Marc Sonnery goes to 500 Ferraris Against Cancer - Sport et Collection. Hundreds of Ferraris arrive to help support cancer research.

     The 31st edition of this track event and cancer fund raiser took place May 29 to June 1 at the Circuit du Val de Vienne, located at Le Vigeant in west central France.

     580 Ferraris, yes five hundred and eighty, from all over France and beyond gathered for the passion and a good cause. 50,000 spectators enjoyed four days of warm sunshine.

     For four intense days, track sessions for owners alternated with racing and classic car demonstrations.

     On Thursday there are night sessions until 11:30 PM. It is simply the most impressive Ferrari event anywhere.

     It was a great surprise and a great honor for me to be invited to chair the jury of this weekend’s competition by event founder Jean-Pierre Doury.

     It was actually quite amusing considering yours truly is very much a track person who initially had no interest at all in concours. In fact, when the late Doug Freedman, past president of the Ferrari Club of America, approached me over 20 years ago to be the editor of a new magazine about concours I declined right away, quite bluntly, which I regret.

     He was very gracious about it. I still recall my first time judging, at a wonderful New Orleans event in 2002, guided by the true expert Gary Bobileff...but with time you change, you mature and learn to appreciate different aspects of the hobby.

     When judging you can be stuck all day with the wrong people; I recall a concours in Ascona Switzerland where my judging partner, an accountant, was a blinkered Porsche devotee. He spent all day stating Italian cars are not reliable, completely missing the fact that it is a vast exaggeration and that they are far more exciting and charismatic than his beloved appliances....and he was Italian!

     This time in total contrast, I had a pleasant experience with a very friendly team composed of the ever-helpful Pascal Aure, administrator of the Ferrari France club, Michel Janvier, artist designer who worked on the world famous Asterix cartoon, and Monica Zanetti, former Ferrari factory technician of the F40 era. We meticulously judged the cars, around twenty, the competition being reserved for Ferraris before 1975.

     So, we started judging.

     I was struck by the fact that quite a few cars had their original tool kits, as in Europe, where people traditionally take a dim view of concours. Tool kits are a rare sight, so these cars had been in good hands, surviving half a century or more with nothing missing.

     By the way not one single car entered had been washed, except two brought by restoration shops, and since the event is so remote all had driven – not trailered – hundreds of kms and had the squashed bugs to prove it.

     Watch magnate Richard Mille was not there in person but several of his cars were there. One was entered in the concours, his magnificent 1958 250 GT Cabriolet Series I, S/N 1193 GT. It was restored to perfection but could not be an award candidate as it had neither matching numbers engine nor differential plus it was silver whereas the car had been born black.

     Note that the non-matching numbers is not considered as severely in Europe as long as the engine type is correct; after all these engines were changed like light bulbs back in the day when they failed and parts were so hard to get.

     One superb car was the Daytona, S/N 16709 of Manuel Iribarren in Blu Sera. It was extremely well preserved, the iconic front end corner lights just beginning to show they had been exposed to too much sun; it felt straight out of the seventies. A nice change from 1/1 scale soulless Burago restoration jobs one sees too often at concours.

     Unsurprisingly, a few years ago when the Daytona was celebrated at this event in the presence of guest of honor Leonardo Fioravanti, this one won best of show over numerous siblings.

     Next to judge was a 275 GTB, S/N 8507. It had been Azzurro new, but its owner Peter Come having bought it resale red twenty-six years ago ended up repainting it Rosso Cordoba when he restored the body 15 years ago.

     The interior was very nicely preserved with patina as good as it gets. Interestingly, it was one of just three two-cams with power windows. He drove it no less than 60,000 kms in those years.

     The 250 GT Lusso, S/N 4519, of Mr. Jean-Claude Bel had been sold new in Italy; it was in its correct livery having been born black. It went to the US for a spell early on before spending many years in the UK, where it received a replacement engine; that of 330 GT S/N 6555 GT. It was restored particularly nicely by Rossocorsa, the official Ferrari dealer in Milan, Italy. Bel had just done the Tour Auto with the Lusso.

     Next to judge was a yellow 1966 275 GTB, S/N 8501. This one born metallic gray was delivered new to a Signor Scevaroli in Verona, northern Italy. It soon sold to the US repainted red and led quite the life when owned by someone in California.

     In September 1973 it competed in the Virginia City Hill Climb and ended up on its roof, the driver unharmed, but quite damaged. The owner showed us the accident photos on his phone.

