Col de Turini Tour 2018: We Are The Mountain

25 July 2018 Redazione Events, Lifestyle, News

COL DE TURINI TOUR

WE ARE THE MOUNTAIN

Words by Alessandro Marrone

Photos by Nazareno Distefano

Right, left, right, left – two simple movements that despite being repeated endlessly during our annual climb on the hairpin bends of the Col de Turini, also represent the best fraction of a second in which our tires decide to throw the towel defeated by a couple of meters of gravel-covered road. The moment is consumed in the blink of an eye and still surprised I begin to ask my entourage if we have punctured a tire, or what else. For a few meters the car does not intend to go straight, behind me a big fuss and after a quick check we start again and continue our fantastic challenge to the mountain. A warning, a way to make us understand never to underestimate this stretch of asphalt basically put over the rocks that overlook the most chic part of the Côte d’Azur. And if you run it more than a handful of times a year, you can never lower your focus, but you must damn fit with it – with the mountain – at that point it will allow you to have fun. The alternative scenario? A severe punishment and someone tried first hand, a few years ago.

The fourth edition of the Col de Turini Tour took place on a sunny Sunday in early July, the best way to ensure the benevolence of the weather, even once reached 1600 meters – not that it is amazing height above the sea level, but for a reason or for the ‘other, the sky above the Turini is part of a world on itself and may decide to rain despite the almost total lack of clouds. This is also the beauty of the driving tour that opens Auto Class Magazine driving season, the continuous challenge between ourselves and the limits of our cars, put to the test along a route of about 160km of hairpin turns that challenge brakes from start to finish. It is impossible to memorize the entire route, and just when you think you know a passage of it, you find yourself in a detached position and have to close the steering wheel more than usual, still climbing down a gear and maybe losing contact with the car in front for a moment. There is not even time to catch your breath, when the eyes remain fixed on the viewfinder and every curve is a shot that is added to our personal abacus. There are also faster sections, those in which the supercars here today, including Ferrari 458 Speciale, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and Porsche 911 GT3 RS, manage to unleash a power that in other places remains inexorably almost bridled, but giving way to try the perfect balance of the chassis and the traction of the huge tires at the back, never like today raped without the slightest reserve.

Many Porsches present at this edition. 911, including a splendid 964 coming from Bologna (at its second participation), 991 Targa, 997 Turbo and a 997 with an outlaw-like exhaust, but also a lot of Cayman, including a GT4, and then a 944 and various drifting machines such as a Mustang GT, BMW M2, M140i, Toyota GT86, MX-5 and those genuine hot stuff like the AMG A45 or the Megane RS. Wherever you were, you would have heard the roar of someone of our group climbing up the mountain’s stomach, some did not even do it on purpose (GT86), but with each pressure on the throttle it was able to attract the frightened looks of the locals and those annoyed by the police! Leading the group two exceptional hot hatches, the new PeugeotSport 308 GTI and the Volkswagen Golf R, unquestionably the ideal weapons for this type of road. Angry, with a short wheelbase, self-locking differential and no intention to be hounded by those that under the hood had a more substantial number of horses. The Col de Turini has its rules and to get out of it all you need is to understand that every curve can hide a pitfall, an old lady on her minivan or a lunatic that decides to park in the middle of a hairpin.

It’s amazing how the same road that I traveled only a month ago during a recent shooting, is so different if faced with a group of spirited drivers. The majestic landscape that is drawn at the sides of my eyes – perennially focused on what lies in front of me – becomes almost a simple background, instead of the beautiful container that immerses us in a dreamy place, a book composed of pages of motoring history that have covered the walls of childhood for several generations, passing from the first rally cars to the crazy Group B and then to the ultraperforming cars of today’s WRC. And so you find yourself peeling off at the same points as Ogier & company, you find yourself in the first person, in that magic potion made of hairpin bends with the void on one side and with the bare rock on the other one. Then, just because it’s never enough, we drove what is probably the most legendary part of the entire tour, namely the stage that goes down towards La Bollène-Vésubie, not to mention the crazy ups and downs of the Col de Braus, authentic cherry on the cake. The rock-cut tunnels have confirmed to be the best natural amplifiers, freeing waves of crazy decibels that are probably still re-echoing now.

That road that months ago was so silent and calm, when we approached for taking pictures, today was anything but a place of inner peace. Every year we transform this iconic climbing into our little corner of  driving paradise and every year, once back in the Principality of Monaco, from where we start in the morning, we know that we cannot wait so much and already think about the next edition, which will inevitably be seasoned with some news to allow the “aficionados” who come back every year to always have some surprising ingredients. For this 2018 Turini everything went great, now we can all go to change our tires, or what’s left of it!

Auto Class would like to thank all the participants for having gave life to an exceptional day. We would like to thank Peugeot Italia and Volkswagen Italia for the staff cars and our partner sponsors Astoria Wines, Capristo Exhaust, Ceramiche Francesco Guarino, Euroimport Pneumatici, Import Garage Wrapping, RacetrackArt and Stars’ n Bars for the always impeccable reception reserved.

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