Marathon de la Route, 84 Hours of Nurburgring?

[Fiorentina 1]

What can you guys tell me about this amazing race? I can't believe I haven't seen a story about this marathon on Motorsport magazine or anything. I know the race ran from 67 to 70 and combined the 28 kilometres of the Nord and Südschleife of the Nurburgring. The race was run by production cars (MGB, 911, 914, Volvos, etc).

Why did it stop and what is the story behind it? Man, I can't believe they held such an event......

[WANHER]

The 84 hours were in fact the substitute for Liége Rome Liége and
Liége Sofia Liège rally, the latest one was too dangerous and imagine a rally on open roads with mule , trucks, bus etc ? and also tourist

Robert

[Frank de Jong]

On my site there's some information about these races (1965: http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...g%2082hrs.html ); there's no general consensus if this was a rally or a race; it had elements of both!

[Fiorentina 1]

Frank, that's the site I saw with the results. What's the home page address, I want to check it out.

About the Liége Rome Liége, how long did the race last and what years did it run?

[Frank de Jong]

http://etcc-history.it4us.nl
Oter (semi) internatinal races - 60's and 70's.

[D-Type]

This was how Jackie Ickx learned the Nurburgring so well leading to his incredible German GP performances in the F2 Matra.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Fiorentina 1
About the Liége Rome Liége, how long did the race last and what years did it run?

The Liège-Rome-Liège was not a race. It was a rally, as was the Liège-Sofia-Liège. They were also known as Marathons de la Route, and so was the Nurburgring event which replaced them. Whether the German event became a race in later years I do not know, but it certainly started as a rally.
The Liège-Rome-Liège rally itself dates back to at least the 1930s

[Anuauto]

The last "proper" Liege rally would have been 1963 or 64? Final title was "Spa-Sofia-Liege"?
There was a local stage rally within the Belgian Championship run by the same club and called the "Boucles de Liege" until comparatively recently, but the route was very local typical Belgian stage event.

[Fred Gallagher]

I think you're confusing it with the "Boucles de Spa", a Belgian and European championship event.

The Nurburgring Marathons were not races. The cars were allowed a certain amount of service time in the pits each few hours and had to maintain a certain speed.

[Anuauto]

No. The Boucles de Liege was a different event from Boucles de Spa, run by a different club. Spa was (and is?) in the Belgian Open Championship. The Boucles de Liege was Belgian National Championship (but run under an International permit and open to foreign competitors).

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Fred Gallagher
The Nurburgring Marathons were not races. The cars were allowed a certain amount of service time in the pits each few hours and had to maintain a certain speed.

Thanks for that, Fred - presumably from firsthand knowledge?
It's a point I've been trying to make here and elsewhere for years - at the same time being too lazy to check!

[Fred Gallagher]

Originally posted by David McKinney
Thanks for that, Fred - presumably from firsthand knowledge?
It's a point I've been trying to make here and elsewhere for years - at the same time being too lazy to check!

I'm just a bit too young at 52 to have competed there! My work colleague Alec Poole did however. Maybe I can get a bit of first hand knowledge from him. Somewhere I have an excellent book on all the Marathons so when I find it I'll post some more stuff.

[WANHER]

For the 1968 edition the rules were modified
Every minute for a pit stop there was a penalty of 30 km +- 1 lap nor and sud schleife . Maximum stop 20 minutes.
Every lap shoulb be lapped in 24 minutes . Other point if the car dint had the same amount of laps in the last 12 Hours as the past first 12 hours, the car was automatically take off from the track .
The first stop between the 75 and 80 laps wasn't with penalty.
I know it s very confused.
There is no speaking about stop durung an amount of hours it was may be before but not for the 1968 edition.
Source l'automobile Philippe Toussaint driver and journalist at this event.

Robert

[GolddustMini]

so was it like last man standing wins then? the last 2 days must have been easy on the marshalls, no cars on the track and only so much tarmac you can kick! :P

[WANHER]

1968 26 finishers out of 59 starters

Robert