100 Years of Montlhéry: VRM 2024

Rumors have swirled for years that the Centenary of the Montlhéry autodrome, organized by Vincent Chamon and his team at Vintage Revival Montlhéry (VRM), would be the last.  Those who know the magic of this august racing circuit, a bowl filled with the ghosts of racing past, quickly submitted eligible pre-1940 racing cars and motorcycles, with priority given to vehicles that had raced at the track in its heyday of racing and record-breaking.  And so they came: a bumper crop of incredibly rare and storied vehicles, many only read about in magazines and books.  Plenty of applicants were turned away to make space for the best of the best, whose owners had taken pains to bring over 500 of their machines not for show, but for go.

Everyone knows concrete race tracks of a certain age are bumpy, and get worse with time, as the expansion joints between poured or cast sections shift and widen.  Brooklands was the worst of the lot, according to those who rode/drove there, built when the technology for pouring banked racetracks with concrete was new.  Montlhéry was a close second in the bumpy stakes, regardless that the engineering of a giant concrete tracks had evolved from a humped earth mound like Brooklands to an engineered steel-and-concrete construction by 1924. While Brooklands is a ruin today, Montlhéry is still in regular use, although it’s doubtful any improvements / amendments / repairs have been made to its crumbling surface in many decades.  And still they come, for the romance of the place.

Montlhéry has notoriously little infrastructure for the public, which dates right back to its origins: the owner, architects, and builders had simply forgotten to include grandstands in the plans, so they were a literal afterthought. Thus there are no built-in concession stands, few toilets, and little comfort for the public.  Everything necessary must be hauled in for the weekend, and vendors secured, with the available food best described as ‘better to bring your own lunch’, although there was an oyster trailer hidden far down behind the car tents this year!  Whoo! And, there’s an exhibition hall in the center of the track (jokingly nicknamed ‘the Guggenheim’) that serves a very good hot lunch, which you wouldn’t have known about (I didn’t) unless you’d entered a vehicle and been given a meal ticket.  These were improvements.

Gone are the days, though, when you could camp in the acres of forest in the heart of the circuit, and wander around at 6am (or 2am) to climb the banking and take photos on the actual track.  Those are treasured memories from the 1990s, racing at Coupe Moto Légende before it moved to the user-friendly race circuit at Dijon. A void was left for vintage racing at Montlhéry, which was filled 15 years ago by the youthful Vincent Chamon, and his team at VRM: it’s been a success since the very first event in 2011, which I was lucky to attend, vowing to return every two years to support the magic of vintage racing at this amazing venue.

Given the lack of infrastructure and visitor comfort, one might expect a weekend event at Montlhéry to be uncomfortable and little supported – the opposite of glamorous Goodwood, with its swanky entrants, tremendous car park, quality vendors and food tents, and vibe of family fun in a noisy amusement park.  VRM is Goodwood’s oily-handed sibling, too busy adjusting its carburetors to visit the champagne tent … which is exactly why I think it’s the best vintage motorsport event on the planet.  It’s dirty, inconvenient, hard to access, you’re likely to get a spot of oil on your clothes, and must constantly be on guard to avoid being run over by a Bugatti or Koehler-Escoffier or a madman piloting an ancient cyclecar with no brakes.  But, that’s how close you are at all times to some of the most important pre-war racing cars and motorcycles in the world, being used as their makers intended, sometimes in the same family hands as when they were campaigned at the pinnacle of their racing careers.

This Centenary year saw a bumper crop of over 500 cars and motorcycles, more than ever before – by a long shot in the case of bikes.  There was support from museums and factories, who brought their treasure out to play, a gesture much appreciated by the crowd.  This year that included Audi Tradition, who brought a string of legends including the awesome V16 Auto Union Grand Prix, and The Originals Renault, who brought historic record-breaking cars from the 1920s, and an incredible racing plane!  The list of entrants is too long (you can see them all here), but to summarize, included were 37 Bugatti Grand Prix racers, 20 racing Morgan three-wheelers, plus numerous Alfa-Romeos and Amilcars to Peugeots, Tatras, and two Wanderers from Audi Tradition – a ’34 W22 coupé and ’38 W25K streamliner.  There were over 160 motorcycles on the track, plus plenty of display vehicles to ogle on two, three, and four wheels, plus wings.  And a well-supported autojumble for moments of contemplation, and temptation.

As an homage to upcoming Paris Olympics (and I’m so glad that’s NEXT month!), the deDion-Bouton Club held a re-run of the Paris-Toulouse-Paris motor race held during the second modern Olympic games of 1900.  Team Jarrott, named for the foundational racing driver Charles Jarrott, who raced a deDion in the world’s first official motor vehicle race held in 1897, brought 20 1890s trikes to Montlhéry for special circuits of the track, the likes of which you’re unlikely to see anywhere else.  These folks are deliriously nuts, and hold regular trike races in the UK…reaching heady speeds of 60km/h and leaning into corners like sidecarrists.

The highlight of my visit was an invitation from Dr. Robin Tuluie, whom I’ve known since the 1980s in our Roadholders MC days, to passenger in his remarkable home-built racing special, the 1929 Menasco Pirate.  The chassis is Riley, but the resemblance stops there, as Rob sourced one of Albert Menasco‘s racing Pirate aero engines from California – a 4-cylinder air-cooled 6 liter beast with 230hp – and clad it in a lightweight aluminum racing body, with an all up weight of just over 1500lbs.  I wrote up Rob’s back story, and some about the Pirate, in a previous article, but suffice to say he’s won Daytona four times on motorcycles of his own construction (including the notorious Tul-Aris), and taken four Formula 1 Grand Prix World Championships as the chassis designer for Renault and Mercedes-Benz teams.  Rob’s antics on the track had spectators cheering and corner workers giving thumbs-up, as he four-wheel drifted and slithered through the chicanes, and thundered past the Bugattis and Alfas on the banking and the straights.  Rob likes to win, even when there’s nothing to win.

A borrowed helmet and gloves was good enough for tech – these are ‘demonstration’ laps after all – and I knew it would be a wild ride, even if Rob promised to ‘take it easy’.  As if he could!  The narrow cockpit required an arm around Rob’s shoulder on the track, but no squeezing in fear as the man had to haul the steering wheel, and it was my job to keep the hell out of the way as he flew around the track. Exhilarating is hardly the word; you haven’t lived until you’ve circulated a racetrack in fear of your safety, or your life!  I’ve ridden the banking myself on motorcycles fast (Velocette KTT Mk8) and slow (Ner-a-Car!), and passengered in insane cars (the late George Cohen’s no-brakes, chain-drive aero-engined Brazier, and in the rally car used as ‘sweep’ after each stage), but to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with an old friend in a demonstration of masterful, fast, prewar driving skills, was one of my life’s treasured moments.

Not many Americans (North or South) attend VRM, which is a shame, but understandable.  I traveled in full economy mode this year, re-discovering the joys of a 50 euro hotel room in Paris and microbox rental car, to splurge on the rich experience of the ancient racetrack, the 500 historic racers, and the fantastic friendly spirit of Vintage Revival.  Enjoy the photos!