Posted 14 December 2007 - 00:41
I will begin tomorrow to scan and post pictures and below is the American part of the story as I recall it.
It began in 1980 when I was contacted to become the importer for the US since I already was importing the Stand 21 racing clothing and some racing wheels also made in France. By early 1981, Jean Rondeau made a trip to the US with his girlfriend to see what the market was like and I showed him around. We signed a contract and began working on promoting and importing the then new M382, that did not even exist yet. We flew to Midland and purchased a Chevy engine at Chaparral cars inc. because at that time they were the best money could buy. The engine was sent to le Mans to build an installation kit for the M382. After that I arranged the purchase of various Hilborn parts including mechanical fuel pumps, as well as that of Trucklites taillights and other specialty parts. During the trip, I noted that Jean Rondeau, who had health problems with kidney stones, was having hissy fits and serious temper issues about frankly, unimportant details, to me anyway. I was a bit uneasy with this, but decided to ignore it since my job was to be of marketing, and I would not have to have direct contact with him that often anyway.
I rounded two customers and three more good prospects and we took some deposits on a car that had not turned a wheel yet. I flew to France with these two customers and we went to le Mans where Rondeau had arranged for an M379 test on the short Bugatti track. I had quite an adventure with my Renault R18 rental car when close to le Mans and while flat-out on the freeway, a steering link broke and I found myself careening across the divider, on the roof and against traffic, with a truck stopping pretty close...
Avis got me another car and we arrived to the Rondeau shop where the local press was taking pictures of the "visiteurs Americains". We were all given rides in the yellow "Oceanic" car driven by Henri Pescarolo. It was very uncomfortable but it was obvious that the car was very good and quite easy to manage. I had my personal doubts about the low power of the Cosworth DFL versus the twin-turbo Porsche 935's but I was wrong, the M379 could easily reach 180 before the Tertre Rouge, to my utmost terror (I HATE to be a passenger!), and there was plenty of ooomph left, so the 210-215MPH claim was sustainable. And proven if one considers the 1-3 and 2-3 placing in 1980 and 1981. You don't beat the Porsches by going slower than they did.
Meanwhile the 382 was being built and a few months later, ready for a 24-hour test at Daytona that I helped organise and direct. Our drivers were our customers Bill Koll and one of his driver Skeeter McKitterick plus Sam Posey and Lyn St James. Belcher was observing, Rondeau did not drive. The test went fine at a good pace until 2AM when there was so much ice on the banking that we had to stop for a couple of hours and resumed at about 4.30AM. Everything went fine and the test was successfully completed with no mechanical incident. The car went back to France to be prepared for the 24 Hours, and I sold the second car to Gary Belcher as planned.
This is when things began to get a bit funny. It appeared that, unbeknown to me, Jean Rondeau had also sold the car to... another team! So when I arrived early in the week at Daytona, I was faced with the task of figuring out who owned the second car, and this went nearly into a legal fight with talks of attorneys and marshals seizing the car... I had to use all my diplomatic talents (and I don't have that much of it!) to sort things out. At the end of the day, the Belcher camp won but now we had a situation where the two teams (Golden Eagle and Belcher) were at war with each other and were pitting at opposite ends of the long pit row. I also noted a certain favoritism of Rondeau towards the Golden Eagle team, a great way to attract new customers I guess.
So for the full 24 hours, I walked and ran more miles than a good marathonian... really good if you need to lose weight. I probably do now, I did not at the time!
Run by the very competent Jim Bell, the Belcher car was driven by Gary himself, Danny Sullivan and a young Atlantic driver (forgot his name right now) who promptly over-revved the engine during practice and damaged a valve. No spare engine was available. The Cossies are strong engine but even nursing it, it expired after 18 hours. What a waste.
The Golden Eagle car ran well and was in second place at midnight right behind and in the same lap as the JPL 935 of John Paul Sr. and Jr.
That is, until McKitterick at the wheel did not pay enough attention to the low-fuel light and neglected to set the reserve switch that was making sure that the Lucas injection metering unit did not run dry. And of course it did, instantly seizing up, the car simply stopping at the other end of the track from lack of fuel while still carrying about 5 gallons. And that was it. What a disaster!
After the race, Jean Rondeau had one of his fits and I since I had HAD it by then, I had a pretty strong talk with him and quit on the spot because I was not about working in such insane (for me anyway) conditions. While all the Rondeau employees were the nicest, most talented and kindest people, I know that I am going to disappoint some here, but Jean was simply an elitist with a bad temper, going into screaming sessions that I simply was not going to put up with. It might be the French way, but not for me, thank you very much. His girlfriend, Ms. Brosse, went to see me in my hotel and sweet-talked me into staying and helping until they could find a person to replace me. I accepted, but this never happened.
I helped the Golden Eagle team to get their Chevy engine conversion, took care of the supply of spare parts and pretty much gave up on pursuing the sale of any other cars. I had simply lost my appetite for the company.
Regardless, the cars were brilliant but the ground-effect cars were knocking at the door and that year, the Lola T600 became the thing to have. The best the Golden Eagle team was able to accomplish was a 3rd place if I recall correctly. The M482 was going to correct that but it was never sorted out, then Rondeau got killed in the stupidest of circumstances.
However in Europe, the M382 won at Monza driven by Georgio Francia, did well at le Mans and elsewhere. I feel that Rondeau won the world championship of Makes in 1982, and that Porsche stole it from them by adding points from an obscure placing by a modified 911 turbo that was wrongly thrown in the prototype class in the German leg of the championship because of some non-GT modifs, and the 3 points it garnered were enough to just edge Rondeau by one or two points if I recall correctly.
I think that Porsche lacked the graciousness they should have shown there, but that's another story.
In the USA, Belcher sold his car that was later modified with a Chevy powerplant by Jim Bell and run by a south American team at the Miami Grand Prix a year later (the year of the deluge...).
That was pretty much the last I saw of a Rondeau racing car until 1996 when I was offered to drive 379-02 at Monterey. It was a great ride and lots of fun until the brake seals that needed replacing sucked too much air and left me with no brakes.
Tomorrow I will begin posting pictures from the many I have.
T54