DDK CLM 2022 diary thread

[hot66]

great photos there Gary

[neilbardsley]

Mrs B asked why do you want to see the showers!!

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[matteo68]

Photo dump No.1 incoming... with bit of a E-Type theme in places!

What’s that Tangerine ‘72 2.7 with fibreglass bumpers but no ducktail Gary? Looks great!

[hot66]

That’s Barry’s hot rod (porschebarry)

[neilbardsley]

Onto The Tour of Flanders Museum and a famous climb



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[neilbardsley]

A quick stop in Bradley Wiggins birth town. Then finally home to Werk 1A. Over 6 hours of driving. The car didn't put a foot. M7 nuts, for the clutch, waiting for me at home.

About 1500 trouble free miles.

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[hot66]

Great extended trip there Neil

[Hugo 356]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any great photos of 356s racing on track at Le Mans Classic 2022 they would be willing to share for publishing in the global 356 Registry Magazine?

John Hearn normally provides the racing photos but was unable to attend this year and mine are either focussed on the chain link fence, off-centre or so small they could be a Bentley Continental on the M25...

No money is involved as it is voluntary but I will ensure they are credited. If you are able to help please could you post them on here by the end of this weekend as my copy deadline is very tight.

I plan to share the article on here when it it published

Thanks in advance
Hugo

[stretch]

Me and 6 other DDK guy's had a great time in France. There was supposed to be 10 of us, but a few didn't make it for various reasons. We decided not to camp and booked ourselves into a very nice Airbnb around 40 mins from the circuit. The drive to the circuit was an easy and enjoyable route. Amongst the cars was a Ford escort owned and driven by Gary Cooke from GDC automotive with Julio as his co-pilot. They provided us with the best laughs we have had in ages last Saturday night. How you take nearly 4 hours to do a 40 minute drive.....

After a cracking weekend we headed off up North to visit Omaha beach en-route to a couple of nights stay in Honfleur. A short visit to Le touquet on the way back to the tunnel topped off a great week in France. 1100 miles door to door with no mechanical issues with the ST but the fuel bill was eye watering..!

Well worth it though. Top week lads.
Dave
A few pictures:

20220704_103833 by stretch1985, on Flickr
20220701_081939 by stretch1985, on Flickr
20220704_103930 by stretch1985, on Flickr
20220704_115717 by stretch1985, on Flickr
20220704_143154 by stretch1985, on Flickr
20220706_141824 by stretch1985, on Flickr
20220706_142714 (1) by stretch1985, on Flickr

[Bootsy]

Looks great and a nice selection of cars

[neilbardsley]

Is that Maz's 911?

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[stretch]

It is Neil.

[Hugo 356]

As we chatted in the queue for the boat at Newhaven, it dawned on us that a 4:30am arrival at Dieppe was 3:30am UK time and we questioned our rationale for taking an overnight crossing. Our travel plan for the 10th edition of the Le Mans Classic was hatched back in 2019 for 2020, delayed by global pandemic to 2021 then 2022 so it was unsurprising the finer details had been lost to the mists of time.

Dan Penfold and his ’56 Outlaw, Anthony ‘Bruce’ Duncan’s ’55 Continental & my ’56 V-Sunroof were joined this year by Dave Clark. Since our last trip to Le Mans, Dave’s Airwerx of Ringwood, UK had carried out a sympathetic body restoration on the Continental; Bruce’s trousers no longer got wet when it rained.

Dave immediately demonstrated his value to the team as we disembarked at Dieppe, the ’55 running on 3 cylinders. He quickly had the top off the left-hand remanufactured Solex 32, used carb cleaner to unstick the float valve, re-assembled and once we remembered to re-open the fuel tap, we were on our way.



Arriving at the trackside campsite there was evidence of cost-cutting by the organisers with only one toilet block for the whole compound. Also based at our site was Mercedes-Benz Classic and relief was to be found by infiltrating the air-conditioned luxury of their toilet trailer. Thankyou Stuttgart’s next finest! Erecting our tent, we headed to Arnage to enjoy steak and frites as a stream of rare classics passed by on their way to the circuit.







Practice started Friday and we moved our cars to the Original Flat 4 Driver’s Club space, where classic car photographer Remi Dargegen directed (to the millimetre) our display of 110 early VWs, Porsches and associated period coachbuilts and specials.



