Club Arnage

Reading Autosport over lunch I noticed a report that the circuit will be modified in 2006 before the race.

Tetre Rouge will be brought inside the current corner to allow for more run off space where the current corner is.
The Dunlop chicane is to be tightened as well.

Now I thought they were slowing the cars down, do they really need to do the same to the track?

Tighten the Dunlop chicane?   You've got to be shitting me!  It's stupidly slow as it is.  Nothing more spine-tingling than watching the field crawl to a stop on the opening lap...Who the hell is the moron who decides on these alterations?
How about improving the spectators view so that you can actually see the cars.
Fax

Have Bernie and Max found their way to the circuit aswell now? (http://smile.smilies.nl/435.gif) (http://smile.smilies.nl/443.gif)

Does that mean the spectator banking on the inside will be bulldozed...........and what will happen to the allotments  ???

Fax, I think you are right on about improving the view of the cars during the race.   I was so awed by being at Le Mans for the first time that I really tolerated the lousy viewing for most of the circuit.  It wasn't until I saw my pictures that I realized I didn't really have a decent shot in the bunch.  Only because I was able to borrow a tribune pass from Brian was I able to get some nice racing shots and pit shots but they were obviously limited.  I guess they, ACO, are so "gunshy" from the Mercedes incidents (fairly recent and back in the fifties??) they don't want to see anyone else hurt if bad things were to happen.  I surely would like some better viewing along the circuit but I doubt that will happen.

Yes all these allotments will dissapear. They already have relocated all the private gardens.

GGRRRRR!!! (Shakes fist at screen!!)

I despair! LEAVE IT ALONE!!! Tetre Rouge is perfectly happy the way it is, a classic piece of race track. They'll probably fill in the little tunnel which for no apparent reason has "morte au vache" written on the wall . Another piece of priceless LM history lost for ever.

And why on earth they should want to tighten the Dunlop Chicane is anyones guess.

They'd be better off sorting out the ticketting arrangements if you ask me.

John,
I found I was able to get a far clearer view for photos at the Pre Qual and LM Classic than at LM proper.
Probably as there was less of a crowd (and less booze).
I've found a couple of areas where I can get up close and shoot through the fences to get a clear shot.

See my stuff here http://community.webshots.com/user/route66weasel (http://community.webshots.com/user/route66weasel)

Catastroscope!  What will happen to all the runner beans, potatos, courgettes, carrots, parsnips, peas, marrows ........... and all the jolly gardeners having barbeques whilst they watch the racing.

They already moved to beausejour in a beautiful field full of tiny woodhouses

Guys,
Agreed about the specatator bank on the inside of Terte Rouge.  During my trips I've found its about the only vantage point (without a tribune pass) to take some nice, unobstructed photos, got a lovely shot of the winning Porsche early on Sunday morning in 1998.  The view from the little bank looking up the hill from the esses to the Dunlop Bridge also used to be quite evocative but thats all gone now...thanks ACO!
John

Next thing you know Le Mans will be an eight mile tri-oval and NASCAR will be invited as a new class...God help the day... :'(

I can't help thinking the Dunlop Chicane mod will be to further slow moto's down - but Fax is bang on - what the f**k is occurring when the pack comes to a complete standstill on the opening lap, as they trundle through that chicane? I could never figure why they didn't leave the super fast sweeping righthander for the 24 hrs and modify for the bikes. It's done the world over....
As for dicking around with Tetre Rouge - why is a large(r) run-off needed here? RN 138 is a wiiiide road at the point where the circuit meets it. I can't remember a serious incident at this point on the circuit.
Added to which, it's only used for the 24 hours for cars.
If I went to Le Mans to watch a motor race, I'd be very upset.

Agree completely with Matt about leaving the sweeper alone and building a inner chicane for the bikers.  The configuration that springs to mind is the old Woodcote Chicane at Silverstone.  Some of the old Silverstone vets may be able to clarify this better than me but didn't the F1 cars use the chicane while the bikers and tin-toppers went round the old sweeper?  Seems to me they could've done the same thing at Le Mans except in reverse.  Would've made alot more sense than the mickey mouse bit of track there now.
From the moment it was installed the drivers have always felt the Dunlop Chicane is stupid and unnecessary.
John

Ppppppphhh... in an exhaled breath/flapping lips fashion,

We've been here before lads, and it's not hard to believe no one's listening. If Autosport wasn't such a toilet accessory now then it would be reporting stuff like this and letting the ACO know what everyone thinks. The ACO think they're probably doing a great job and can't wait to show us their new chicanes, run off areas and underwear. The Year We Lost The Dunlop Hill was the last straw for me, and I don't really go out of my way now to try and find a good view, because I know there aren't any. Funnily enough Steve, the TYWLTDH I found myself standing on a small hillock, with enough room for about two other people, I got the same view as your pic, and remember thinking that it was one of the few areas I could get near the cars, at their level, and see them from roof to wheel. Then I slipped on a chip and lost my place.
I was never there before the Porsche Curves were built, but it looks like that was probably the only modern change that was an improvement. I know that until recently you couldn't spectate from there, and I'm not sure what the view is like, so the advantages of that improvement may have been limited. I know it's challenging for the drivers, but the ACO seem to think it needs to be challenging for the spectators as well...
H

flapping lips??