     After that the wreck was in limbo for many years,  separated from its engine, until the very incomplete remains were sold by Mike Sheehan to an Italian workshop, Officina Visauto, in Cremona.

     It was rebuilt over a number of years there for a French owner before being finished in 2002 and acquired by the current one. Thankfully it had been reunited with its original engine. It was in fair driver condition; its owner was not really interested in concours, only taking part to please the organizer.

     It had a bespoke alloy racing-style fuel tank, made by the previous owner since the original one was missing as a consequence of the accident; it took over most of the trunk.

     The gray Antoine Midy 212 E, S/N 094 E, with barchetta body by Motto is a regular at this event. It has been owned by the family since 1985; the son Emannuel having taken over after his father passed. It is very well preserved for a racing car, nicely patinated but well...it won’t win any beauty contests with its blunt stubby design.

     The 340 MM, S/N 294 AM, of Italian Roberto Crippa, another event faithful, was not judged as he was not available. Likewise, the 735 Mondial, S/N 0556 MD, of Francois Schaeffer.

     There were three nice driver Dinos though with a lot of color changes. Yes, at the risk of repeating myself in European concours, matching numbers, original colors are not the focus at all. In fact they are often the butt of jokes about trailer queens in mausoleum garages: driving pleasure is the focus.

     One yellow 246 GTS was owned by Marc Rabineau, well known in French classic Ferrari circles as the go-to man to source old French registration documents. The gregarious Parisian had good reason to participate as he himself has a cancer operation due soon: Godspeed, Marc.

     A Daytona Group-4, S/N 12467, bought by its current owner Alexandre Lafond in 2023, was a late addition to the concours, busy as it was with track time.

     It was the third production Daytona built, kept by the factory as a development car. In 1971 it was sold to Chinetti who had it converted to Group 4 by shops in Modena. It is now decorated as per its Le Mans 1971 livery as run by NART to fifth overall with Bob Grossmann and Luigi Chinetti, Jr., at the wheel.

     A gorgeous Verde Pino with tan 275 GTS was alas not judged as its owner was not available. There was also a nice silver 330 GT 4-headlight though once you have judged over a dozen cars it becomes a blur.

     There were three Queen Mary 365 GT 2+2s; one owned by the artist Olivier Boiteux, I would get to know later that day. All of them are in very similar good driver condition with, again, tool kits in a couple of them. All in all, hardly any pristine trailer queens, almost all very nice cars that get driven quite a bit as they should be.

     We felt we could not award a preservation award as each car had been to a certain extent restored and quite a few had color changes, so we made the third prize that of the jury’s favorite. After long deliberations given the excellent level of the cars, we awarded the following prizes based on point scores and appreciation.

     Best restoration: 250 GTE, S/N 2229 GT, by Yves Dedieu who invested years of his life in this masterfully led project. He had also spent years trying to buy the car before that; a very determined man.

     The Daytona presented by Provost, the restorer from Le Mans, was also a strong candidate for this award but Mr. Dedieu did it out of passion with admirable perseverance.

     Jury’s favorite: Peter Come’s 275 GTB, S/N 8507, which we all loved. It’s not in its original color, but it’s superb in Rosso Cordoba with a beautiful patina, and he really uses it, as he invited me to join him in the parade.

     We awarded Best of Show to Jean-Claude Bel’s 250 GT Lusso, S/N 4519 GT, in absolutely magnificent condition. Some might balk at a non-matching engine car getting Best of Show, but this isn’t Pebble Beach, it was common decades ago to replace engines, and this one was truly on a level beyond as confirmed by its leading points score.

     Time to wander the paddock and pits.

     At least one of each Ferrari Supercar was present except the awful “Lego kit” F80; good, I might have done something reprehensible. A yellow F50 gets my humble vote.

     The paddock had as usual endless rows of Ferraris from 308 GT4, a majority of V8s from 308 GTB to 488, many modern V12s from 400 to 812 Superfast, several of them in distinct liveries as tributes to those of some 250 GTOs or Daytona Group 4’s. The classics present were mostly those entered in the concours.

     There was the usual variety of track vendors and a little further along there was an amusing contrast between a booth selling nostalgia garage tin plates and, right next door Aramco the Saudi oil company selling its high-tech synthetic recycled racing fuel.

     There were lots of Porsches, Lamborghinis, recent Maseratis taking part in track sessions by era and car type; a thousand cars all in all.

