Luc Melua
Luc Melua (French: Luc Méloua, Georgian: ლუკა მელუა; 27 December 1936 – 17 December 2010) was a French motorist and journalist.
Biography
Born in Paris, France, to a father and a mother coming from Georgia after Russian Red Army invaded the country, Luc Melua developed a fascination with motorcycles and cars: he lived near the Montlhéry circuit and get in a hurry to the speedway each time he heard practice or race runs. After graduation from the Technical Institute of Airplanes and Cars Design (Ecole supérieure de techniques aéronautiques et de construction automobile, ESTACA),[1] he joined the French center for airplanes habilitation (Centre d’essais en Vol) of Brétigny-sur-Orge, and began to work beside in motorist and journalist activities.
Motorist
He published three books on motors,
- in 1973, on hotting up engines, Le Gonflage des moteurs, CILAM publisher,
- in 1984, on preparation of engines, La Préparation des moteurs, EPA publisher,
- in 1985, on compressors and turbos, Compresseurs et Turbos, la suralimentation, EPA publisher [2] · [3] · .[4]
These books are used in French institutes and universities for mechanic teaching and by fans for hotting up motors[5] · .[6]
He also wrote with Geoffrey Howard a book on car aerodynamic, Aérodynamique automobile, EPA publisher, in 1988.
Before that, at the end of the 1950s and in the 1960s, he was a technical officer for French federation of motorcycles (FFM) and an engines controller for several races as Bol d'or, Coupe du Salon and Lapize hill climbing.
In 1973, with three journalists of French magazine Sport Auto (Gérard Crombac, Thierry Lalande and Jean-Louis Moncet), he set up a kit fun car in two days, bought in low cost.[7]
Later, he used to work with racing teams, kart (French championship with Brétigny-sur-Orge Club), rally (Louis Meznarie team with NSU cars and Danna team with General Motors), circuit (24 Hours of Le Mans with Louis Meznarie team, Porsche) and motorcycle (Yamaha team).
Journalist
At twenty, he joined a local newspaper, La Gazette de l’Île-de-France published by two journalists coming from French Resistance, Yann Poilvet and Joseph Barsalou, as a free-lance journalist for mechanic sports.
Year after year, he wrote for other newspapers, a local newspaper –Le Republicain–, a national newspaper –Le Parisien–, a Spanish magazine (cars and motorcycles) and the French magazine Sport Auto.
In 2007, he published the Net revue Georgian News in French, English and Georgian languages sent worldwide by Emails.[8] Before, in 2003, with the Professor Claude Parmentier, his brother Mirian and the Georgian Embassy in France, he had organized the first annual "French and Georgian day"[9] in Leuville-sur-Orge, village where the Georgian Government was exiled in 1921, and in 2005 he had published the list of one thousand Georgian people (historical personalities and usual people) buried in Georgian Square of the cemetery of village of Leuville-sur-Orge.[10]
References
Notes
- ↑ At the ESTACA institute he met two future French drivers, Jean-Pierre Beltoise (Formula One) and Jean-Louis Marnat (24 Hours of Le Mans).
- ↑ Living the same fascination, these guys fall in love with racing. Beltoise was the driver. Melua was the hotter up with Papy Remondini, the son of the famous engineer inventor of Jonghi motorcycles (Gerard Crombac, manager of Sport Auto magazine, 1973).
- ↑ This book gives talent to the reader : he is neither considered as a fool nor than a mathematical genius (Jean-Pierre Gosselin, L’Equipe Newspaper, 1984)
- ↑ The word turbo is too easy to say; he hides a technical complexity and a few number of specialists understand really it. Melua is one of them (Roger Jonquet, L’Equipe Newspaper, 1985).
- ↑ INSA institute..
- ↑ ISAE-ENSMA institute.
- ↑ Philippe Boursin de l’Arc : "A kit Fun Car Liberta Simca set in a week-end, for 7500 French Francs”..
- ↑ Otar Pataridze : "Georgian News"..
- ↑ “French and Georgian Day” in 2004..
- ↑ List of historical personalities and usual people buried in Leuville-sur-Orge (France)..