Used Euro Team Cars
JAngst57
thrashed by the end of a season (driving for six hours in second and third
gear, etc), but I always thought it would be cool to get one cheap and throw in
a new engine and gearbox. These days, all the stage races have their own car
sponsor (teams get car usage during TdF, Giro, Vuelta), what happens to these
after the races? Anyone know? Bruce? Brian?
John A.
Andrew Albright
JAngst57 wrote:
> What happens to used Euro team cars? I'm sure engines and gearboxes are
> thrashed by the end of a season (driving for six hours in second and third
> gear, etc), but I always thought it would be cool to get one cheap and throw in
> a new engine and gearbox.
If you could pull that off, then you would without a doubt be the Supreme Ruler of
All Freds, no one could touch you. You could laugh at the puny little freds who
just wear a world champs jersey or the Limar Mapei helmet or who don't shave their
legs. You would be untouchable. I can picture it now: you pull up to your next
ride in your Saeco team car, step out of the car all kitted up, and take your team
issue Cannondale off the roof. You would be the man!
Andrew Albright
JAVAEYE
thinking it would be fun to have the Mavic neutral support vehicle--with racks.
It would have made a great vehicle for a bike club to own. Don't know what
becomes of them. I suppose you could give them a paint job and just sell them
as a used vehicle.
Brian Lafferty
Jim Burlant
JAngst57 wrote in message <19990123154026...@ng142.aol.com>...
>What happens to used Euro team cars? I'm sure engines and gearboxes are
>thrashed by the end of a season (driving for six hours in second and third
>gear, etc), but I always thought it would be cool to get one cheap and
throw in
car
>sponsor (teams get car usage during TdF, Giro, Vuelta), what happens to
these
>after the races? Anyone know? Bruce? Brian?
At least in America, you wouldn't be able to do this, as many of the team
vans for races like Corestates are merely rented from the local Avis,
Budget, Hertz, or whomever. The team staff rents the car, picks it up, and
slaps the team/sponsor stickers all over it. Then they return it and pay
whatever fine there is.
As for my sources on this: back in '95, a friend of a friend of mine
(Clark, and I don't remember his last name) was the psychologist who
traveled with the Australian national team when it was run by Heiko
Salzwedel (sp?). I got to talking with Clark at that year's Tour DuPont (I
was living one hour from Wilmington, DE back in '95), and he filled me in on
this.
Jim Burlant
"You can see a lot just by observing." -- Yogi Berra
Henry Tremper
several years,
traditionally vehicles are given as the Car sponsor. These vehicles are
then given back and at the end of a tour. From there they usually go up for
auction. Some of the vehicles we use are rented and some of the independent
teams rent their own.
As for the quality of the vehicles, since we only put on 1k-2k miles per
year they usually are kept in good condition, it is in the best interest of
the promo. company (that puts the race on) / sponsor relationship that the
vehicles are not "trashed". The only thing is since often we get vehicles
directly from the factory the "Break-in" miles are not that great.
Henry Tremper
fast.net
fast.net
YOU READ THIS NEWS GROUP TO??? TO ALL THOSE OUT THERE DONT LISTEN TO THIS
GUY HE KNOWS NOT WHAT HE SPEAKS (FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH OUT A SENSE OF HUMOR
I AM KIDDING, ARE YOU LISTENING ANDREW NOT SO BRIGHT)
AARE YOU GOING TO ERIC'S PARTY???
TOM
AMyerson
Henry Tremper
>
>AARE YOU GOING TO ERIC'S PARTY???
Wouldn't miss it...
hen
>
>
>TOM
>
>
Belumat
team. They are usually changed one time per season, usually during the tour de
france, when many teams are using the cars from TdF.
The cars are returned, refurbished and sold.
Fiat, for example, sponsors the Italian pro federation and all Italian pro
teams get Fiat Marea
wagons. After a few moths the cars are pretty well used...since all are europe
spec, they can never be imported for road use in the USA, as they are not DOT
compatible.
TdF cars can be purchased by insiders ( riders, team staff, etc. ) after the
Tour from Fiat France.
JAngst57
>If you could pull that off, then you would without a doubt be the Supreme
>Ruler of
>All Freds, no one could touch you. You could laugh at the puny little freds
>who
>just wear a world champs jersey or the Limar Mapei helmet or who don't shave
>their
>legs. You would be untouchable. I can picture it now: you pull up to your
>next
>ride in your Saeco team car, step out of the car all kitted up, and take your
>team
>issue Cannondale off the roof. You would be the man!
>
>Andrew Albright
>
>
Actually Andrew, my Geo Metro is dying and I needed to get another vehicle,
that's all. I promise I won't take the team car to any races and I will never
buy the kind of bike that the team used. I promise I'll only wear my club
jersey, not the jersey of the team car sponsor. And I don't have a Limar
helmet, just a 3 year old Specialized with no decals on it.
John A.
carlsun
new car prices, and nothing personal, BTW) is dying a slow death, how would you
expect to A) ship a Euroteam car over here from Europe (ignoring the
complexities/costs of importing and federalizing said vehicle for safety and
emissions), B) procuring an engine & tranny for the car (which is quite likely not
sold in the States), C)paying for engine, tranny, and installation into the car?