Quite right Big H. The ACO seem hell bent on changing every aspect of the circuit. When you think about it, just about every significant corner or viewing point has been changed for the worse over the years.
The Dunlop chicane has been an abortion since it was put in place. To tighten it is sheer lunacy, since it already presents a hazard to the fastest cars approaching it as they come to lap slower cars, that is how Boutsen came to have his big accident which ended his career. For me, as a spectator, only Tertre Rouge and the Esses represent the old circuit. Everything else about the track has been changed, the Mulsanne has its chicanes, Mulsanne corner has been eased, the humps before Mulsanne and Indianapolis have been removed, Indianapolis itself has been reprofiled and the viewing area at Indianapolis has been ruined. Soon the blazered buffoons of the ACO will have managed to turn Le Mans into just another replica of a grand prix circuit, only longer.
By the way, the Porsche Curves make an excellent place for watching the start of the race, you only need to be there about an hour before the start. From Maison Blanche and Bleu it is best to have a bicycle, but it is a short walk from Beausejour.
Tertre Rouge, along with the Esses is my favourite viewing spot, now they are flocking it up

Personally I've never understood the European fixation with chicanes.  I always thought that part of the premise of motor racing is cars travelling fast on the limit.  A far greater number of serious accidents have been caused by chicanes than have ever been prevented by them.  And is there any dumber sight than watching a group of ultra high performance racing machines slow to a crawl, queue up and putter single file through the chicanes at a place like Le Mans or Monza?
John

Had the Mulsanne chichanes not been built, we would see regular speeds of 250mph i think.

At ground level or 30 foot in the air? ;D ;D ;D

I disagree with you guys on this one.  The Group C cars which were much more powerful than the current LMP's were struggling to get near 250 (The WM-Pug was the only one that made it) even in low downforce trim.  The rest of the circut has become so mickey mouse and they carry so much wing now that 250 would be out of the question.  If memory serves me correct, the Mulsanne chicanes were installed in response to the FIA's arm-twisting over some petty issue rather than as a forthought.
John

I can elaborate on this a little further.  If you compare the trap speeds of the LMP machines (Dallara-Judd, Riley & Scott, Ferrari 333SP, etc.) from a couple of years ago at Daytona (a circut unchanged since the Group C/IMSA GTP days) vs the speeds posted by the Porsche 962, Jags and Nissans of the late eighties and early ninties, the LMP cars are still miles off the speeds posted by the IMSA GTP cars.  I doubt very seriously that the velocity of a current LMP car down the Mulsanne without the chicanes would be much faster than those being achieved now between them.
John

You never know with Terte Rouge, if there doing away with the allotments they could move the corner in along with the banking and then let you view from the stella pub. After paying an arm and a leg for a beer of course.
Then again probably not.

I watched some of the night racing from Porsche curves (one reason I missed out on the shampoo bar!*) the view is quite good, just needs to get rid of some of those pesky spectators!

Now it needs some bright entrepreneur to start a second shampoo bar just up the rise behind it, then charge an arm and two legs for a bottle of coolish blubbly. And watch the cars coming round the bend...


*dodgy knees put paid to a trip afterwards to the "shampoo" after walking back to the Annexe from the bus stop. :(


Bill

Ah, wouldn't be the first time Rednecksville has been represented au Lemons would it? Remember those goddamn awful infestations in the late 70s & early 80s????

I remember when men were men and women liked ironing for heaven's sake......

If my memory serves me correct didn't they try NASCAR Camaros back in '81 and '82?

The Camaro's have never been eligible to compete in NASCAR. The ones you mention were more along the lines of IMSA GTO or SCCA Trans-Am spec.  As an interesting footnote in 1986 Road & Track magazine took one of Al Holbert's Porsche 962's (with low-drag LM bodywork) and a Roush Racing NASCAR stock car to the eight mile test track in Columbus, OH to see which was outright faster...the NASCAR stocker pretty much blew the doors of the Porker.  Of course this didn't require such petty details like going around corners but it was interesting that a big old V8 with carbs was still able put one over a high tech turbo motor.
Fax

When haven't we had one circuit change or another over the last few years?   Problem is that most of them have been to the detriment of the spectator and the atmosphere.   The inside of Tetre Rouge has been a magnificent place to watch from particularly as dusk goes into dark - the only serious thing there in recent years was the Lister that wrote itself off there, but that did no harm to anyone except the Lister itself.   Pah!!!

P.S Fax - I do like the Dan Gurney quote  ;D