PLACES TO GO
The little principality with a big heart
Monaco, whether there’s a Grand Prix or not
WHEN A CAR enthusiast travels by road, certain direction signs cause a tingle in the spine. Brooklands, Goodwood and Donington, perhaps. They might get the same sensation at Le Mans, Talladega, Daytona or Bathurst – or possibly the tingliest sign of all: Monaco.
The Principality of Monaco, incorporating the town of Monte Carlo, is the second-smallest country in the world. But its wealthy core of customers ensures it’s hugely important to motorsport and to the industries of luxury cars and boats.
At the turn of the year, motorsport begins with the Monte Carlo Rally. The very thought takes you back to the days when crews in beanie hats set off from starting points all over Europe, to do battle on the snowy cols. The cars on the modern event are astonishingly fast, but there is also the Historic Monte Carlo Rally for the diehards and traditionalists. Don’t look for beanies there, though.
Those disillusioned by today’s Monaco Grand Prix, with its wide cars, narrow roads and little opportunity of seeing any overtaking, will relish the biennial Grand Prix Historique de Monaco. The Principality becomes less crowded and less formal, and the excitement takes on a different edge. The cars are narrower and of wildly varying sizes, ages and speeds, so the racing is full of incident.
A walk around the circuit soon brings back memories for older
enthusiasts. There’s the hill where Nigel Mansell hit a wet centre line and crashed, making us think that his bad luck would never let him win a Grand Prix. Look across the harbour and the track can be seen winding around to the tunnel and out again into sunshine, where drivers such as Alberto Ascari and Paul Hawkins plunged into the water. It may be a tight, apparently unexciting circuit nowadays, with a backdrop of high-rises where ornate splendour once stood, but it still has a magic. Just stand, remember and smile contentedly.
You could start your day at the Royal Palace for the changing of the guard. A stroll down the back steps of the palace then brings you to a thriving shopping centre, where every woman has a distant gaze and a dog in her shopping bag. At the end of the main shopping mall is the Collection de Voitures de SAS le Prince, also advertised less grandly as the Monaco Top Cars Collection. It features cars collected by Prince Rainier III over a 30-year period.
A €6.50 admission fee admits you into what looks at first to be a sterile place, resembling a showroom for very expensive classic cars. However, as the visitor progresses up and down the various levels of this immaculate building, he or she will soon become immersed in the history and will find favourites among the 100 or so cars on display. Some are simply rare, some are special for other reasons, such as the 1959 Renault Floride given by the factory to Princess Grace. Then there’s the impeccable metallic pale blue Sunbeam Alpine used in the film To Catch a Thief, and a strikingly simple 1911 Super cyclecar, a French machine of a type made for only two years. An imposing Bellanger, beloved of Paris taxi drivers, was from another shortlived marque; its factory was later used by Rosengart and Peugeot. Exhibits range from a Citroën 2CV to a Hispano-Suiza, from a Bugatti to Formula 1 cars, and all are in pristine condition. The attached shop is worth a visit, too.
Once back outside, look down the hill to see statues of Juan Manuel Fangio with his Mercedes-Benz W196, and of the enigmatic William Grover-Williams who won Monaco’s inaugural 1929 Grand Prix.
Perhaps because it’s so compact and dense, Monte Carlo has an atmosphere all its own, its streets haunted by the spirits of the drivers who battled this tight little street circuit. It’s a great place for a day out. Oh, and there are boats, too. Lots of them.
Monaco Top Cars Collection, les Terrasses de Fontvieille, 98000 Monaco.