Actually, probably the easiest way to do it (without it being particularly
authentic), is to get a Dodge Intrepid and have it painted in the colors of ONCE
(Dodge Intrepids were actually their team vehicles in 1998), make up (or write and
ask ONCE for) some huge ONCE decals, and find a cheap metal fabrication shop put
together some crazy looking bike rack/jungle gym looking contraption attached to
the roof, back window, and trunk. Seriously.
Any way you look at it, it probably isn't gonna be cheap, or at least cheaper
than fixing your current car.
HWilli8397
Probably sold at the end of the year, as noted by other posters.
>> I'm sure engines and gearboxes are thrashed by the end of a season>>
Most likely. Most of the Euro stuff would be manual tranny and clutches would
have to be close to shot.
As noted, it'd be difficult and nowhere near cost effective to get one to the
US and legalize it. most of the Fiats aren't all that impressive anyway, except
that you'd be th only one around with one. No big deal in Italy, as they're all
over the place there; much less fun when you walk into your local NAPA to try
and find an oil filter for that Tempra wagon.
The ones that made me drool the most were the Telekom cars. Audi wagons:
turbodiesel, 5 speed ... we're talking a sweet ride. The racks are truly works
of art, though.
More practical a plan would be to buy some used US stuff: the Saturn team
usually liquidates its cars at year end and Saturn itself sells cars used by
other sponsored programs (i.e. USA Cycling, First Union races). Henry Tremper's
comments are only accurate for the Saturns loaned to races: (USA) team stuff
has more miles on it usually and while not necessarily abuse, they can be
pretty hard miles. Only the cool factor makes it a better deal than the local
classified ads.
Hank
George Mount
No matter what, the cars are COMPLETELY thrashed whan they get rid of them,
not just the engine and gears. In Italy when I was there, they often went to
small local Amature teams for peanuts or free. The biggest value of them
was the racks built into the car, and if your team had a local mechanic who
would work on it, you could get 3 - 4 years more out of the car, if you
didn't mind stuff breaking all the time.
JAngst57 wrote in message <19990123154026...@ng142.aol.com>...
>What happens to used Euro team cars? I'm sure engines and gearboxes are
>thrashed by the end of a season (driving for six hours in second and third
>gear, etc), but I always thought it would be cool to get one cheap and
throw in
>a new engine and gearbox. These days, all the stage races have their own
car
>sponsor (teams get car usage during TdF, Giro, Vuelta), what happens to
these
>after the races? Anyone know? Bruce? Brian?
>John A.
arm
George Mount <geo...@luxn.com> wrote in article
<78ibs1$cjf$1...@owl.slip.net>...
> Many of the cars last more than 1 year.
>
> No matter what, the cars are COMPLETELY thrashed whan they get rid of
them,
> not just the engine and gears. In Italy when I was there, they often went
to
> small local Amature teams for peanuts or free. The biggest value of them
> was the racks built into the car, and if your team had a local mechanic
who
> would work on it, you could get 3 - 4 years more out of the car, if you
> didn't mind stuff breaking all the time.
>
>
> Is This "THE" George Mount of cyclocross fame???
>
Steven L. Sheffield
<a...@fast.net> wrote:
Dunno about cyclocross fame ... but it is THE George Mount of
late 70s professional (in Europe) fame ... one of the first
American pros to race in Europe, along with Mike Neel and
Jonathan Boyer ...
I believe George was the first American to race in the Giro d'Italia.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Steven L. Sheffield (BOB #1765/IBOB #3) Disclaimer? What's that? |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ste...@veloworks.com / 415.296.9893 / "Ride lots." - Eddy Merckx |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
fast.net
cyclocross champs on year in the late 70's. There was a dismount area and
he was the only rider to not dismount lap after lap. I guess he drew quite
a crowd. Maybe George can retell the story for us all.
carlsun
used to bunny hop the dismount barriers.
arm
carlsun <car...@earthlink.net> wrote in article
<36AD464D...@earthlink.net>...
> YOU ARE CORRECT, I AM A DUNDER HEAD!!! I got my names mixed not to take
any thing away from George, but it was Laurence Malone I was thinking of.
Sorry
George Mount
thing. I like cyclo-cross, but not enough to go to the worlds.
George Mount
arm wrote in message <01be4934$192d9fa0$7090f5ce@toms-computer>...
George Riedesel
>Many of the cars last more than 1 year.
>No matter what, the cars are COMPLETELY thrashed whan they get rid of them,
>not just the engine and gears. In Italy when I was there, they often went to
>small local Amature teams for peanuts or free. The biggest value of them
>was the racks built into the car, and if your team had a local mechanic who
>would work on it, you could get 3 - 4 years more out of the car, if you
>didn't mind stuff breaking all the time.
Hey now, those cars aren't considered completely thrashed until a
third rate teams such as one I raced with in Spain gets those cars
third generation. Man that late 70's, third-hand, SEAT's made every
trip an adventure. We were sooo happy to get a 10 year old Renault,
but what our manager really wanted was a five year old Citreon.
George Riedesel
_______________
And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared
their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled
their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws till Max said
"BE STILL!"