65 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Just back from a couple of days in Sicily involved with filming of a new 'docu-drama' telling the story of the Targa Florio.  It was great to be back on the Piccolo Madonie, 41 years after having covered the last World Championship race there, in 1973. However, I was dismayed to find it is now impossible to drive a complete lap of the old circuit without quite major diversions.  For many Targa history cars of the 1960s and more recently, a complete lap would now be impossible, due to the old roadway having collapsed or been blocked in places by rockfalls and landslides. If the Italian economy sneezes, Sicily catches pneumonia.  The island is presently so strapped for cash that it has no funds whatsoever to maintain and repair such little-used rural roads as those which comprise most of the Piccolo Madonie circuit.  Indeed some of the more-used Grande Madonie course are in better nick. 

 

See here:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 1.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 2.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 3.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

[ensign14]

Sicily is hardly potless.  It received over 15,000,000,000 euro in EU programme money from 2000 to 2013.  Enough to build a dual carriageway Mille Miglia replica, let alone a Targa. 

 

Or they could have given three grand for every man, woman and child on the triangle.

[Ray Bell]

That first pic looks like it was a great bit of competition road when it was in good shape...

Thanks for the pics Doug, any more will be welcomed.

[Automobiliart]

Once I'm setup in the UK, I would like to work with motorsports and local historians too see what can be done to promote Targa Florio history, and repair the route and infrastructure.
I think it's really sad to have it fall into ruin, destroying to vestiges of such a famous race.
I've done a series highlighting key years of the race:

http://www.pinterest...60821790375309/

http://www.pinterest...60821790375292/

http://www.pinterest...60821790375282/

I hope to use these images as banners along the route.
It's a dream, but I'd like to give it a try.

[Alan Cox]

Very sad to see the further deterioration in the roads since I was last there. I sadly missed the real Targa but first went in 1986 to the first revival, when Porsche sent a number of works cars from the museum along with drivers including Brian Redman, Hans Hermann, Dieter Glemser, Walter Rohrl etc. The roads then were pretty 'iffy' in many places with road-mending teams throwing tarmac into the odd pothole here and there on the evening before the event, and when I went back in subsequent years the roads had deteriorated further, with landslips removing the road edges and temporary barriers erected around the most dangerous faults. No surprise then, really, to see how much worse it has got in the interim.

 

As ensign says, the Sicilians have certainly received EU grants, much of which seems to have been hijacked for ill-conceived projects - I recall, on one visit, driving up a narrow, very testing and twisty road to a one-horse hilltop village where we had and excellent lunch and where, on approaching the village, we had spotted a hoarding boasting that some local project had been funded by Brussels. To our amazement we discovered that it was a motorway standard, three-lane roadway out of the far side of the village built to an easy gradient gently taking us back to the valley floor from whence we had set off, with not another car to be seen. Something to do with the local suppliers of concrete I suspect.

 

I look forward to the docu-drama being released, Doug

[Doug Nye]

Sicily is hardly potless.  It received over 15,000,000,000 euro in EU programme money from 2000 to 2013.  Enough to build a dual carriageway Mille Miglia replica, let alone a Targa. 

 

Or they could have given three grand for every man, woman and child on the triangle.

Ha - well according to the road services guys in Termini Imerese, responsible for much of the Piccolo Madonie, none of it has filtered down to their level.  Are we surprised?  More Florio filming pix here, including one of Count Florio's last Sicilian residence, and of his office preserved there - which had been the family beach house before their shattering economic reverse under Mussolini's regime...

 

The Florio house on the Palermo seafront - originally one of the Florio group's tuna processing plants:

https://dl.dropboxus...ME, PALERMO.jpg

 

Count Florio's office:

https://dl.dropboxus...CE, PALERMO.jpg

 

The old start area, built by Count Florio just above Cerda railway station and dubbed at the time 'Floriopoli':

https://dl.dropboxus...LORIOPOLI 1.jpg

 

Filming in Collesano on the Piccolo Madonie route with Alain de Cadenet and Francesco da Mosto of BBC 2 touring Italy fame:

https://dl.dropboxus...D DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Ditto:

https://dl.dropboxus...O DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Filming at the spot pointed out to us as the site of Brian Redman's fiery accident on the descent between Caltavuturo and Scillato in the 908/03, 1971 Targa...

