Le Mans Classic June 30 – July 3 2022 The Return To The Circuit De La Sarthe
The Le Mans Classic 2022 was a massive event and very busy. This was for good reason, there isn’t quite anything like it and as the race approached it’s 100 year anniversary it is still an important part of the world motorsport calendar. The classic is very popular drawing huge crowds every two year, but this time it was four years. A lot of pent up demand led to swelling crowds and massive displays.
Friday was practice day, and all classes of cars took to the circuit day and night to get as much time in as necessary. With the timetable being extended there was time to add in four new support races, including that of Endurance Racing Legends.
The 40th anniversary of Group C was celebrated with a race led for one lap by the legendary 1991 winning 787B Mazda.
Two single marque races, the Porsche Classic and Jaguar Classic challenge which saw 75 historic Porsches representing several decades and 60 Jaguars from the XK 120 through to the E-Type.
The official start of the Le Mans Classic was 16:15 on the Saturday with the Le Mans start for Grid 4, for 1962 to 1965 with Shelby Cobras, GT40s Corvettes and a Ferrari 250LM.
The order ran sequentially to Grid 5, 1966 to 1971 with cars like the Ferrari 512 Porsche 917 Of course, the Ford GT40 MkIV and Lola T70 with the fantastic and rather different sounding Howmet TX with its gas turbine engine.
Grid 6 represented the 1972 to 9181 period and saw BMW, Ferrari, and Porsche battle it out but had a rather eclectic mix following with Moynet, TOJ, and Cheetah to name but a few. There were even old NASCAR favourites like the Dodge Charger and Ford Gran Torino.
Grid 1 came next and covered 1923 to 1939. Cars nearly 100 years old such as the Alfa Romeo 8C, Aston Martin Speed Model, Bentley 4.5L Tourer, BMW 328, Bugatti Type 35, Delage D6 3 Litres, Lagonda LG45, Morgan 4/4 and Talbot 105. All quite different and with a range of different performance characteristics. This group provided some excellent racing.
The official start of the Le Mans Classic was 16:15 on the Saturday with the Le Mans start for Grid 4, for 1962 to 1965 with Shelby Cobras, GT40s Corvettes and a Ferrari 250LM.
The order ran sequentially to Grid 5, 1966 to 1971 with cars like the Ferrari 512 Porsche 917 Of course, the Ford GT40 MkIV and Lola T70 with the fantastic and rather different sounding Howmet TX with its gas turbine engine.
Grid 6 represented the 1972 to 9181 period and saw BMW, Ferrari, and Porsche battle it out but had a rather eclectic mix following with Moynet, TOJ, and Cheetah to name but a few. There were even old NASCAR favourites like the Dodge Charger and Ford Gran Torino.
Grid 1 came next and covered 1923 to 1939. Cars nearly 100 years old such as the Alfa Romeo 8C, Aston Martin Speed Model, Bentley 4.5L Tourer, BMW 328, Bugatti Type 35, Delage D6 3 Litres, Lagonda LG45, Morgan 4/4 and Talbot 105. All quite different and with a range of different performance characteristics. This group provided some excellent racing.
Grid 2 was the 1949 to 1956 post-war period and brought an equally eclectic mix of cars. These were faster than the Grid 1 cars by a fair margin, improvements in aerodynamics were resulting in higher top speeds, largely learned through aviation. Some fantastic cars like the Mercedes 300 SL and Aston Martin DB, Lancia Aurelia and Porsche 550. There was even a 356 being driven hard and the racing here was close in groups that formed who battled with each other and was probably the best racing of the whole weekend.
Grid 3 was 1957 to 1961 and featured more Aston Martins in the shape of the DB4 GT, Austin Healey 3000 Mk II going up against Chevrolet Corvettes and Ferrari 250 GTs and putting up a good fight too. The Lister Jaguar Costin being fast each outing. The last race of the weekend was Grid 3 and we watched from inside the circuit looking towards the Dunlop complex, always favourite position with the large crowd.
Le Mans Classic 2022 - Porsche
The displays though are huge and easily accessible. Easier to photograph to, one day I’ll get a video camera to record some racing or a camera without a fixed 35mm lenes, but it’s seeing everything on track with your own eyes, not from behind a screen of through a viewfinder.
The field of Porsches is always impressive with 911s as far as the eye can see, groups of early cars together with those from the 1970s and 1980s being very well represented and a long line of 993s. The 928s looked very nice in their group too.
