MovieChat Forums > C'était un rendez-vous Discussion > Driver - car - speed

Driver - car - speed

posted 18 years ago by joe_lion
8 replies | jump to latest

Driver:
Apparently the driver was supposed to be Johnny Servoz-Gavin who resently has passed away.
"In the mid 1970s Servoz-Gavin was rumoured to have been the driver in Claude Lelouch's film "C'etait un Rendezvous", a nine-minute movie recorded with a camera fixed to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB as it speeds across Paris early in the morning. Lelouch was not able to secure a permit to make the film so did it illegally and never admitted who had been the driver."
From http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns16905.html
Or Jacques Laffite or Jacky Ickx or the director as he himself claims...

Car: A Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9
http://www.geocities.com/oflint/Mercedes_not_Ferrari.jpg

Speed: At a single instance more the 200km/h
Regarding the speed the site:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/Rendezvous.shtml
seems to make a through and accurate calculation of the obtained speeds.

-jl

Wikipeda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%27%C3%A9tait_un_rendez-vous
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Servoz-Gavin

[–] michaelrobertgray 18 years ago

GREAAAT links dudem cheers!!!

[–] tany_ice 18 years ago

The car couldn't have been a 6.9 as the car in the film had a manual gearbox. The 6.9 came out with a three speed auto, but uless they did a trans swap, which is possible.
Anyways the car did not sound like a 6.9 (as they dont rev sky high like Ferrari motors do)
Although if they did use the 6.9 they would have had loads more fun caning a big 2 ton saloon around the streets.

[–] sascha-17 18 years ago

Read the trivia... the sound's *not* original.

[–] metabee19 17 years ago

In france, most cars are fitted with manual boxes unlock other countries in the world. Even a Mercedes S600 is fitted with a manual gear box in Paris, unlike the rest of the world

[–] sascha-17 17 years ago

Errr..I'm a bit late posting this, but ....:

Guys?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XtOPgRUoxSc

Interview with Lelouch (in french only).

Around 20 -30 seconds into the video (when they approach the Mercedes) he says "That's the same car" and "it even has the same color".
The soundtrack *is* dubbed - understandable, since I doubt that it would be as exciting with the original engine noise... after all: the Merc indeed had a 3-speed automatic and I suspect that the huge 6.8-litre V8 didn't sound as good as a high-reving 12-cylinder Ferrari.

Here's the pic showing the camera mount on the SEL:

http://memoiresdestands.hautetfort.com/images/medium_rendezvous1.jpg

Read about the SEL 6.9 on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_450SEL_6.9) or any car-site. It was one of the fastest (if not the fastest) sedans/saloons of its time - 0-100 km/h in around 8 seconds, top speed of 240 km/h ... think of it as a mid-70s BMW M5. Plus it had a hydropneumatic suspension (self-leveling) which Lelouch says was the main reason for *not* choosing a Ferrari for the run. He needed the Merc's smooth ride since the camera mount wouldn't have worked on a bumpy sportscar.

Now, checking the average speeds for oneself should be fairly easy in some parts of the video. Av Foche (straight leading to Arc de Triomphe) and Champs-Elysée (straight leading from Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde) in particular are easy since you can find out their lenghts on the web in around 2 minutes. Checking the time he needed to complete any part of the track is also easy since there's no editing involved - just use the timecode. Having done that and knowing the performance figures of the car in question, I think it's pretty fair to say that he didn't drive the car completely flat-out on those long straights (or else he would've completed them in less time and reached higher max-speeds). I also have my doubts about some of the speeds he claims to have attained. Taking Place de la Concorde at 150 km/h? I don't think so... It's just like they say on Fifth Gear: The low camera mount gives a somewhat exaggerated impression of the speeds involved.
Still: Completing this run in around 9 minutes is pretty damn impressive.

But .. does it all really matter? The film is great, no matter what car and what driver was involved. Pure, unfiltered excitement - and it even tells a great story by giving the reason for the reckless run in the last few seconds. Without the guy meeting the woman the whole thing would be pretty pointless(IMO).

[–] paultbaker 16 years ago

Thanks for the link, sascha! I don't speak French, but it's pretty obvious what Lelouch is talking about in the interview.

And thanks for a well-reasoned post about one of the most speculated-on films there ever was.

"Pure, unfiltered excitement"; couldn't have described it better.

"Film is a mosaic of Time."
-A. Tarkovsky

[–] nicver 16 years ago

A 6.9 with a manual gearbox?!?

My dad had one, even had a 600 (yes, he was rich, and no, I am not rich myself, he WAS rich lol). I don't recall his cars ever having a manual shifter, he was too lazy to shift, as he had his right hand busy holding the Especial Numero Uno.

I don't think they would have produced the car with a manual gearbox just for the French market.

It had tons of innovations for its time, though. I remember the self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension making that "ssss!" sound when the car was sitting after a long drive.

I don't drive Mercedes, I am drive Toyotas, but I did take one of them over 110mph once, nice for a little 1.5L, bigger thrill than doing it with a Mercedes.

[–] 16 years ago

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