https://dl.dropboxus... CRASH SITE.jpg

 

Peugeot-Hall Scott special in the grounds of the Florio house:

https://dl.dropboxus...SE, PALERMO.jpg

 

Al De Cad's glorious Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 in a Collesano side street...

https://dl.dropboxus...0 COLLESANO.jpg

 

I must be growing really old - not only do the cops look younger, but...  

https://dl.dropboxus...O LOCAL COP.jpg

 

Here's Antonino 'Nini' Venturella, curator of the Targa Florio Museum in Campofelice di Rocella, where his late father Ernesto was the village policeman for many years. He had been a PoW in Birmingham during WW2 and spoke a brand of Italianate English heavily Brummagem accented.  Inevitably nicknamed 'Ernesto the Policeman' - after Enid Blyton's ever benign and helpful 'Toytown' character - he was a huge help to the British and American press visiting the Targa, and became a great friend of Geoff Goddard, Denis Jenkinson, Henry Manney, Pete Coltrin's etc.  I gave him Geoff's press pass and car park pass from the last Targa Geoff ever attended - in 1973 - to join the special Goddard display within the Museum, which includes examples of his photography from the 11 Targas that our old pal covered...  For Nini - fresh from cardiac surgery - this proved a rather emotional moment (and for me too...).

https://dl.dropboxus...1973 PASSES.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 23 September 2014 - 11:12.

[Gary C]

Looking forward to the doco, Doug. Have they got their hands on some interesting library footage?

[Alan Cox]

Super photos, Doug. Looks like it was fun to film.

 

Found these clips on TouTube

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=sEuB4y4LEtM

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=XF5m_UKehIM

Edited by Alan Cox, 23 September 2014 - 10:58.

[Paul Parker]

Very sad to see the further deterioration in the roads since I was last there. I sadly missed the real Targa but first went in 1986 to the first revival, when Porsche sent a number of works cars from the museum along with drivers including Brian Redman, Hans Hermann, Dieter Glemser, Walter Rohrl etc. The roads then were pretty 'iffy' in many places with road-mending teams throwing tarmac into the odd pothole here and there on the evening before the event, and when I went back in subsequent years the roads had deteriorated further, with landslips removing the road edges and temporary barriers erected around the most dangerous faults. No surprise then, really, to see how much worse it has got in the interim.

 

As ensign says, the Sicilians have certainly received EU grants, much of which seems to have been hijacked for ill-conceived projects - I recall, on one visit, driving up a narrow, very testing and twisty road to a one-horse hilltop village where we had and excellent lunch and where, on approaching the village, we had spotted a hoarding boasting that some local project had been funded by Brussels. To our amazement we discovered that it was a motorway standard, three-lane roadway out of the far side of the village built to an easy gradient gently taking us back to the valley floor from whence we had set off, with not another car to be seen. Something to do with the local suppliers of concrete I suspect.

 

I look forward to the docu-drama being released, Doug

 

My, what a surprise, the misappropriation of taxpayers' money.

[targaflorio19061977]

Ha - well according to the road services guys in Termini Imerese, responsible for much of the Piccolo Madonie, none of it has filtered down to their level.  Are we surprised?  More Florio filming pix here, including one of Count Florio's last Sicilian residence, and of his office preserved there - which had been the family beach house before their shattering economic reverse under Mussolini's regime...

 

The Florio house on the Palermo seafront - originally one of the Florio group's tuna processing plants:

https://dl.dropboxus...ME, PALERMO.jpg

 

Count Florio's office:

https://dl.dropboxus...CE, PALERMO.jpg

 

The old start area, built by Count Florio just above Cerda railway station and dubbed at the time 'Floriopoli':

https://dl.dropboxus...LORIOPOLI 1.jpg

 

Filming in Collesano on the Piccolo Madonie route with Alain de Cadenet and Francesco da Mosto of BBC 2 touring Italy fame:

https://dl.dropboxus...D DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Ditto:

https://dl.dropboxus...O DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Filming at the spot pointed out to us as the site of Brian Redman's fiery accident on the descent between Caltavuturo and Scillato in the 908/03, 1971 Targa...

