The Le Mans Classic weekend was everything I expected and more. Even the weather, which was appalling at times. This limited what I thought were good photo opportunities, what with peoples hands full of umbrellas and other rain resisting paraphernalia. The site however was impressive, from the camping ground to the circuit. Standing in the grandstands along the pits was a sight worth seeing with the famous clock along the right hand side. A huge video screen at the bottom showing action around various points where cameras were set up.
There was a part atmosphere in places and we caught a band playing on a themed stage before the Dunlop bridge. We watched them for quite a while, they were Terrible… at least that’s what it said on the sign.
Torrential rain all Friday night made things a little damp and interesting, with most of Saturday being spent with either rain or heavy drizzle. It didn’t stop us getting around the site, going from the old Maison Blanche to Tertre Rouge and back. The parades of different cars were interesting, and there were so many Porsches it was ridiculous. It did remind me that even though there were exotic machinery here, I probably had one of the less common vehicles here. I reckoned there are more 80’s to 90’s 911s in existence than Saab 9000s if this is any way representative.
Catering on site was excellent and our early dinner slot at 6pm, meant we missed the slightly delayed start of the 24 hours of racing at 5, or thereabouts. We went back to the circuit settled in to watching the action at the Dunlop complex. First off the weather had improved to bright and dry when we headed there at around 7pm ish, but soon returned to rain and we hid in the train and travelled up and down the perimeter for a while before heading back to change into something waterproof. We finished up watching the 1949 – 56 category which ended in the very early hours, in relatively dry conditions compared to earlier, and we left at 3:30 arrive back at 3:45am. This apparently may have been an unofficial camp record. James Page from Classic and Sports Car got up 45 minutes later to go and see Julian Balme, needless to say I didn’t notice as this was the best nights sleep I had, which ended at 7:15 with the alarm… Breakfast was at 8.
Sunday continued with very heavy rain in the morning, we hid in the tent lounge on the nice chairs I had watching the magazine staff run past in polo shirts and towels getting back from the showers. Eventually a trip out to the circuit ended with us going from the Ford Chicane, to the Porsche Curves and then to Arnage and Indianapolis. From the Porsche Curves entrance it was only 2km to Arnage village, except that it was at least another 2km from there to the corner… There was quite a gap between the races and we arrived walking up the bank to see the cars emerging from Indianapolis behind the safety car. It was an entertaining race, especially as it was still damp and slippery. Seeing the GT40 prototype drifting past was worth all the walking.
Thankfully the organisers had arranged classic busses to shuttle us around and we caught one of those to end the day with us viewing in bright sunshine into the Dunlop Chicane for the last race. Then wandering around the Le Mans circuit ‘village’ before heading through the paddocks and back to camp. With all of the cars and action we had seen it seemed only right that we take out the Saab for a run into Le Mans itself, just as the original racers did in the 1920’s.
The old city is stunning with the vast and very Gothic cathedral dominating the skyline. Up the hill there are lots of old medieval looking buildings and narrow streets, contrasting with that of the lower parts which look virtually brand new. I liked the tram system, which is modern, that in parts of the city runs on rails in grass. Much neater than the big stones or broken concrete that you usually find. Being a Sunday though virtually everything was shut, with the exception of a couple of restaurants, a Subway and the cinema. This had the sole lonely looking girl outside waiting for her date, we assumed anyway.
The remaining part of the evening was spent with the C&SC team sitting in the dark chatting. They’re a nice bunch, very entertaining and good at including the diverse range of readers who came along into their group, from those with the £280K+ RR Phantom to the Jalopyists at the top end.
