Montlhery: The Story of the Paris Autodrome (Classic Reprint) (Hardcover)

New Zealand Classic Car, June 2007 by Mark Holman This small format 228 page book was written by the doyen of English motoring writers, Bill Boddy, 45 years ago when the Montlhery circuit, not far out of Paris, was still in regular use. With the addition of a short chapter bringing the story up to date (the circuit is now closed), this book is an exact reprint of the original: though I can't see why all the original typos couldn't have been corrected (Vatuxhall, anyone?). It also reminds us how much better illustrated newly-published books are, as the photo selection is quite limited. But, with those grizzles out of the way, it is a fascinating story. Montlhery was built in 1924; along the lines of Brooklands in a way - but it was larger and with a good range of variations that means it could be used as a road racing circuit as well as for record-breaking. A number of race meetings were held at the circuit, including the French GP on a few occasions, such as 1935 when Mercedes-Benz finished 1-2. There were some match races aimed at proving the capabilities of French marques, with prizes put up by the French government (The Million). In later years, the Tour de France d'Automobile visited too. Not all of these meetings were a great success: some of the fields were very small and the finishers well spread out. The classic example seems to have been the 1925 Touring Car GP when the organisers asked for a train and 1400 buses to be laid on to bring he spectators from Paris. Although the weather was fine, at noon on the day there was a total of 59 spectators in the grandstands "including soldiers and attendants."! To my mind, the record breakers were the real heroes and here the bookcomes to life with descriptions of some unlikely vehicles setting up amazing speeds in dreadful conditions - sometimes for days and days on end and often in poor weather. Unlike Brooklands, there was no night-time curfew so drivers and cars just kept pounding around, often with very poor visibility. And they weren't only track racing specials - the famous Citroen 'Rosalie' covered almost 130,000 km at an average of over 100 km/h back in 1932! Many drivers came back time and again to set or beat records in different classes, so names such as Gwenda Stewart and Ernest Eldridge crop up often. Then there was the great Jaguar attempt when an XK120 coupe ran for 7 days and nights non-stop at an average speed of just over 100 mph. While the writing style may seem a bit 'dated' in places, original copies of this book are probably getting hard to find, so it's good that Veloce has given us the ability option of buying a new copy of a book that gives such good coverage of a track which almost got to its 80th birthday.

William Bill Boddy was with Brooklands Track & Air magazine for two and half years from 1931 and the Editor of MotorSport magazine from 1934 for some 50 years. Bill has also written for aviation magazines and was employed by MAP at Farnborough for duration of WW2, on Air Publications. Bill is still a regular contributor to MotorSport and has written five books about motor racing. Now a widower, Bill has three daughters.