https://dl.dropboxus... CRASH SITE.jpg

 

Peugeot-Hall Scott special in the grounds of the Florio house:

https://dl.dropboxus...SE, PALERMO.jpg

 

Al De Cad's glorious Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 in a Collesano side street...

https://dl.dropboxus...0 COLLESANO.jpg

 

I must be growing really old - not only do the cops look younger, but...  

https://dl.dropboxus...O LOCAL COP.jpg

 

Here's Antonino 'Nini' Venturella, curator of the Targa Florio Museum in Campofelice di Rocella, where his late father Ernesto was the village policeman for many years. He had been a PoW in Birmingham during WW2 and spoke a brand of Italianate English heavily Brummagem accented.  Inevitably nicknamed 'Ernesto the Policeman' - after Enid Blyton's ever benign and helpful 'Toytown' character - he was a huge help to the British and American press visiting the Targa, and became a great friend of Geoff Goddard, Denis Jenkinson, Henry Manney, Pete Coltrin's etc.  I gave him Geoff's press pass and car park pass from the last Targa Geoff ever attended - in 1973 - to join the special Goddard display within the Museum, which includes examples of his photography from the 11 Targas that our old pal covered...  For Nini - fresh from cardiac surgery - this proved a rather emotional moment (and for me too...).

https://dl.dropboxus...1973 PASSES.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

 

 

Ha - well according to the road services guys in Termini Imerese, responsible for much of the Piccolo Madonie, none of it has filtered down to their level.  Are we surprised?  More Florio filming pix here, including one of Count Florio's last Sicilian residence, and of his office preserved there - which had been the family beach house before their shattering economic reverse under Mussolini's regime...

 

The Florio house on the Palermo seafront - originally one of the Florio group's tuna processing plants:

https://dl.dropboxus...ME, PALERMO.jpg

 

Count Florio's office:

https://dl.dropboxus...CE, PALERMO.jpg

 

The old start area, built by Count Florio just above Cerda railway station and dubbed at the time 'Floriopoli':

https://dl.dropboxus...LORIOPOLI 1.jpg

 

Filming in Collesano on the Piccolo Madonie route with Alain de Cadenet and Francesco da Mosto of BBC 2 touring Italy fame:

https://dl.dropboxus...D DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Ditto:

https://dl.dropboxus...O DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Filming at the spot pointed out to us as the site of Brian Redman's fiery accident on the descent between Caltavuturo and Scillato in the 908/03, 1971 Targa...

https://dl.dropboxus... CRASH SITE.jpg

 

Peugeot-Hall Scott special in the grounds of the Florio house:

https://dl.dropboxus...SE, PALERMO.jpg

 

Al De Cad's glorious Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 in a Collesano side street...

https://dl.dropboxus...0 COLLESANO.jpg

 

I must be growing really old - not only do the cops look younger, but...  

https://dl.dropboxus...O LOCAL COP.jpg

 

Here's Antonino 'Nini' Venturella, curator of the Targa Florio Museum in Campofelice di Rocella, where his late father Ernesto was the village policeman for many years. He had been a PoW in Birmingham during WW2 and spoke a brand of Italianate English heavily Brummagem accented.  Inevitably nicknamed 'Ernesto the Policeman' - after Enid Blyton's ever benign and helpful 'Toytown' character - he was a huge help to the British and American press visiting the Targa, and became a great friend of Geoff Goddard, Denis Jenkinson, Henry Manney, Pete Coltrin's etc.  I gave him Geoff's press pass and car park pass from the last Targa Geoff ever attended - in 1973 - to join the special Goddard display within the Museum, which includes examples of his photography from the 11 Targas that our old pal covered...  For Nini - fresh from cardiac surgery - this proved a rather emotional moment (and for me too...).

https://dl.dropboxus...1973 PASSES.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

 

Ha - well according to the road services guys in Termini Imerese, responsible for much of the Piccolo Madonie, none of it has filtered down to their level.  Are we surprised?  More Florio filming pix here, including one of Count Florio's last Sicilian residence, and of his office preserved there - which had been the family beach house before their shattering economic reverse under Mussolini's regime...

