95 replies to this topic

[Patrick Fletcher]

Originally posted by Manel Baró

Pls have a look to this site:
www.penedesfera.cat/2009/03/10/una-visita-a-lautodrom-de-terramar/ - 68k -

Thank you Manel, I hope that Peter Morley has a chance to see the new photos of Sitges.

[john winfield]

Here is a little information which might be of use to anyone staying in Barcelona, without a car, who wants to see the old Sitges-Terramar circuit. (I have just returned from a family holiday, split between Sitges and Barcelona).

Travelling by train to Sitges (which is a very pleasant seaside town...good beaches, attractive old streets) from Barcelona is easy and cheap - just over 5 euros there and back, or even less if you use a 3 zone Barcelona transport ticket, bought in tens. Catch the train at Estacio Sants / Barcelona Sants station, usually on platform 10, for the forty minute trip down the coast to Sitges. Directly outside Sitges railway station, on your right, by the steps opposite the indoor market, catch the L2 bus to the Terramar end of the town - this trip is 'free' if you use your 3 zone ticket, a euro or two if not. Take the bus to Vinyet which, after a straight road for three minutes, turns right by a crazy golf, left by a modern arts centre, bringing you to a residential area, and a short hill Cami del Coll. Jump off here, keep on walking up the hill for 200 metres towards a wide flight of steps. These steps lead, bizarrely, to nothing but a farm track - it's the edge of town, awaiting the next development. There, in the fields below, stands the astonishing Sitges-Terramar circuit, seen from behind one of the highly banked corners.

Personally, I was more into swimming, Barcelona and walking the Montjuich circuit, and didn't venture any nearer, but, from that viewpoint, there are tracks leading down which I'm sure the more adventurous enthusiast can use to get nearer to the track and brave the dogs. I saw a small car edge up on to the main straight for a quick look - bet it was a TNFer!

The Sitges tourist office, not far from the station, can provide town maps and I notice in their 'agenda' brochure for August, that an organised visit of the circuit ( 10 euros per person) is planned for 11.00 on August 30th, meeting at the Garrofer Camping Roundabout. Again this can be reached on the L2 bus - it's just a little further than Cami del Coll.

Edited by john winfield, 12 August 2009 - 07:35.

[Arjan de Roos]

Thank you John for this detailed guide. Will use it some day. Good to hear the tourist office does show some interest in the track. Maybe it betters it chances for preservation.

[Herman L]

I translated the Sitges Terramar page to English. Go to my site www.circuitsofthepast.nl and select Sitges Terramar. Don't forget to read the story about my visit to the track!

Here's the direct link to the Sitges Terramar story: http://www.circuitso...tgesreport.html

At www.etracksonline.co.uk I found this:

Thankfully, the story does not end there. Despite years of inactivity - and the establishment of a thriving chicken farm - Sitges remained largely intact and a rescue could shortly be in order. A Canadian entrepreneur is on the verge of buying the circuit and has plans to turn it into a motorsport resort for owners of vintage racing cars and aircraft.

Looks good if it will go on ...

Edited by Herman L, 19 December 2009 - 21:30.

[Ray Bell]

Is there a date on that?

I suspect that was several years ago. It would be nice if it was something new, but a date would be nice...

[Vitesse2]

The words "motorsport resort" give the game away. It was indeed several years ago, the person behind it having been mentioned earlier in this thread. I'd say more, but the last time I had any contact with said "gentleman" it was as the recipient of a particularly nasty PM.

[LittleChris]

Great photos Herman

[Pink Snail]

I believe I once read a feature article about Sitges in Road & Track about 15 years ago. It stated that the design of the track, specifically the banking, limited the cars to about 120 mph on the straights, and the g-loadings on the drivers in the corners was enough to pin them down so hard that it was difficult to turn their heads or even hold them up. It was also almost impossible to pass because so much of the driver's concentration had to be centered on just how and where he entered the banking that most drivers just had to hang on for dear life.

My son brought up an interesting point when I told him about this track...how do you keep oil in an engine that has to spend so much of it's life tilted at 60 degrees?



