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27 Jan 2015

On the street Monaco -1976

The recent blog post mention of the Renault 16 prompted motoring sage John Crawford to dig into his files and find this wonderful atmospheric photo taken in Monaco after the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix.John was then editor of Modern Motor, an Australian car magazine, and was travelling with Steve Cropley another esteemed Australian motoring journalist the one time editor of UK Car magazine and now editor-in-chief of UK Autocar.They were walking to Monaco station to catch the train back to Menton where they had left their car.
The Renault 16TS is in the centre and it is in that very typical of the period eau de nil colour.It looks right at home in this setting.
Of particular interest to me is the yellow Porsche 911S.A supercar of the era.What a fabulous car to be driving on those wonderful roads in the south of France in 1976-before there were speed cameras.
The red car on the left is a mystery.John reckons that it is a Morgan but I am not convinced-the wings,streamlined tank and the wheels do not look right but it is impossible to tell.Note since posting Roger has suggested probably correctly that it is a Panther J72 - a replica of the SS100.
The whole scene is just wonderful and so is the light and it is so obviously shot on film.John tells me that it was shot on Ektachrome film on a Yashica FX-1 SLR camera-a great camera with a beautiful Zeiss lens.Where is it now John?.
In those days Monaco was still charming and classy.Today the charm has long gone along with the class.Much of the Victorian and grand Belle Epoque architecture has been demolished.Streets such as that pictured are lined with tower blocks of bland modern apartments and the place is now populated by dodgy types,sleazy Russian oligarchs,rich arabs and people from countries with names ending in stan.And the streets are full of blingy supercars.Crass sur le Med.Seedy by sea.
The 1976 Monaco Grand Prix was won by Niki Lauda in a Ferrari by the way.More photos of the race from John's archives to follow.
Thanks very much for the photos John .


Since posting Toby has commented as follows
An interesting piece of information you can also pick up from this beautiful shot is that the Renault 16TS is from Paris...Until 2009, the plate format bore a "number" of the following formats: either nnnn LL dd, or nnn LLL dd. With the last two numbers telling you where the car was registered.
The '93' on the Renault tells you it is from Bobigny a suburb in the NW of Paris. Whereas the Porsche with it's '83' digit is from the South of France Var/Toulon.
I learnt this information when I drove a borrowed Rover in the south in 1998 and copped a lot of agro as the locals thought I was from Paris.
This system no longer exists and another fun thing to do when driving long distances in France has been lost forever!

1 comment:

  1. An interesting piece of information you can also pick up from this beautiful shot is that the Renault 16TS is from Paris...Until 2009, the plate format bore a "number" of the following formats: either nnnn LL dd, or nnn LLL dd. With the last two numbers telling you where the car was registered.
    The '93' on the Renault tells you it is from Bobigny a suburb in the NW of Paris. Whereas the Porsche with it's '83' digit is from the South of France Var/Toulon.
    I learnt this information when I drove a borrowed Rover in the south in 1998 and copped a lot of agro as the locals thought I was from Paris.
    This system no longer exists and another fun thing to do when driving long distances in France has been lost forever!
    Toby

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