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Tour Auto Rally 2012 – Report and Photos

The Tour Auto Rally 2012 was held 16-21 April on the secondary roads and race circuits of France. A field of nearly 250 cars gathered at famed Le Grand Palais in Paris for the start of the 21st historical Tour de France rally, a multi-day event that combines 2,500 km of road driving with multiple circuit and hillclimb stages.

This year’s event honored the Ferrari 250 GTO as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. The 2012 Tour Auto Rally was a return to the roots for GTO, a race car that won everything during its career: the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT World Championship in 1962-1964 and the Tour Automobile de France.

The Ferrari GTO entrants included Brandon Wang (4219GT), William ‘Chip’ Connor (4293GT) and Daniela Ellerbrock’s ex-Ecurie Francorchamps 4153GT that won the the 1964 Tour de France.

The rally is open to cars (or sister cars) that participated in the original Tour de France Automobile between 1951 and 1973. The 2012 Tour Auto Rally saw these collector cars cross France from North to South, leaving Paris on April 17th and reaching Nice on April 21st. The Tour Auto stop-over town will be successively Beaune, Aix-les-Bains, Clermont-Ferrand and Nîmes, where spectators were able to visit the Parc Fermé and discover the exceptional cars from close quarters.

Tour Auto Rally 2012 participants competed in one of two categories: Competition or Regularity. In short, the difference between the two groupings is that in competition, fastest wins, while in regularity, precision wins. In Competition, the driver is alone on the racing circuit stages, yet their co-driver is used on the road stages.

The Competition Class saw the team of Shaun Lynn and Kevin Kivlochan take overall honors in their 1963 AC Cobra, having grabbed the lead on day one and never letting go. Their victory was a combintation of excellent driving, good strategy, plus a well prepared and reliable car, the “644 CGT” AC Cobra. This is the second overall Tour Auto victory for Shaun Lynn, who won in 2009 with his pale blue Ford GT40 “Tesie”. Second place went to Damien Kohler and Sylvie Laboisne in their Lotus Elan, while the green AC Cobra of Mark and John Freeman took home third.

Photographer Julien Mahiels documented the 2012 Tour Auto Optic 2ooo Rally, offering the following picture gallery that shows the strong field of entrants, in addition to the spectacular views found on the French countryside. To see more from Julien, visit www.flickr.com/julienmahiels.

Tour Auto Rally 2012 – Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)

Tour Auto Rally 2012 – Results

Overall Competition Class Results
1. 1963 AC Cobra, Shaun Lynn / Kevin Kivlochan
2. 1965 Lotus Elan, Damien Freeman / Sylvie Laboisne
3. 1964 AC Cobra, Mark Freeman / John Freeman
Tour Auto Rally 2012 – Competition Class Results

G/H/I Competition Class Results
1. 1975 Alpine A 110 1800 Group IV, Alain Serpaggi / Jean-Pierre Prevost
2. 1972 Alpine A 110 1800 Group IV, Jean Ragnotti / Francis Mercier
3. 1966 Porsche 906, Mr John of B / Sibel
Tour Auto Rally 2012 – G/H/I Competition Class Results

Regularity Class Results
1. 1966 Ford Mustang, Jean-Francois Nicoules / Patrice Gauthier
2. 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB, Christian Nicoules / Stephane Bonoron
3. 1973 Ford Escort MkI RS 2000, Jean-Paul Bertrand / Joseph Lambert
Tour Auto Rally 2012 – Regularity Class Results

Performance Index Class Results
1. 1953 Porsche 356, Yves Junne / Lee Maxted-Page
2. 1959 MG A, Olivier Mazoyer / Patrick Touze
3. 1954 Aston Martin DB 2/4, Jean-Yves Grandidier / Antoine Darley
Tour Auto Rally 2012 – Performance Index Class Results

[Source: Tour Auto; photo credit: Julien Mahiels]

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9 Comments

  1. This is a fantastic gallery, but can you think about improving your photo viewer pop out. Having to click through each photo and having the next picture button move if the picture is a different size is a pain. With lack of concentration I lost my place a couple of times not clicking on the button correctly.

  2. These pictures are some of the best I’ve ever seen…anywhere. Exceptional Julien. You have great talent. Look forward to your next SCD project.

  3. Digital photography is great for quantity at little cost, but that does not mean the photographer does not have to edit the series. Showing 500 photos mostly of single cars is a shot gun approach; better to edit down to one meaningful photo of each car and/or a series of 100 photos showing two or more cars in focus.

  5. Superb photography Julien !
    your Passions show some Spectacular shots !

    I disagree with Steve, I think it would be a shame to edit the pics down to 100. ( and I’m sure you had lots more……. ? )
    I think Jamie made the right decision, anyone who appreciates artistic automotive photography would enjoy viewing this entire gallery, ( isn’t that what it’s all about ? ) those that don’t, won’t spend the time anyway.
    I agree, it would be nice to have a better slideshow option though.
    Also, love the creative cropping and the B&W effects…………..
    Cheers ! Alan

  6. To more clearly explain my comment regarding editing; I said it would be interesting to have, of the 500 or 250 photos 100 of them with multiple (2 or more in focus) cars in the same photo. Having more than one car in a photo speaks of the event rather than a car just driving down the road. I say this having professionally photographed the Mille Miglia from 1986 to 1990. Those were the days before the organizers allowed modern chase cars to follow the classic cars through the towns. In similar situations today, Jamie and others have a real challenge. Regards, Steve Snyder, PhotoMedia

  7. Back to proof reading 101. Meant to say “cars in the same photo on the road”; i.e., running together with a display of comraderie. Regards, Steve