Dan

Yeah, mount the engine at 30 degrees and only jack it up on one side when pitting!!

[BerndRos]

Last may while attending the GP I went over and climbed through the fence and walked round the whole circuit at Sitges , very impressive and very intact . The bankings and the camber have to seen , very unlike Brooklands

[autodrome]

Sitges is still not a place to visit on a whim, it is after all someones home. However the tourist office does organise a tour once a month. There are plans for the future of the track to turn it into a vintage car resort all being put together by the current owners. In the year to come Sitges will become the destination for old car and track buffs like us... the other half won't complain either because its a short walk from the beach.
Its highly reccomended and probably my new favorite 'lost' circuit

[onelung]

"...My son brought up an interesting point when I told him about this track...how do you keep oil in an engine that has to spend so much of it's life tilted at 60 degrees?..."

Keep up the maintainenance on the engine gaskets and seals?

[PhilG]

Well im going to have a look at this tomorrow, time permitting, see if anything has happened in the last 12 months. Drove round Montjuich , can see why it got canned, but its still all there,very fast and not much if any room to go off. A must see though.

[Odseybod]

Well im going to have a look at this tomorrow, time permitting, see if anything has happened in the last 12 months. Drove round Montjuich , can see why it got canned, but its still all there,very fast and not much if any room to go off. A must see though.

Phil, be very interested to hear of any progress. We included a pic of a local car club visit to it in the Month In Pictures section of June's "Classic Cars" - the person who sent us the pic indicated that the owners were now more welcoming than previously, but that may just mean they don't unleash the fierce hounds without first counting to 10 . Good luck anyway.

[PhilG]

Well back home now, hard to think that this time yesterday i was stood on the banking at the far end of the circuit taking pictures.

Thanks to the info on here, the place is easy enough to find, it is visible from the C-31 , heading north into Sitges , down a dirt road to the left just as you approach the first of the houses on the left, down a dirt track, but if you blink you miss it. Thanks to my phone only sat-nav, it didnt find any of the streets next to the track , so armed only with a photo taken of a post on here from an internet access point in an amusement arcade on Salou, we set off.

Luckily we were heading that way anyway, so if we came up short, it was no biggie, just killed a few hours before we flew back . Using the info posted by John Winfield, it was fairly easy to find, and as a walked up the steps he described, it really was a proper awe inspiring sight, spoiled only by the modern housing off to the left.
As previous posters have said, the place is in remarkable condition, obviously its pretty much derelict, but its still all there, and the spanish weather has been kind to it. I took a few pictures and decided that this wasnt the best place to start, and so i drove round to the housing estate and found my way up to the far corner of it , which is the dirt road that lead into the track.
My spanish will get me a beer and a sandwich, but thats about all, but the signs were enough to tell me i wasnt going to walk in and get a visitors pack, and the concrete laid over what looked like a dry river bed had huge paw prints in it, which i figured to be the dogs mentioned earlier. So i skirted off to the left and walked down maybe 500 yds and then climbed up the bank and onto the top of the banking, about halfway between the turn and the finish. The track was in remarkable condition, and showed signs of being used , just by the fact it was so clean, and also repairs to the lower edge of the track.

Then i got brave and dropped back down and walked round to the far end , climbed the now very steep bank at the bar end , and that was well worth the effort. Standing on a two foot lip at the top, with the vitrually sheer banking below me was awesome, and almost beyond belief that anyone actually raced round here, and lived.

I'll post a bit more when i get the pics, but it was well worth it, coupled with a few laps round Montjuich after, and watching Barcelona V AC Milan the night before , it was a good couple of days.

[wenoopy]

Spare a thought for Denis Jenkinson, who visited Sitges on a borrowed 250 Bultaco Matador while in Barcelona for the 1971 GP. In his words "the banked track of Terremar near Siges(sic) is still intact, but watch out for the fierce black dog, he bit my foot as I gunned the Bultaco past him" (Motor Sport June 1971)

I drove around the Montjuich circuit in late September 1970, when it was lined with haybales and all the trappings for the weekend's motor-cycle races. Quite a spectacular and acrobatic track. Couldn't really do it justice in a Bedford Dormobile!!

