News Flash

Grand European: the French take the prizes!

In the face of considerable
international competition,
our members Patrick Crespin
and Laurent Doret won
important awards presented by
the Cadillac LaSalle Club of
America. Patrick received the
prize for the ‘Best car of the
1920s’ with his 1923
Convertible Sedan
(the subject of a report in our
Bulletin No 6).
Patrick with Dirk Van Dorst and (right) Claude Lenoir (Sec AUVL)

Laurent won the prize for

‘Best car of the 1930s’in a
class hotly contested by the
visitors. Laurent has no
hesitation in expressing his
gratitude to our member in
Kansas City – the expert
restorer Marc Ohm – who
helped Laurent with parts for
his car that simply could not
be found in Europe.

Laurent’s Type355A in front of the Château at Champigny sur Veude.

It is also with immense satisfaction that we report that our Vice-

President, Geneviève Keyaerts and her sister Magali received the
very well-deserved «Texas Trophy» sponsored by ‘Honest John’
Foust of Justin, Texas, in recognition of their activities in the
promotion Cadillac and LaSalle automobiles in Europe and
elsewhere.

(Right) Geneviève with our Treasurer Danielle Lepron at the Caves

Painctes of Chinon.

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The full results.
Oldest car : 1915 - V8 Convertible Sedan (José Cubells, Espagne)

Best car 1920s : 1923 - V8 Convertible Sedan type V61 (Patrick Crespin, France)

Best car 1930s : 1931 - V8 type 355A (Laurent Doret, France)

Best car 1940s and Most Travelled award: 1941 - V8 Convertible Coupé (José Candido Muricy, Brésil)

Best car 1950s: 1957 - Eldorado Biarritz (Harry Kjensli, Norvège)

Best car 1960s: 1960 - Eldorado Biarritz (Christian Freudenthaler, Autriche)

Best car 1970s: 1976 - Eldorado Convertible (Ivar Wahl, Norvège)

Best car 1980s: 1987 - Séville (Emmanuel Fassler, Suisse)

Best car 1990s: 1992 - Fleetwood (Dick Mostert, Pays-Bas)

The People’s Choice: 1952 - Sedan (Floris Van Os, Pays-Bas)

Most original car: 1959 - Sedan de Ville (‘Flat Top’) (Likele de Boer, Pays-Bas)

Most interesting modified car : 1959 - Fleetwood (A. A. Dortangs, Pays-Bas)

President Pierre Gravel’s trophy : 1951 - Coupé de Ville (Peter Lewin, Espagne)

Director Dirk Van Dorst’s trophy : 1956 - Sedan de Ville (Klaus Deisinger, Allemagne)

Viva Brésil!

Jose Candido Muricy crossed the Atlantic to participate in the GREC.

He receives the Longest Travelled prize from Dirk.

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The organisers’ prizes.
We, the four organisers, don’t have any trophies or cups to give away - but if we did these are the
prizes we would have awarded:

‘The Good Luck Prize’ and the ‘Good Samaritans Prize’.

Jan Ivan Christiansen and Henni Jensen + Pierre and Béatrice Gravel.

At every CLC event in America there is always an award for the participant who suffered the worst
luck: the ‘Bad Luck Award’. The trophy, which was available for the Grand European, was not
awarded during the event as, happily, no one had any bad luck during the event. On the other hand,
had there been a ‘Good Luck Award’ (which there was not) then it should have been presented to
Jan Ivan Christiansen and his friend Henni Jensen.

Here’s the story: Traditionally, two of the three staff of Pierre Gravel’s notary’s office take their
holiday in August. Hence, during the holiday season, files can sometimes build up in the
Secretaries’ office at the Notaries. Béatrice (who has lots of experience in Notaries business)
sometimes takes the opportunity to put the files away in good order.

By chance, on the evening of Tuesday 31 August, she decided to tidy up a bit in the office. But very
late – we are talking about half past ten at night, much later that usual for this task.

A bit later: « Tinga linga Ling ». The telephone. But who? Even the greediest inheritor would
hesitate to call the Notaries at getting on for eleven at night…………….
She picks up the phone: « allô…. »
In reply, someone who speaks in English, of which Béatrice only knows a few words. Desperately
she asks the caller to hold on while she goes off in search of Pierre.

The rest is briefly told. Jan Ivan and Henni had travelled several days from Norway in their 1998
Sedan de Ville without thinking that perhaps Richelieu isn’t Las Vegas and that the hotels don’t stay
open 24/24. When they arrived they found the Relais du Plessis and Le Puits Doré shut for the
night. The only other contact Jan Ivan had was the number of Pierre’s office. He called it on the one
night for years when there was someone there to answer him.

Naturally, the Gravels made up a bed for the couple and at breakfast the following day even had a
translator to help sort out our Northern friends: thus meriting the Good Samaritan prize.

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The Françoise Chambraud prize for nice people.

Joseph Gildea.

The article ‘Our members and their cars # 4’ (april 2010) ends with the words of Françoise
Chambraud: ‘The Cadillac Club has helped us to meet so many nice people’.
The Grand European helped us meet them too.

There were very many – but if one had to pick one out from the rest the prize would go to Joseph
Gildea, President of the New England Région of the CLC of America.

We might have expected to find Mister Gildéa, President of the largest Region of the American
Club, to be a bit pompous, performing his function with dignity. But Jo isn’t like that at all. He is
calm, courteous and nice. And, above all, he helped us throughout the duration of the event.

He helped us sort out the parking problems, seated people where they should be at table, checked
the arrivals… in a nutshell, he was always there when we needed someone without once standing
on his dignity. A real friend and a gentleman.

Jo Gildea between two ’59 Eldorado Broughams. The super-rare Broughams, of which only 99
were bodied by Pinin Farina in Italy, carry consecutive chassis numbers.

Next event: Sunday 24 October.

Relaxed….….. a drive with our friends from the AUVL to the Lorry Museum at Montrichard. We
meet at the Cardinal’s statue by the South Gate at Richelieu at 8h30 and drive in convoy to the
Museum. Or meet there at 10h15. Lunch there. No entry fee. Nice.