     Like each year there is a very pleasant artificial village in a corner of the paddock, all on synthetic grass with plants, a bar, vendor booths and numerous cars displayed such as an SF90 Stradale and Daytona SP3.

     As seen at Chantilly last September artist Antoine Dufilho presented his artwork, car silhouettes made of metal blades, one full size paying tribute to the 330 P4 and many roughly 1/5 scale showing classic and recent models. They sell for around 25/30,000 Euros.

     I met another artist, the gregarious Olivier Boiteux from the Jura region who was displaying his impressive work in the Ferrari Club France awning. He had seen his first Ferrari about 12 years old. He was struck by the lines of these cars and had an epiphany when he discovered aerographics and found out what he could do with it. He started in 1999 working entirely virtually with computer aero graphics and showed his Ferrari centered work for the first time at Spa in 2000.

     The same Mr. Bel who entered the black Lusso also happened to own the star of the weekend, apart of the F1 cars: a 499P Modificata, one of the track-day-only client versions of the 499P that has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 and 2024 as well as all races in the World Endurance Championship this year.

     These actually have 200 more horsepower, about 880 hp, than the racing versions, which are restricted by the infamous and controversial BOP (Balance Of Performance) reset before each race by the FIA, based on the previous races results and apparent performance.

     Only about 30 499P Modificata have been built –(Ferrari won’t reveal the exact number) and it costs several million to buy –according to a very well-informed source a racing version of the 499P such as the three about to race at Le Mans mid-June would cost eight million Euros, which is why no privateer team in Europe or the US has bought any.

     The price of the 499P Modificata track-day-only version, also highly confidential, cannot be that much lower. I took the opportunity to ask Bel what it is like to drive.

     First of all, the starting procedure: “The sport prototipi section of the Corse Clienti department runs it for me. It takes eight Ferrari technicians no less than 45 minutes to start the car. Everything needs to be pre-heated, including the special high-tech high-intensity batteries since its 2992 cc twin-turbo six-cylinder engine is a hybrid supplemented by battery power. Several of the technicians manage the car’s systems on computers. Behind the wheel you could say it is dangerous because it is too simple, too easy; at 300 kph/187 mph you have two tons of downforce, the limits are so incredibly high, you are in such a realm of performance that you think you can keep going faster until suddenly it snaps out of control. At Paul Ricard, my first and only day driving it before today, I had a spin. On that circuit’s famous Signes corner at the end of the long straight I am still not very fast, still learning the car, taking it at 210, 220 kph when the pros are at 300 kph. The downforce, the tire grip and the brakes are just incredible. Here at Le Vigeant I get to 300 kph on the back straight braking for the hairpin at 150 meters with the incredible carbon brakes. A difference compared to the racing versions is that on Modificatas the electrical power supplement and the four-wheel drive is active as soon as the car moves whereas on the WEC cars it only switches on at 200 kph (125 mph). Another difference is that the track-day-only cars actually have grippier tires. There is a push to pass button with seven seconds of battery over boost available, with a gauge showing your battery emptying.”

     Amusingly one of the Gendarmerie’s new Alpine A110 was actually driven in track sessions by several Gendarmes and observing them they certainly know what they are doing. They can really drive so if you ever find yourself driving in France and chased by them don’t try to outrun them!

     How does the actual charity fund gathering work? Members of the public who want to ride in a Ferrari or other exotic pay 30 Euros for their ticket, all of which goes to fund the leading cancer research department of the CHU hospital of the city of Poitiers. The line is 100 people deep all weekend long and the beautiful aspect is that practically all car owners taking part generously join the line of cars picking up passengers.

     Track personnel make sure the passengers have nothing sharp sticking out that could damage the leather, help them put on a helmet and get strapped in and off they go for a few unforgettable laps. Some kids who sadly have cancer get very special treatment apart from their laps being free of course.

     On Saturday evening a gala dinner with fine dishes took place in a huge awning at the circuit. An aerobatics display awed spectators on Sunday along with the traditional parade with every single Ferrari taking part for a slow but boisterous two laps with lots of honking and waving: a beautiful moment for charity.

     This is truly a unique event created for a beautiful cause which has grown to become a major highlight of the European calendar; many congratulations to founder Jean-Pierre Doury and his hard-working team of volunteers.

     The next edition will take place May 28-31, 2026. For more information see: https://sportetcollection.org/

     An English version of the event website will be implemented in the coming months to help expand the international participation so keep an eye out for it.