Concours d'Atat

Elsewhere in my blogs, I have discussed briefly, the most popular (and cheapest) form of vehicle restoration and world-wide competitions - the Concours d'Elegance.

Little known, even in the automotive restoration industry, is the "Concours d'Atat.
As far as I can tell from my research, there seems to be only one genuine such competition in the world and as you might expect, it's in France.
It is a very unusual event.

Because of the stringent rules of this type of restoration, it becomes a trial of trust, honesty and internal integrity, as much as it is about the cars.
The objective is to restore the vehicle to an exact replica of the vehicle as it would have been if you turned back the clock and walked into the showroom in the year that your car was first sold new.

That obviously includes whatever optional extras were available at the time, all paperwork that you could have collected in the showroom and a restoration of all original parts without the use of any after-market or non-genuine parts.
Exceptions are acceptable and here is where the integrity comes to the fore.

No judge in the world would have knowledge of all such matters.
To find judges who had that knowledge for even one car would be difficult, let alone a few dozen or more cars from different manufacturers, years etc.
It therefore becomes necessary for the owner to provide to the judges, prior to the judging, a list of all non-original parts and replacements.
Exemptions include some electrical equipment such as radios and aerials, tyres, woodwork and one or two other items that I can't remember.
We communicated with the organisers of the concours d'atat in Tours, France to get their advice.


Let me give you a practical example -

Between 1994 and 1995, I puchased and rebuilt this 1970 BMW 2800 ARe.
The "Re" stands for "rechte" or "right" in German and "A" stands for automatic.
This was one of 246 cars produced on the right hand drive assembly line in Munich before all right hand models were eventually, for a period, transferred to South Africa.
There were 638 vehicles of this model produced between 1969 and 1971.
We were advised that there were 40 known models still in existance.

With constant communications by telephone and mail, we obtained all original specifications, descriptions of optional extras, and choices such as paint and trim, all sales brochures, workshop and owners manuals applying to the vehicle.

This was the first 6 cylinder produced by BMW in 2.8L format.

I then bought two (2) old wrecks for a total of AUD$1,500 and proceeded to rebuild them.
Panels rusted beyond repair were replaced with new moulded steel of the same density as the original.
All motor and transmission parts were rebuilt with genuine original parts. Electrical equipment was rewired and rebuilt were necessary.
We had to buy quite a number of parts from Germany, thankful for the fact that the 2800 parts were compatible with many other models until around 1976.
Rubber for doors, windscreen wipers, boot and bonnet, one lens and tools for tool box. Surprisingly, carpets were then made in pieces, not moulded and the material was still available.
Rather than providing a long list of the process, I will finish by saying that we entered it in a local concours event in Australia, only to be beaten into second place by a nicely restored 1969 Alfa Romeo.
C'est la vie.

To read more, please visit my web site .