Fresh restoration on a ’55 European carried out by Pascal Knockaert





The Okrasa Special’s mid-engined chassis, built in 1958 by one of England’s first VW & Porsche dealers wasn’t bodied until Steve Wright took up the project 50 years later



1963 Formcar imported from the US by Porsche introduced Formula Vee to Europe









With access unhindered by the health and safety typical at UK circuits, we headed to the paddock. Dan was sporting his ‘Dan Gurney for President’ and 356 Registry name badges. The latter was recognised by racer and Registry member Jean-François Penillard who was competing in his ’54 1300 Coupe. Vic Skirmants (reportedly at Le Mans that weekend) had built the engine. Starting with a 1500 reduced to 1300cc and employing Vic’s signature free-flowing heads it revved over 7400, hitting 117 mph on the Mulsanne straight. Using its weight advantage to overtake the 300SL Gullwing on the brakes at the Mulsanne and Ford chicanes, Jean-François and Vic’s efforts were rewarded by an excellent 2nd place in the engine-capacity-adjusted Performance Index for Grid 2.



As in 2018, fastest 356 was the pushrod ’59 Speedster GT of father & son team Bill and Will Stephens competing in Grid 3. Completing a lap in 5 minutes 31 in Race 3, the GT was clocked on the Mulsanne straight at 136.9 mph, 4 mph faster than 2018. Viewing the Speedster in the paddock Dan noted it had the annular front / drum brake rear set-up favoured by Bruce ‘King Carrera’ Jennings.

De-bunking ‘you snooze you lose,’ the power-napping Stephens team were the fastest 356 of the weekend













Road & race



Saturday night’s party at the club space was gate-crashed by Gérard Larrousse in one of those new-fangled 911s. This was not just any 911; Gérard was re-united with the ST he had piloted in the 1970 Tour de France. Incentivised by Larrousse’s promise of a bottle Champagne for every kilo under 800kg, the Porsche factory mechanics had produced the lightest 911 ever to roll through the factory gates. Larrousse was beaten into 3rd place by two Matra prototypes whose path to victory was paved by the French government re-surfacing much of the route. Restored in the UK by Historika it was ‘as he left the car yesterday.’ Gérard is still to be found pedalling a 911 in classic racing. Kudos to Remi for pulling off this coup.





After a short speech, Gérard’s first stop was our Pimm’s bar at Steve’s right-hand-drive split-window Westphalia camper, the period feel this year enhanced by my Sounds of the ‘60s i-tunes mix; groovy. Special thanks to Registry member Paul Vernon for cycling back to camp twice in 80° heat for essential cocktail ingredients I had forgotten. The award for the most hangover-inducing drink went to the Belgians who brought along a Cactus schnapps in Auratium Green.





After the racing finishes on the Sunday and the crowds have departed there’s an opportunity to freely drive the access roads and the Bugatti track (not used for the 24 / Classic); we have yet to break onto the 24 track. Picking up the cars, the Outlaw was this time running on 3 cylinders. Dan whipped out the wet plug and the carb cleaner again & we were on our way.



Spying a photo opp at the ‘70 years of Porsche Clubs’ billboard, we lined up, at which point a pretty, young Mademoiselle approached Dan. She explained she was a model who had just done a photo shoot for Porsche France with the new 911 but she would like to do some modelling with our 356s. Ever the gentleman, Dan didn’t take up what seemed to me a decent proposal.

Travelling back on the Monday, a long lunch in historic Bernay resulted in the obligatory cross-country sprint to make the ferry, with a quick pit-stop to stock up on gifts of wine, chocolates and croissants. In the bar of the homeward bound ferry we agreed this was our favourite car event. Normally every 2 years, the next Classic is scheduled for 29th June to 2nd July 2023 celebrating 100 years of the 24 Heures du Mans. Now is the time to start planning…

[jeremyg]

That’s a fantastic report and story with great pics and real atmosphere. Thanks so much - for the first time since selling it I miss my 356!

[hot66]

It was a good vintage VW display, spent a bit of time drooling over the 51 crotch.

Shame we didn’t bump into your group ( not that we know what we all look like )