 

The Florio house on the Palermo seafront - originally one of the Florio group's tuna processing plants:

https://dl.dropboxus...ME, PALERMO.jpg

 

Count Florio's office:

https://dl.dropboxus...CE, PALERMO.jpg

 

The old start area, built by Count Florio just above Cerda railway station and dubbed at the time 'Floriopoli':

https://dl.dropboxus...LORIOPOLI 1.jpg

 

Filming in Collesano on the Piccolo Madonie route with Alain de Cadenet and Francesco da Mosto of BBC 2 touring Italy fame:

https://dl.dropboxus...D DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Ditto:

https://dl.dropboxus...O DE MOSTRO.jpg

 

Filming at the spot pointed out to us as the site of Brian Redman's fiery accident on the descent between Caltavuturo and Scillato in the 908/03, 1971 Targa...

https://dl.dropboxus... CRASH SITE.jpg

 

Peugeot-Hall Scott special in the grounds of the Florio house:

https://dl.dropboxus...SE, PALERMO.jpg

 

Al De Cad's glorious Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 in a Collesano side street...

https://dl.dropboxus...0 COLLESANO.jpg

 

I must be growing really old - not only do the cops look younger, but...  

https://dl.dropboxus...O LOCAL COP.jpg

 

Here's Antonino 'Nini' Venturella, curator of the Targa Florio Museum in Campofelice di Rocella, where his late father Ernesto was the village policeman for many years. He had been a PoW in Birmingham during WW2 and spoke a brand of Italianate English heavily Brummagem accented.  Inevitably nicknamed 'Ernesto the Policeman' - after Enid Blyton's ever benign and helpful 'Toytown' character - he was a huge help to the British and American press visiting the Targa, and became a great friend of Geoff Goddard, Denis Jenkinson, Henry Manney, Pete Coltrin's etc.  I gave him Geoff's press pass and car park pass from the last Targa Geoff ever attended - in 1973 - to join the special Goddard display within the Museum, which includes examples of his photography from the 11 Targas that our old pal covered...  For Nini - fresh from cardiac surgery - this proved a rather emotional moment (and for me too...).

https://dl.dropboxus...1973 PASSES.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

Special thanks to Doug.

 

Your visit in Targa Florio land remain a great experience for me, to remeber my father, geoff and other big name in love of motosport

 

 

[Sharman]

Well it is Cosa Nostra, our thing might be motor racing nostalgia but theirs....?

[proviz]

Just back from a couple of days in Sicily involved with filming of a new 'docu-drama' telling the story of the Targa Florio.  It was great to be back on the Piccolo Madonie, 41 years after having covered the last World Championship race there, in 1973. However, I was dismayed to find it is now impossible to drive a complete lap of the old circuit without quite major diversions.  For many Targa history cars of the 1960s and more recently, a complete lap would now be impossible, due to the old roadway having collapsed or been blocked in places by rockfalls and landslides. If the Italian economy sneezes, Sicily catches pneumonia.  The island is presently so strapped for cash that it has no funds whatsoever to maintain and repair such little-used rural roads as those which comprise most of the Piccolo Madonie circuit.  Indeed some of the more-used Grande Madonie course are in better nick. 

 

See here:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 1.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 2.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 3.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

 

The big diversion just after Collesano seems to be caused by a landslide blocking the road. It shouldn't take too long to clear that. Still, it's disappointing to see how much the condition of roads has deteriorated since my previous visit some four years ago.

[elansprint72]

Given the number of faults and amount of volcanic activity on and around Sicily, it's no wonder that a few cracks have appeared. These can swallow up a remarkable number of Euro.

 

http://www.academia....zard_evaluation

[Doug Nye]

At the 1973 Targa - which proved to be the last World Championship status race there - we were all invited to an AC Palermo presentation in which they announced plans for a new closed autodrome upon which they planned to run a premier-league Targa in future years.  There is now such a track, the Autodromo Vincenzo Florio, with just over a 2km lap, allegedly to be extended to 5kms by 2018, adjacent to Palermo's municipal landfill rubbish site, but I don't know quite when it was built, nor how much use it sees or has seen.  

