Tour Auto 1971

The Tour de France Automobile is a race car competition all through France, which is made up of special stages, both on open roads and on race tracks.

The 1970 and 1971 editions generated a lot of attention from the public. The presence of two Matra 650’s entered by the factory (who will dominate the race) indeed attracted huge crowds and the passage, in the villages of France, of these blue prototypes, was very impressive.

In 1971, the two Matras of Gérard Larrousse and Bernard Fiorentino (picture above) were again clear favorites, but had to deal with strong competition from a Ferrari 512M driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille, a Ford GT70 of François Mazet, and also from the two Ferrari Daytona well driven by Andruet and Elford, both ready to bounce if the favorites failed.

Very soon, Gérard Larrousse, partnered by journalist Johnny Rives, dominated the race, and the two Matra 650’s were heading towards a great 1-2 when team mate Fiorentino crashed in the latter stages handing second place to the powerful Ferrari of Jabouille (yellow car in the picture above).