Club Arnage

Apologies if this has already featured but I just spent a happy half hour here: http://www.rjsmith.com/Le-Mans-Then-and-Now.html looking at pics comparing 1970 and 2005/6. Quite good fun, even if some of the captions are pretty dodge

Nice find. A lot of safety features have been added since 1970 of course, but can't help thinking it was a better experience for the punter back then.

DfH very conspicuouse in picture 12

Was it 1970 that McQueen filmed Le Mans? The last year of the old Maison Blanche section too?

It was the date of the film, the 1970's pics are lifted from the movie

I have seen a lot of changes re safety features over the years as I know you have too. It is interesting to see how close to the action the spectators were in 1970. I remember in the mid 80's how there was nothing but an earth bank and a 1 mitre of mesh fence between you and the track and at Arnage - you could just about reach and touch the cars if you were so inclined. That's progress I guess. I must admit if you look at the sheer size of the crowds in the 1970 shots at the start finish line it is amazing. Away in the country though at Mulsanne and Arnage not so much so barely anyone there at all. I wonder if in those days perhaps the spectators stayed more around the main action near the pits and the Tribs? I have to say that one of the true delights of Le Mans is being able to travel so easily to so many vantage points around the circuit. So if this ability to travel is a development since 1970, then I think the experience is all the richer for that.

I thought it was filmed in 1969 - maybe a Saga moment.  For on-track shots, they had a reel-to-reel camera mounted on top of the car (in fairing).  Trouble was, a reel of film didn't last as long as a tank of fuel, so the car had to make more pit-stops.  They were using the very last pit, and you got a grandstand view of the pit activity from the top of the old ACO tower.

Nice set of photos, though I'd question the description against the 'Pit Straight 1970' (17 pics from the end).  'No Garages'.....WTF.  They may have been smaller than todays, but there were still 55 garages!!

Pity, I lost a heap of photos from '68 '69 and '70 in a house move years ago.

Del

Just been trawling through my old programes and i think the in-car footage was done in 70. There is a car entered by Solar productions. I have pictures of it somewhere- an open Porker i think with a big camera stuck on the nose. Must have caused havoc with the aero!
I also have a ford produced film from the 69 race that has a brief cameo of McQueen and it refers to him planning a film- this was pre production stuff maybe?

All details about the making of the Mcqueen film are covered in depth in the excellent book "A French Kiss with Death".
£43 at Amazon but well worth the money.

(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/714RZRTR51L._SS500_.gif)

That was 2005. We weren't at the start at all that year!

Still everybody thinks it isus.

I don't think they had garages as such, in that they weren't for putting the cars in, only crew and spares.  Cars were worked on in the pit lane, which was just a white line away from the race track!

That book is a must have IMHO, Steve.  It's full of incredible stuff.

As an aside, in the 72 program it refers to the new Porsche curves section increasing the circuit length and making the '70 lap record unlikely to be beaten. It then continues to say that the 72 lap distance will remain unique as after the race construction will begin on the new Mulsanne straight that will run along inside the existing one, keeping disruption of this major route to Tours to a minimum! Wonder what happened there then?

I bought the book a couple of weeks after it came out...
Total agreement that it's fantastic.

A possibility as to why there are not may spectators around Indy and Arnage is because, apart from the 'in race' footage the rest of the filming was done after the race, the Solar team came back in 'I think' September of that year.

I must admit I had wondered if that might be an explanation Steve

That rings a bell- i too have the book somewhere- great big bloody thing. Apparently the post race filming dragged on so long that they had to spray green paint onto the trees at Arnage! Its a cracker of a book that- wonder where it is?

Another great piece of history is 'La Ronde Infernale' film taken during the 1969 race.

£11.98 from amazon.

Agree about 'French Kiss with death', a great read, if I remember correctly the film crew was on site for longer than a month.

There's a great story in the book about how, during filming one of the cars came round Indy to find a 'dead body' on the road.
When the driver stopped and got back to the body it turned out to be McQueen, with a stills camera looking for some action shots...

Thats the fella- it was made by Ford, has in car with whitmore in a GT40, I love the straw bales and white painted trunks on the  Mulsanne trees, those guys had balls. A copy was stuck on the cover of motorsport for free about 3 years ago. Great little film of a classic race.   

What about the extra (the Ferrari mechanic with the mexican moustache) who took one of the 512s from the solar garage in Arnage into LM one night on a date with some local girl. The Solar guys went apeshit but McQ was well impressed and wanted to know if he had got any ass!

Sir John Whitmore and McQueen were great mates, McQueen raced his Mini at Brands once I think, so it is possible the filming in 69 was some sort of trial run.

BTW. Whitmore is a top bloke and has even signed my copy of FKwD, he now runs corses on self improvement and is often seen in Crawley!

Yeah- that mini race was a great scrap apparently. although he's  smiling in the photo I have, McQ was well pissed off that Cristabel Carlisle beat him. I think it was in 66 when he was over here filming  The War Lover. He was also big pals with old 'Dinger' Bell.

On the subject of good books, i highly recommend Racing In The Rain by John Horsman. I'm sure a few of you already have it, but if not its worth a punt. Quite techie but good none the less.