Les Grandes Heures De Montlhery

There are incredibly evocative place names; Montlhery is one of them. With the opening chapter looking at the building of this banked track, some fascinating construction photographs and aerial views of the completed circuit are illustrated. The major races held between 1925 and 1971 are the main topic, with such events as the Grand Prix ACF Tourisme, Grand Prix ACF Vitesse, Grand Prix de L’ACF, Grands Prix de France, BOL D’Or 12 Heures de Paris, Coupes De Paris, Coupes de L’USA, Coupes De Printemps, Coupes de Vitesse, Grand Prix de Paris, and 1000 km De Paris. With a super array of fine photographs of both the leading cars and drivers of their day, such as Robert Benoits in the 12 cylinder Delage, Sir Henry Segrave in a GP Sunbeam, Campari in a P2 Alfa Romeo in the 1920s, and moving on to the 1930s with the 12 cylinder Delahaye and Louis Chiron on the 4 litre Talbot. During the classic 1950s, teams such as HWM with Lance Macklin and Peter Collins came to race. The sports cars scene became popular with entries for a host of marques such as the Ferrari and HRG, which then progressed in to the 1960s with high performance sports cars such as the Ford GT40 and Porsche 908 and later 917. In addition to the major racing events, Record breaking is also recorded, with long distance and endurance attempts being made with the likes of the 40Cv Renault on the 9th &10th July1926. There was also a ‘racing cars against planes’ challenge when in April 1931 Albert Diva ran a Type 51 Bugatti against a Hispano Suiza powered mono plane. The book offers a super pictorial tribute to events at this famous circuit.