doing this. “Have a look around,” says Vincent. “We love these machines, we love the aesthetics of their mechanics, which are as close as anything modern is not. And anyone who comes here feels the same very quickly. “
Contagious atmosphere
He’s right there, the atmosphere is contagious at the Vintage Revival Montlhery. This certainly has something to do with the record-rich past, with the aura of this route, where in 1929 Herbert le Vack was the first to break the 200 mark on a motorcycle with a Brough Superior. “That won’t work today,” says Philippe Boucq with a smile. He has just done a few laps on his 1925 Monet Goyon ZS 3 175. “The track is slippery because of the rain, and sometimes you hop around quite a bit. We prefer to do it slowly. ”Some people have no other choice on their Lourquin et Coudert, Alcyon Alcyonette or Griffon Type E anyway. Whereby speed is also relative in the everyday understanding of the term. On a Magnat Debon Course or a Thoman AD 250, 80 things can feel daring fast, on a Gillet Herstal 350 or Douglas W 350 fast and on a three-cylinder bay from 1905, an ABC Brooklands or a Zenith Gradua like jumping into one other dimension.
Michael Orth
Expensive, shiny, classy and fast: HRD-Vincent from the National Motorcycle Museum.
The Vintage Revival sends everyone in Montlhery, participants, helpers and visitors to another time. A time arm-length push rods, rattle-thin, rigid frames, pulleys the size of an impeller, directly driven front wheels, open barking single-cylinder, monumental two-cylinder, lateral control and counter-control, a time steeply upright or crouching or almost lying stretched sitting positions. All of these machines can be seen immediately, the constant endeavor to construct something different, something different and thus better than was previously possible. That did not always work, of course, many things of the impossibility arose, but it is nice that that would only become apparent later, and that almost every failure very quickly led to a new idea. How do we do this now? The thoughts can almost be seen in the constructions, they can be read from them like the switching instructions that Tony painted with nail polish on the Cotton-JAP. Up for down, down for up. And of course it works, of course he doesn’t get confused, but easily copes with the reversed shift pattern of the Albion gearbox.
More information about the Vintage Revival Montlhery
Every two years, 30 kilometers south of Paris, the old Montlhery race track with its immense banked curves is the perfect venue for the privately organized Vintage Revival, which, according to participants and visitors, is the best meeting in the world for pre-war classics with two or more wheels.
- Next appointment: 11./12. May 2019
- Official Website: www.vintage-revival.fr
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