Le Mans Classic 2022 - Renault
Renault brought many cars from their collection and displayed them on the lawn between the grandstand and the Artcurial auction building.
Many Le Mans links from the past could be seen with a collection of 4CVs, one of which was actually raced in 1952. This little car with its air cooled engine wasn’t that fast, but actually competed in the 750 class, suitable for its engine size. Qualifying in 50th place but lasting the whole race saw them finish in 17th overall, impressive.
The collection of Renault 5s was quite large, with many unusual and rare examples shown. It was the 50th anniversary of the highly successful small car after all.
Of course, there were going to be many Alpines, the A310s gathered in plentiful numbers with the GTA and A610 replacements nearby. These striking looking mid-engine cars really are something special. When things really were different and think, they were still doing something similar right up until 1991 with the last of the A610.
Le Mans Classic 2022 - Citroen Cityrama
This amazing looking vehicle is a Citroen C55 chassis with a body built by Currus. the first of which appeared in 1956 and remained on the roads towards the end of the 1970s.
Designed by Albert Lemaitre who was inspired by the style of the Bateaux Mouches that sailed on the Seine in Paris, so sort of a road going boat with two thirds of the bodywork being glazed.
The tour audio was delivered to the passengers by an earpiece in each seat with a choice of eight languages.
They’re trying to raise the money to restore it. Wouldn’t it be great to ride something like this. The vision of the future from many years ago is often better than the reality, but this was real. Can we have some more please?
https://www.fondation-patrimoine.org/les-projets/cityrama?fbclid=IwAR3Z6oj3JfkIWl-wwMi5isLDtyergqscY9bNtyIC85_o7I57ytmf7yNjZlg
Le Mans Classic - Panhard
In the village area there was a great collection of Panhard racers that has all competed at Le Mans in the 1950s and 1960s.
The French manufacturer had a long association with the race at Le Mans and were pretty successful too.
Panhard won the index of performance class over the years, a calculated distance that a car with a certain capacity should achieve against what they actually did. Or something to that effect.
This prize was highly coveted for many years and could in effect be won by anyone in any class. It demonstrated a form of engineering excellence and not just a big car, with big power and a big budget.
As the cars evolved in the mid-1960s the aerodynamics became more obvious, with elongating tails and even wings the ultra-low drag CD cars.
Back when the Straight to Mulsanne was uninterrupted with chicanes, the enhanced aero really made a difference to the lap times to these little cars with smaller low powered engines.
Charles Deutch’s streamlined coupe with its wings had a drag coefficient of just 0.12 and it could reach a top speed of 140 mph from just 848cc. The engine based on the flat twin found in the Panhard saloon.
The low drag car is still to this day the most aerodynamically efficient car to ever run at the circuit.
Le Mand Classic Village, Paddock & Buses
The village has plenty going on and is a mini festival in its own right, with displays, stalls, live music and dancing but also provides the gateway to the paddock and the classic buses. The buses in turn give easier access to Arnage, or you could take your own transport if you have the right parking pass. Or you could walk, but I don’t advise that as it is further than you think.
The racing is good there and the views of the track are pretty decent from the raised banks. You can see right up the straight leading to Indianapolis if you stand in the right place.
The paddock provides the opportunit to get closer to some of the cars and it’s largely unrestricted with the right pass.
Watching the work being done to repair or prepare the cars before they head out is intersting as you can see how seriously some of the teams are taking it.
Le Mans Classic 2022 - Corvettes
American cars seem to be more common in France than the UK, maybe driving on the right has something to do with it as they aren’t cheaper to run there. The big block manual transmission C3s were really nice and in bright 1970s colours too. They had convertible and T top offerings too.
The split window C2 was pretty and quite different to the predecessor at the end of this group. The orange of the big C3 was sparkling in the strong sunlight with a fantastic metallic effect.
The trouble with the Le Mans Classic is that it’s too big, there is too much to see and you never get to see or do everything. They could make it longer, but that would make the problem worse. It’s great as it is. The timings can go off a bit, so you don’t quite get to see what you expect when you head somewhere, and everything is a long walk, unless you take a bus which will get you take you to the exhibition centre or Arnage.
Do I recommened it, yes I do. It’s one of those great events that you must do at least once. the atmosphere is friendly and it really is just for classic enthusiasts. It is pretty chaotic at times, but that’s part of it. The prices are higher than before and it can mount up, people do manage to do it on a budget and the packages may seem expensive, maybe not when you compare what you get for the price.
To get an idea of the size, if you haven’t been, have a look at the gallery below, it’s large and so are the image sizes.
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