[PhilG]

A few photo's , finally added after losing my upload cable at the airport.


http://s882.photobuc.....0August 2010/

[john winfield]

A few photo's , finally added after losing my upload cable at the airport.


http://s882.photobuc.....0August 2010/

Thanks for these Phil. I'm glad my directions were of some use - the old circuit looked impressive from the top of those surreal steps.

[RStock]

A few photo's , finally added after losing my upload cable at the airport.


http://s882.photobuc.....0August 2010/

Thanks so much for those photos and the story of your adventure Phil. Great stuff!

[PhilG]

Thanks for these Phil. I'm glad my directions were of some use - the old circuit looked impressive from the top of those surreal steps.

I pretty much went straight to it , after a brief detour, and found the steps , it was wierd walking up to them, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie and to see it all laid out in front of you , very moving.

i see a TNF trip on the horizon, maybe in with a Montjuic episode.

Edited by PhilG, 22 September 2010 - 11:48.

[a_tifoosi]

Incredible video released today by Red Bull Spain, with Miquel Molina and Carlos Sainz running along the Sitges-Terramar autodrome in a R8 LMS:

http://www.redbull.e...021243206207374


Narcís.

[john winfield]

Incredible video released today by Red Bull Spain, with Miquel Molina and Carlos Sainz running along the Sitges-Terramar autodrome in a R8 LMS:

http://www.redbull.e...021243206207374


Narcís.

Narcis, brilliant. Thanks for that - in the UK we would have trouble doing the same thing today at Brooklands! Great fun for Carlos Sainz and Miguel Molina (?). I was waiting for the owner's dog to appear and bite Sainz's ankle.

Edited by john winfield, 10 May 2012 - 11:15.

[Vitesse2]

Thank you Narcis! Wonderful!

I've seen race sim versions of Sitges, but they in no way match those awesome in-car shots from the top of the banking which truly convey something of what it must have been like to race there. But to do it in a fragile 1920s GP car would just be I think the word is cojones!

[Kpy]

Thank you Narcis.
Top marks to Red Bull, Carlos Sainz and everyone involved in the film.

Plus a big hats off to all who raced there in the 20s!

[Michael Ferner]

My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I could still understand that the official lap record is still held by... a Miller!

You know, that car still exists today, and its current owner is a VERY capable driver. Seeing that lump of Ingolstadt iron go as much as three seconds faster made me think... Maybe I should give Stefan a ring, and maybe Meister Eckart can work his magic (the car is much faster now than it was in 1924) - wouldn't that be fun?

[a_tifoosi]

My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I could still understand that the official lap record is still held by... a Miller!

You're right Michael. In fact, the owner says that the lap record was set by someone called 'Louis Zborowski Miller' .


Narcís.

Edited by a_tifoosi, 10 May 2012 - 16:52.

[David Birchall]

So THAT is what Sitges is like!? Great video.

[MCS]

Absolutely stunning - thank you so much, a_tifoosi.

I am almost lost for words with the timing of this as I have been thinking about Sitges for weeks as we have a business conference there next week and I have been thinking about a potential visit to the old circuit.

In the meantime - to my own amazement - I have bought a ticket to the Spanish Grand Prix (off eBay, mind) and am now wondering what to do on Sunday...

[alansart]

and am now wondering what to do on Sunday...

...stroll around Montuich?

[MCS]

Done that, Alan

I have a General Admission ticket for Sunday and not sure I want to spend the whole day there vying for a good position as it were - undoubtedly some distance from the "action"

Think I might go to Sitges-Terramar!

Edited by MCS, 10 May 2012 - 20:02.

[Peter Morley]

An amazing bit of film work, no austerity measures in their budget!

That's a bit quicker than my hire car laps... of course the track wasn't quite as clear when I was last there, they've done a good job of tidying the track up.

