Before it was a curated event of legends, before the current routes and circuit battles, Tour Auto was Tour de France Automobile. Born in 1899, it was a brutal test of man and machine across the French landscape. It wasn’t about looking good. It was about surviving. It was about going fast when the maps were vague and the roads were daunting. Names like Maurice Trintignant, Stirling Moss, Bernard Darniche, and Gérard Larrousse etched their names into the legend on asphalt, gravel, and everything in between. By the time Peter Auto revived the event in the 1990s, it had earned its place in the pantheon. Now, it’s back every spring, roaring through history with purpose.
This year, Petrolicious is right in the middle of it. Embedded with the Mecanicus crew in a 1969 Mini Cooper S. It’s small. It’s loud. It’s fast in places most of the big boys lift. Driving duties are split between Valentin Simonet, a French racing driver with real results, and Quentin Leblond, co founder of Mecanicus. The car is a handful, the roads are unforgiving, and the tracks are anything but casual.
Tour Auto 2025 will run from Paris to Nice, clocking 2200 kilometers over five days. Drivers face two closed-road rally stages each morning and a circuit race each afternoon. Dijon-Prenois, Anneau du Rhin, Bresse, and Charade are on the menu. The specials? Kept secret until the night before. No warmups. No excuses. Just raw pace and instinct.
The Mini is an underdog, but not a joke. With 12-inch wheels and the kind of balance you can’t fake, it bites hard in the tight stuff. It forces real driving. And when it’s being chased by Cobras and Carreras, it shines brighter.
Petrolicious will be there for all of it, and it’s already under way. More to come!
Photos courtesy of Hamdi
