Carpooling – Jean-Pierre Nicolas

This 504 V6 coupe is a way to remember your three African successes with Peugeot in the world championship: Maroc 76 on a sedan, Safari 78 and Bandama 78?

In part, but it's mainly because it's a car that I love, because it symbolizes Peugeot quality, particularly through its robustness in Africa. At the time in Kenya, new cars were no longer sold three months before the rally : people were waiting to see who would win before deciding.

Et à ce jeu, Peugeot était leader. J’adore la 504 et j’en possède plusieurs, dont une berline à l’état collection. Il y a quelques mois, j’ai vendu aux enchères un coupé Groupe 4 que Michel Nandan avait préparé dans son atelier d’Issoire, avant de prendre la direction de la compétition chez Hyundai.

I also had a 4-cylinder coupe that was stolen from me and was never found. I would like to take this opportunity to point out: it was metal green, collection condition. As for this V6, it is from 1977. My son Julien prepared it for regularity rallies. I competed in a Historic Monte-Carlo and a Tour de Corsica with it.

As for the choice of Corsica as a vacation spot, I imagine that it is not only linked to the climate and the beauty of the island...

It’s not just a vacation spot, it’s my main residence, in Cap Corse. But I could also have lived in Villanova near Ajaccio, where I have sincere friends, or in Corte near my friend Xavier Carlotti, who is almost a brother.

It was at the 1964 Tour de Corse that I began my racing career, on the Dauphine of one of my father's clients, Philippe Santini, a pharmacist from Marseille. My victory in 1973 is one of my finest with the 1978 Monte-Carlo. They were my two favorite events along with gravel rallies like Portugal and the Acropolis.

But in fact, I don’t have a favorite rally because I like “rallying in general”, the landscapes, the proximity to the people. In Corsica, people made fires at night and roasted chestnuts.

During the reconnaissance, we put them in our cars and we went back and forth with them. We created exceptional connections with people. It’s a shame that current drivers can’t experience that anymore.

You started alongside your father, Georges Nicolas. Tell us !

My father was a mechanic and prepared cars for his boss, who was also his co-driver. He then competed in the Monte-Carlo, the Tour de Corse and the Safari on Renault factory. My mother was his teammate for a long time, then in 1963, he asked me to replace her at the Mistral Rally in a Dauphine 1093, which we won.

He was one of the first official R8 Gordini drivers and we competed together in the last Liège-Sofia-Liège in 1964, where I drove a lot because he was ill. We ended up giving up in Yugoslavia because he was afraid of staying behind the Iron Curtain.

Check out our Carpooling with Jean-Pierre Nicolas in its entirety, in issue 2210 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.