The prestigious Tour Auto Optic 2000, organised by Peter Auto and its founder Patrick Peter, aims to bring back the spirit of the original Tour de France Automobile from last century. The 28th edition of Tour Auto was held on 29 April to 4 May, with around 240 vintage cars joining the rally starting from the Grand Palais in Paris and finishing in Deauville via five legs.
Every year the route of the Tour Auto is different. For 2019 it included Dijon, Lyon, Vichy and Tours. The teams headed east from Paris to the Rhone-Alpes region, through the mountains in Auvergne then the Loire valleys, before reaching the grassy fields of Deauville in Normandy. With 2,280 km, four famous circuits – Dijon-Prenois, Magny-Cours, Charade and Le Mans – and 10 special stages, the rally was easily filled with beautiful scenes in every moment with such star quality participants, including Ford GT40, Jaguar Type E, Shelby Cobra, Lancia Stratos, Ligier JS2 and plenty more.
After the last circuit competition on the Le Mans Bugatti circuit and two special stages on Saturday, Raphaël Favaro and Yves Badan’s 1965 Lotus Elan won for the second consecutive year, followed by another 1965 Lotus Elan driven by Damien Kohler and Sylvie Laboisne. For the regularity category, Eric Hamoniau and Edouard Lotthe triumphed in their 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, with Alejandro Oxenford and José Luis Celada’s 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB and Tomas Hinrichsen and Solange Mayo’s 1957 Maserati 200 SI taking up the second and third places respectively.