 

The big thing from that 1973 presentation that I recall is how every speaker showed great passion and commitment and how each one referred to the great race as "...nostra Targa..." - "our Targa".  Sadly, "our money" proved insufficient to make anything happen and - sadly again - Sicily (like mainland Italy itself) just seems at executive level to be consistently incapable of organising a decent booze-up in a brewery...

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 25 September 2014 - 12:35.

[jj2728]

Wonderful photos, thanks for sharing them.

 

john

[Svend Seegert]

Stumbled over this project: It's not the roads, but the "Floriopoli area":

 

https://www.kickstar...of-targa-florio

[fuzzi]

Quote from an advert in the latest VSCC Newsletter about the film:

 

"The film features and is presented by Francesco Da Mosto, whom you may have seen in 5 successful BBC series about Italy, and Alain de Cadenet, a well know playboy who has won his class in a Porsche 911 in the Targa and had a near fatal accident in his Lola prototype when the front wheel came off, hit him on the head and the car caught fire"

Edited by fuzzi, 05 August 2015 - 09:14.

[foxyracer]

Just back from a couple of days in Sicily involved with filming of a new 'docu-drama' telling the story of the Targa Florio.  It was great to be back on the Piccolo Madonie, 41 years after having covered the last World Championship race there, in 1973. However, I was dismayed to find it is now impossible to drive a complete lap of the old circuit without quite major diversions.  For many Targa history cars of the 1960s and more recently, a complete lap would now be impossible, due to the old roadway having collapsed or been blocked in places by rockfalls and landslides. If the Italian economy sneezes, Sicily catches pneumonia.  The island is presently so strapped for cash that it has no funds whatsoever to maintain and repair such little-used rural roads as those which comprise most of the Piccolo Madonie circuit.  Indeed some of the more-used Grande Madonie course are in better nick. 

 

See here:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 1.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 2.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...A TROUBLE 3.jpg

 

All Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

 

The premiere of "Pistons, Passions, Pleasures - A Sicilian Dream" was last night at the Prince Charles Cinema near Leicester Square, London.  It's quite short at 70 mins but well worth watching.  Most of the new "action" footage features Edwardian cars and several went over from the UK for filming.  It was a shame they couldn't get a few post-war cars to complete the story but maybe they are more difficult to film on public roads.  Archive material was used instead.  Overall a very good film with some nice humourous touches and well worth the journey down from Nottinghamshire to see it on the big screen.  

 

Nick Mason and Alain de Cadanet were in attendance as special guests to host a Q & A at the end.  Sadly, the event ran out of time and the Q & A fizzled out before it really started!!

 

Were any other TNFers there?

 

 

The film will be available on DVD from Duke Marketing from 9th November if I remember correctly.

[Doug Nye]

I was invited but couldn't make it...  Glad to hear that what I missed is apparently something quite worthwhile?

 

DCN

[foxyracer]

I was invited but couldn't make it...  Glad to hear that what I missed is apparently something quite worthwhile?

 

DCN

 

Yes.  Definitely.  Your contribution came across well too.

[Doug Nye]

Ooh-err - that's a bonus then.  Thank you.

 

DCN

[Ray Bell]

Doug...

I am driving to the southern tip of Italy during my trip next year, I'd like to know how much time and money it's likely to take to get me to see the circuit?

I believe it is probably worth the trouble and cost, but only if I can do it in a day and a half or so out of Italy.

[chr1s]

Doug, as a matter of interest, when you went there in 1973, were you aware then that that was going to be the last World championship Targa? 

 

Thanks Chris.

[Jack-the-Lad]

 
 
The film will be available on DVD from Duke Marketing from 9th November if I remember correctly.

Good news, thanks. I hope it'll be available in U.S. format as well.

[Doug Nye]

Ray - I doubt you will do Italy to Sicily - to Cerda - to Collesano - to Campofelice - back to the ferry and back to the Italian mainland within 36 hours without putting yourself/selves at considerable risk.  Not least just of becoming totally knackered.  The mileage just in Sicily would be around 450-500 - and then there's the time involved and the vagaries of the ferry service.  It's possible but not much fun - although I expect you'd enjoy the challenge?

 

DCN

[Doug Nye]

chr1s - yes, we were pretty sure it would be the last World Championship-qualifying Targa - the CSI of the FIA had already said as much, and the locals took it very much to heart.

