Some you're looking for one thing and get dragged away when something else mysterious pops up. Having dug a bit deeper I remember reading about this place in a magazine a few years ago but what a place! Where?
Sitges-Terramar
Early '20s and Spain decided it wanted a circuit to compete with Brooklands and they build a corker! It didn't survive as a running circuit for very long though - but being in the middle of Spain and not on the outskirts of London has survived intact. Anyone who has been to Brooklands probably knows how steep its 30 degree banking feels. Sitges-Terramar is 60 degree
A historian wrote
I've done some searching and it pops up on various motorsport forums. It seems to be ownered by a farmer who was pretty awkward in the past and various attempts to buy it fell through but from later comments it seems as though he/the family/locals are mellowing and there's been a couple of fairly low key events there in the past couple of years with local car clubs. Perhaps its day will soon come and some restoration can take place and it can echo the sounds of racing engines occasionally once again?
The most amazing aspect I find is that the infield was raised at one end so that spectators could look down at the action. There is no-where for an out of control car to go other than over the top (unlikely at that angle) or into the rock face at the bottom
Here's a photobucket gallery of photos taken last summer
s882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/PhilG165/Sitges-Terramar%20%20August%202010/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ20
The original (near 90 year old) grandstand too.
Another place to add to the destination for a mainland Europe trip...
Sitges-Terramar
Early '20s and Spain decided it wanted a circuit to compete with Brooklands and they build a corker! It didn't survive as a running circuit for very long though - but being in the middle of Spain and not on the outskirts of London has survived intact. Anyone who has been to Brooklands probably knows how steep its 30 degree banking feels. Sitges-Terramar is 60 degree
A historian wrote
I 'found' the Sitges autodrome back in 1968. Thanks to Spanish winters being effectively non-existent it seems to have survived pretty much unchanged even after another 40 years.
I believe the concrete surface was laid in shuttered sections, shaped at the top of the bankings within wooden moulds. Undre the Spanish sun the mix would certainly have 'gone off' very quickly. The banking surfaces are also laid on virtually solid cut rock which was a great advantage compared to the unsettled rubble and earth spoil banks thrown up at Brooklands.
The Spanish track was notoriously badly designed, with very abrupt and dangerous transitions between the flat main 'straights' and the rising bankings. While the spiral easement curves used by Colonel Holden in his Brooklands' design were very effective in leading a car into the curve without excessive loading, the apparent rule of thumb used at Sitges produced a very dangerous course, in which cars entering the banked curves at high speed virtually struck a concrete wall...
Complaints were loud, and numerous, and this factor alone seems to have been largely responsible for the autodrome's early abandonment.
I believe the concrete surface was laid in shuttered sections, shaped at the top of the bankings within wooden moulds. Undre the Spanish sun the mix would certainly have 'gone off' very quickly. The banking surfaces are also laid on virtually solid cut rock which was a great advantage compared to the unsettled rubble and earth spoil banks thrown up at Brooklands.
The Spanish track was notoriously badly designed, with very abrupt and dangerous transitions between the flat main 'straights' and the rising bankings. While the spiral easement curves used by Colonel Holden in his Brooklands' design were very effective in leading a car into the curve without excessive loading, the apparent rule of thumb used at Sitges produced a very dangerous course, in which cars entering the banked curves at high speed virtually struck a concrete wall...
Complaints were loud, and numerous, and this factor alone seems to have been largely responsible for the autodrome's early abandonment.
I've done some searching and it pops up on various motorsport forums. It seems to be ownered by a farmer who was pretty awkward in the past and various attempts to buy it fell through but from later comments it seems as though he/the family/locals are mellowing and there's been a couple of fairly low key events there in the past couple of years with local car clubs. Perhaps its day will soon come and some restoration can take place and it can echo the sounds of racing engines occasionally once again?
The most amazing aspect I find is that the infield was raised at one end so that spectators could look down at the action. There is no-where for an out of control car to go other than over the top (unlikely at that angle) or into the rock face at the bottom
Here's a photobucket gallery of photos taken last summer
s882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/PhilG165/Sitges-Terramar%20%20August%202010/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ20
The original (near 90 year old) grandstand too.
Another place to add to the destination for a mainland Europe trip...
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