Just to prove it's not all WWII, I achieved another long-standing ambition on my recent Normandy trip. The Rouen-Les Essarts racetrack hosted five French Grand Prix between 1952/1968. It was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful, challenging and finally, downright lethal road circuits in Europe. It fell into disuse in the early 1990s after a number of tragic accidents. Here is Luigi Musso's 2.5 litre V8 Ferrari 801 on its way to 2nd place in the 1957 French GP... And a rather less illustrious car and driver, almost exactly 50 years later.... Is any country more fascinating for the history buff....?
Well - I wouldn't quite go that far.... ( Poor Musso was to die exactly one year later , 'trying too hard' in the French GP at Reims.... )
In these days of 'Scalextric' circuits, these pics may give an idea of why Rouen was banned... The car is parked in the old pitlane entrance. To the left was the start/finish line and ahead....is a totally blind brow... A Lotus F1 driver in the 1960s said that this was why Rouen was a 'scary place'....you had to change into top gear as you crossed the line and in front of you was 'a tree-lined drainpipe'.....flat-out at 165-170mph over that blind brow you find..... A blind downhill right-hander, followed by another flat-out downhill left, then the downhill 'Six Freres' right-hander ( where four drivers have been killed ) and another fast downhill left before the hairpin in the first two photos..... One driver recalled screaming into his facemask one very lap to summon up enough courage not to 'lift' the throttle into this section. 50mph was quite fast enough for me......
Martin, I think I've found the circuit on a map, there's some good websites about thr circuit out there. This one has some good photos. 8W - Where? - Rouen-les-Essarts Can you post the co-ords from GoogleEarth? Is this it? 49°19'50.20"N 1° 0'6.73"E Did you find that young French lads on their mopeds like to travel exactly 1cm from your rear bumper in that area of France?
Absolutely, WW ! It was stumbling across that very website which led me to visit the old circuit.... The guy has done a great job with the site because as of yet, no book has been published about the history of the les Essarts track. The place certainly has a strange and atmospheric 'feel' - even though so few tangible reminders remain.....
