Pierre Bardinon in memoriam

Those who were a part of the Ferrari racing and collectors world early enough know how important his legacy and his collection were and still are.

I do not believe it can be argued that he was the most important Ferrari collector there ever was and -I feel- there ever will be.

I felt like a little priest visiting the Pope when he hosted me on May first 1998 yet he received me in the most gracious way.

My condeoleances to his wife Yann and his sons, one of whom I met at Le Mans Classic just weeks ago in early July.

I want to say very humbly that even though I met him just twice I was very much aware of his significance to the Ferrari passion and all those who knew him should share their experiences so that those who simply see Ferraris as assets or commodities can be made to sit back and understand there is more to it all than that and even more importantly so that enthusiasts may understand and enjoy what he stood for, who he was, posthumously.

Mes respects Monsieur et merci.

MS

 

Etienne I had not realized that was Patrick, I spoke with him briefly in the pits at LMC on the Friday after their track session and to his brother in the Chapal stand the next day who both said their father was getting better...

Ed very nicely put and a rare photo of the man always discrete, I regret not doing an interview bio of him years ago.

I will share a few stories I have read or which he told me that blessed day of May 1st 1998 during that lunch with his wife and one of his sons but am not sure which one it was (and we certainly did not recognize each other 14 years later) but just a short one for now due to time constraints. As best I can recall here it is.

He said that one day in the very early years on his circuit he had planned to drive one of his front engined open Le Mans cars, don't recall which, so he started lapping and then as he approached the corner at the top of the main straight he had a sudden pain in his right ankle which caused him to miss his braking point and go off slightly into the grass doing a little light plowing with a rather expensive lawn mower.

It was a mouse in the footwell expressing its dissatisfaction with its teeth!

Interestingly he explained that he designed the circuit (or had it designed) so as to put the least possible strain on old drum brakes i.e. the uphill slope into turn one which is a faster curve than one would think, mind you I just did one lap in a Peugeot with one of his sons that day, period, so I can't judge!

Next I will tell the tale of the impromptu visit of F1 world champion Denny Hulme and of his record runs to Paris in his 250LM.

I hope others can share tales no matter how small.

best regards,

Marc

 

Ah wonderful to see this thread begin to lift off:

I really don't think there will ever be anyone more significant in the process of collecting historic Ferraris, slightly more meaningful than analysing Pebble Beach prices.

As mentioned here is the tale he told me during that lunch May 1 1998 about Denny Hulme.

At some point in the 70's or early 80's there had been a discussion about a visit by Japanese TV and Denny Hulme (1967 F1 world champion).

Somehow this information/appointment had been lost/botched/forgotten/improperly announced.

It does not matter whose fault it was, put it down to culture shock.

The end result was that one day there was a ring on the intercom buzzer at the gate of the chateau in St Avit de Tardes.

The family on the inside was surprised. Those on the outside too.

Thankfully since those on the inside, particularly the man himself were equipped with the right mindset and feelings, i.e. were enthusiastic and positive, the gate was opened.

Pierre Bardinon and his family were, out of the blue, faced with a Japanese TV crew, a rather strong willed team leader/journalist lady and...a very different person; the laid back New Zealander who had been hired for the day's intended program: driving the 1962 Le Mans winning 330 TRI #0808 on camera for the show. No messing about, Japanese precision.

This was however as far from Tokyo as you could get.

The announcement of the vist had been truly botched so most collectors would have said sorry....no.

But PB was different, he was intrigued so they all had a big French lunch during which he let the Japanese lady convince him while DH watched in amazement. After lunch Hulme did get to drive the car on camera around the circuit and all were happy.

MS

 

The Ferrari Market Letter just published a very fine obituary which subscribers will enjoy.

I would hope that other can contribute memories of him, I have more but feel awkward being the only one posting them since I only met him twice.

In any case: when he once bought two cars out of the US one was a derelict and one was in much better condition and he had the greatest difficutly explaining to customs that the derelict was more expensive than the other because it was a Le Mans winner! He was laughing in retrospect when telling that one!

He never ever visited the USA by the way.

One statement he made has been a great guideline to me and makes a lot of sense: he mentioned that cars should be compared like wines, that the sum of their ingredients gives them a persona, just like a wine in your palate reflects all that was put into its creation.
This makes a lot more sense to me than numbers and statistics the endless analysis of which often seems sterile and obtuse.

Finally he mentioned that in his view when a GTO or any other model won a race all GTO's or all cars of that model won that race, that it validated them all, not just one hence the endless chassis number hairsplitting was in his view excessive and showed a lack of down to earth judgement.

MS