It says the existing (1920s) lap record is 45.8.
42.6 in that modern beastie looks very impressive but makes the pre-war time on narrow tyres, less power etc simply mind blowing, even if Carlos did have to dodge a few bushes, bumps and holes that weren't there originally.

Any ideas how to download it?

Edited by Peter Morley, 10 May 2012 - 20:56.

[arttidesco]

I know where I'll be headed on my next trip to Barcelona

Thanks Nicosi

[simonlewisbooks]

Any ideas how to download it?

Try viewing it through RealPlayer which appears to have a built in download facility.

[Vitesse2]

Try viewing it through RealPlayer which appears to have a built in download facility.

I don't think that's possible, Simon. My normal flv downloader doesn't even detect it: it's an embedded video which redirects to an https address that won't open outside the page: it doesn't appear in the browser cache either.

It might be possible with a program which can capture flv streams, but it looks pretty secure to me!

I wouldn't go anywhere near RealPlayer anyway. It may have improved but it used to have a terrible reputation for being full of spyware and adware.

[Kpy]

Any ideas how to download it?

Replay Media Catcher 4 (try googling that) will do the job. I've checked

[Peter Morley]

Replay Media Catcher 4 (try googling that) will do the job. I've checked ;)

That'll give me somethig to play with over the weekend!

Great, I thought I'd keep a copy of it in case RedBull remove it from their site.

[Duc-Man]

Gents, it's on youtube as well.

[Terry Walker]

You can get quite close using Streetview:

The tribunes from the entrance gate



The banking towards the Sitges end:

[a_tifoosi]

According to Autosport, Quimera has recently bought Sitges-Terramar in order to test the new carbon-neutral Aspid SS sportscar.


Narcís.

[CF Mantula]

Did not know that the autodromo Terramar had as well this name: "Autodromo de Sant Pere de Ribes"

Here a video with interesting pictures from the construction & as well from the early races.



CF Mantula

[a_tifoosi]

Did not know that the autodromo Terramar had as well this name: "Autodromo de Sant Pere de Ribes"

Strictly speaking, the oval is located in the municipal district of Sant Pere de Ribes, and not in Sitges. However, in marketing terms, it was more attractive to name the circuit after the town of Sitges.

BTW, two interesting links:

• The only book that has been published so far about Sitges-Terramar: Vida efímera d'una gran obra: Autòdrom Nacional, written precisely by a Sant Pere de Ribes' local historian, Antoni Mirabent. It's in Catalan, though.
• The documentary that TVE (Spanish public TV) broadcasted a few years ago.

Narcís.

Edited by a_tifoosi, 13 January 2013 - 11:27.

[Peter Morley]

There's a serious Spanish plan in place for the circuit, I don't know the people but they have already invested a substantial amount.
 
Their website has a video and a press release (an English one as well) about their plans:

http://www.autodromo...com/default.asp

 

There's an English article on the documents page (Noticias), titled NY times, that gives details of their plans.

[Spaceframe]

I Posted this elsewhere.. but as 'some here' dont go there!!
its an OCR scan of the MOTORSPORT MAGAZINE March 2004 trip to the track..

A small correction: Paul Fearnley's story was part of Motor Sport's series of Track Tests, and it was published in March 2002 (Vol LXXVIII No 3) as a seven pages feature on pages 68-74 (the three pages presented above are pages 71, 72 and 74). Incidentally, page 75 was an ad for a previously mentioned motosport resort.

[fan27]

I'll be visiting this circuit next week to take some pictures for a US website. Does anyone know if access to the circuit is now possible, without the angry dog welcoming committee? 

[63Corvette]

Great story and video!!!

[Peter Morley]

I think the farmer moved on, so it should be dog free and no one's ever seemed too bothered when I've been there.

 

It was apparently tidied up and they held a car rally there but I suspect the plan outlined here failed to come about:

http://sitges.me/Lan...vements-future/
 

Their website is down which suggests they probably failed to find the 240 million euros!

 

I'd love to see some current photos when you've got them.

 

Peter

[fan27]

Thanks Peter, I'll post the pictures next week.