So, how do you fancy Spain in August? Long, hot summer afternoons, the sun glinting off the Mediterranean, the scream of F1 cars around Valencia Harbour… sounds good? Thought so. Well, we’ve teamed up with Renault F1 (honest, we have) to give you the chance of going to the European Grand Prix as their guest.
The team is part of the new trend for selling collectible items from their past cars, with a sale of engine parts and bodywork from Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning machines beginning today and running until July 3rd.
To promote the sale, the team is offering one lucky fan a paddock pass for the European Grand Prix weekend – all you have to do to enter the chance to be up close to the action at what might turn out to be one of the last-ever Formula One races is click through from this site and enter the simple competition the team has set up for you.
(You’d be wise to check the terms and conditions as our very rusty O-level French might have missed a few details, but we’re pretty sure that no purchase is necessary.)
With a bit of help from Google Translate, this is what the team says: “Owning a piece of a Formula 1 car is a dream for many fans sport and a unique opportunity for collectors around the world. For this reason the Renault F1 Team has decided to put on sale, for a limited time only, parts from its world championships.
“A wide selection of mechanical parts from the era of the V10 engine, as well as chassis parts from the team’s 2005 and 2006 campaigns, will be for sale.”
There will be future sales after this one comes to an end in July. Register for this one and you’ll be able to poke around them, too.
Renault is now the third F1 team offering a sale of this kind, after Brawn found itself with a few too many Hondas on its hands and Toyota began clearing garage space in Cologne for who-knows-what reason.
We don’t know the prices yet, but engine parts up for grabs include camshafts, pistons, connecting rods and something that Google can’t translate called Support de trompettes. A 2005 front wing, 2006 wing endplates and what appears to be an entire ING/Renault/Elf branded engine cover are among the bodywork items in the sale.
But what if you know you’re not going to be able to afford the price of one of these souvenirs? Well, they’re among the runner-up prizes in the competition. The second through to fifth-place prizes are V10 pistons with certificates of authenticity, while engine valves may also be among the prizes – the competition documentation we’ve been given is ambiguous on this point.
No ambiguity about the top prize, though: “1st prize: 1 weekend at the GP of Europe in the paddock with the team.” So click here to enter, or on the banners with the picture of that nice Mr Alonso.
It’s a corny line to call this a ‘never-to-be-repeated opportunity’, but given the events going on at the moment it might well be true.