 

DCN

[chr1s]

chr1s - yes, we were pretty sure it would be the last World Championship-qualifying Targa - the CSI of the FIA had already said as much, and the locals took it very much to heart.

 

DCN

Thanks for that Doug, without wanting to drift too far off topic, what was the reason behind the CSI decision?

[2F-001]

I always assumed safety and logistics were the problem... 

 

For just a glimpse of how the Targa might look if it were run today - with modern machinery - take a look at these recent clips of Italian hillclimbing:

 

( apologies if I've linked to these before )

 

Ray - are you planning to visit England too?

[Doug Nye]

It had become very apparent that contemporary (1973) sports-prototype cars were so aerodynamically sensitive, their suspension geometries and vertical travel so tailored to smooth modern artificial circuits, and their racing tyres so vulnerable to stone, kerb, surface-seam and cactus cuts...etc...etc...etc...that the modern competition car per se had been developed for an entirely different planet from the one upon which the Targa had survived so long. A friend of mine described it as 'like trying to have it away standing up in a hammock'.  You get the idea?

 

DCN

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by 2F-001
.....Ray - are you planning to visit England too?

Of course... just em@il me...

Originally posted by Doug Nye
.....It's possible but not much fun - although I expect you'd enjoy the challenge?

You've seen through me!

Yes, Doug, I might well, but assuming I do venture onto Sicily I don't want to miss much.

I do have an old Clubman racing friend who now lives down in that 'tip of the boot' area and I think he might enjoy going for the drive too. Well, he is Italian, and he did once race...

[Ray Bell]

I made my trip into Sicily yesterday, taking Vince Meleca with me...

We got to Campofelice and turned towards Collesano, where there's a museum of the Targa Florio. It was lunch time so we had lunch, but when their museum didn't reopen within ten or fifteen minutes after the stated 3:30pm we just went on driving towards Caltavuturo.

Nine kms or so further on we came to a sudden halt. The road was being repaired and was totally impassable...



There were signs, apparently, but Vince might have been too happy after our lunch to read these properly and I simply would not have understood them.

So we doubled back, through Campofelice and along the 'straight bit' to the turn up to Cerda, this was all fine enough. Out of Cerda (remember, this is lapping backwards) we started to see some real subsidence, though the stretches each side of Collesano weren't devoid of them at all. Finally, bearing in mind the time, the roughness of the road, the fact that we weren't going to see it all anyway, we stopped to turn back. This was that point:



Obviously it was one of the more open stretches of the Piccolo Madonie, going off down into this valley, and remembering this was uphill for the racers.

Turning back I snapped some of the rough conditions...



Well, that's not too bad... then...



This was a real car belly-cruncher, then Vince pointed out to me that one of their problems was the concrete walls, which were solid. "They hold back the water when it rains, and it gets too much for them so they break and collapse the ground to make a landslide," he said. Later we saw a spot where the wall had been built up, it being a lot lower than this, and they'd used blocks inside wire frames, which allowed the water to get through.

A couple of really bad sink-holes:





Just impossible stuff. There is kilometer after kilometer of badly distressed road. And showing that it's been so for a while...



All the same, one got a good feeling for the race and the nature of the driving in the race. Just sensing what it might have been like in those endless turns, left, right, right again, climb and left, brake hard, and the 12-cylinder engines bellowing behind as second gear copped a caning no gear should ever get.

Not to mention just how much of the road a car like a 330 P4 or its competitors took up as the driver was jockeying to get it placed right for a quick run through the next of the eternal bends.

A fantastic experience...

[bradbury west]

Brilliant narrative, as ever, Ray. Such a pity you did not have the chance to do the whole circuit.  We were lucky when we did it in 95, roads were good and clear, weather good too, same time of year as you. Mr Avis' RentaLancia had a hard time.....   The only problem we encountered was when we stopped atop a hill  reasonably near, but not too close to, a shepherd  tending about 200 sheep and goats having his lunch on the grass verge, when two huge dogs lunged at the car, one at the driver's window and the other onto the bonnet.   BTW, avoid the local, illegal, delicacy of soft goats' cheese with live maggots in it...., banned by our beloved EU as it does not use pasteurised milk, apparently...

