Espiritu de Montjuïc 2018

Our reporter Rüdiger Mayer, better known as the co-author of the Jürgen Barth book Schnell mal Essen / Racing & Recipes covered the distance all the way from the south of Germany to Catalonia to be part of the first Espiritu de Montjuïc by Peter Auto. The Formula 1 circuit in Barcelona is the first stop for the old racing cars from the 50s, 60s and 80s of the Peter Auto racing series.

Historic sportscars entrants had been looking forward to this moment for six months. First weekend of April, they met up at Montmélo in Spain for the first rendezvous of the season.

On Thursday over 200 cars in the paddocks of the circuit proved once again that historic sportscar racing is booming. Probably the most spectacular was the number of cars in the Group C racing with 21 cars present. Peter Auto’s aim is even to have 50 of these prototype cars at the start in the Le Mans Classic next July… that looks promising, isn’t it.

The Greatest Trophy is a brandew grid, that replaces the Trofeo Nastro Rosso that used to be part of the Peter Auto events the last few years. The Espiritu de Montjuïc was the place to be for the inauguration of the Greatest Trophy. In order to make that series more attractive, Peter Auto decided to accept some beautiful models built by other famous makes (Aston Martin DB4 GTs, Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs, Porsche 550s). Good news for us Porsche fans, as that brings now Porsche 550s, Porsche 718 and Porsche 904 in one grid. Seen the value of the cars nowadays, you’ll understand immediately that FairPlay and respect are keywords in these race series.

Few people are lucky enough to own a Porsche 917. And most of the still existing Porsche 917’s reside in collections and never see daylight, let alone feel a track under the rubber.  Reasons are obvious. These cars are so valuable , both historically as money wise. And next to that, you have to know how to handle a  Porsche 917, this is not a car you want your 18 year old son to use to impress his girlfriends. Not so with Porsche 917/10-002, a thoroughbred racing car with the legendary 12-cylinder developed under the direction of Ferdinand Piech. Approximately 650 hp brings the car on the racetrack. No problem for Jürgen Barth, even though wind blew Sahara dust all over the race track making it very slippery. 

 

For Jürgen Barth, it was not only fun to be able to drive the 917/10-002.  Jean Marie Almeras, the well-known Porsche tuner and racer from France was at the Espiritu de Montjuïc with his beautiful Porsche 911 RSR 2.8.  A great reunion, that brought lots of fun for both.

 

Next race on the Peter Auto calendar is the Spa Classic, May 18-20.

 

Text & Pictures :  Rudiger Mayer – Schnell mal Essen / Racing & Recipes