Wait until you get into N Italy and  drive the section of the MM55 when Jenks was  tickled pink that SCM cleared it in 60 mins. Enjoy the long straights before that when Jenks would recall they were "pulling six eight in top there, boy".

Travel safely

Roger

[Ray Bell]

Thanks, Roger...

Unfortunately there will be no 'fat Maserati body builder' jumping up and down as I go by, but I'm quite sure I will enjoy that section of road. And the Pescara GP circuit, or what's left of it.

[proviz]

The roads have been deteriorating even more quickly than I could have imagined, shocking decline in just two winters since I last went there. Glad you got the feel of the place, though.

One note: the circuit went anti-clockwise, despite some sources like old FIA Yearbooks suggesting the opposite. So, along the coast and from Cerda onwards you were actually driving in the same direction as the competitors.

[Ray Bell]

Oh, right...

Thanks for that. At least the problems we had meant we drove both directions the whole distance we did get to see!

[proviz]

Not to mention that you also got to see from the right direction some of the backdrops familiar from photos.

[Ray Bell]

I was too busy driving to see backdrops... sorry...

The pics up in the restaurant included this one, but it has me a little interested:



It's the Vaccarella/Scarfiotti car, which only gets credit for one lap in the race before it crashed. The first stint was taken by Vaccarella, who wore a helmet with a single stripe over the top.

To me, this indicates that this is a picture from practice and it's Scarfiotti at the wheel. Does it look like him?

[Repco22]

To me, this indicates that this is a picture from practice and it's Scarfiotti at the wheel. Does it look like him?

Looks like him to me Ray. A great experience for you but so sad to see the state of the roads.

Safe driving!

[Ray Bell]

Even better than meeting Barry Boor at Monaco Historique!

Or was it?

[Alan Cox]

So sorry to see just how pitiful the course has now become. There certainly seems to have been very rapid deterioration in the past few years. Glad you managed to get some feel for the place, though.

I always remember that, the first time I visited for the Targa retrospective in 1986, we found a glorious, newly-completed, four-lane roadway with no traffic on it leading up to a one-horse village on the side of a mountain. On a hoarding as we entered the village we saw the glorious Euro flag with 12 stars (the number of member states at that time)announcing that the work had been funded with a European grant. Such a shame that they didn't spend it on roads which are actually of some practical use, such as those serving the Targa villages.

[Jack-the-Lad]

Thank you, Ray, that was great.

[MCS]

Some sad images here.  What a shame.

 

Never quite forgotten that Porsche Salzburg entered a 917 one year - seem to recall they quickly gave up after a few practice laps.  Pretty certain that Elford was one of the drivers.  Does he mention it in his book?  (He probably dreamt about it for some time afterwards - yikes)...!!

Edited by MCS, 20 May 2016 - 20:37.

[marclaus]

[Jack-the-Lad]

It's a shame they took down (or built around) that old building in Collesano.

[Martyn Hey]

Spent four holidays in Sicily, driving the course on 2 of them. Last visit was in 2011 and looking back now, I feel lucky being able to drive the complete course. The road had a few just passable sections in 2011, but it looks to have deteriorated massively since then.

The Collesano Museum was open, will post some photos I took of the exhibits inside - if thats OK by Forum rules ?

[Martyn Hey]

1970: Vic in the 917 approaching the run up to Floriopolis, the end of a single - exploratory - lap ....

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/GeycFXf.jpg

Edited by Martyn Hey, 31 May 2016 - 16:20.

[Ray Bell]

That would have been a monster to get around much of the course...

Maybe even more so than the V12 Ferraris.

[MCS]

1970: Vic in the 917 approaching the run up to Floriopolis, the end of a single - exploratory - lap ....

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/GeycFXf.jpg

 

Wow.  Well done, Martyn.

[Martyn Hey]

Images from the Museum in Collesano, from 2011.

 

 

incl Ciccio of Cefalu's shoes for Clay Regazzoni (Vic Elford was also a customer for his footwear)

 

 

 

1967 when Nino Vaccarella hit the kerb hard coming into Collesano...

 

 

 

I unintentionally semi-replicated the incident, hitting an unsighted kerb with gusto in another Collesano side street...

 

[Martyn Hey]

Ray did you stop at this restaurant along the straight?