Le Mans Classic 2012
Jox Jottings...
We are mad.. guess what we are back to La Sarthe for “The Le Mans Classic”! After all the stress, long hours and hard work during the main event the atmosphere at “ The Classic” is very different in so many ways. For a start it suits us old farts because the bars are not so crowded, the restaurants are doing ‘proper’ food, OK so there may not be any LMP1 Hybrids but there are an awful lot of stunning, rare motor cars of all ages here.. Incredibly, during the weekend, there will be around 408 cars out there racing. Most of them have at least two drivers, some as many as four, so there are at least 816 competitors here. It really does take a moment or two to get one’s head round the statistics and that is before you start wandering around the various (six) paddocks.
Prepare to dribble a bit, there is at least one of every imaginable marque and type of car here, the only proviso is that it must have either raced at Le Mans or is the same model as a car that did.
So at one end of the spectrum you will find a stonking 1928 4.5 litre Bentley and at the other end there are some indecently quick Porsche 935’s. In between there is one of practically everything .. You name it and it is very probably here. You can see the provisional entry list at
http://www.lemansclassic.com/en/the-straight-line- and click download entry list button.
The ‘Grids’ are decided by age .. Grid One 1923-1939... Grid Two 1949-1956.. Grid Three 1957-1961... Grid Four 1962-1965... Grid Five 1966-1971... Grid Six 1972-1979.
What is going on out on the circuit is really only half the story. The centre of the circuit is dedicated to “The Clubs”. There are no less than fifty four motor clubs with names most of us might recognise starting with Abarth and finishing with Volvo. It would take far too long to scour the programme and find out how many cars there are here. There are some that even your ignorant scribbler has never heard of such as Donkervoort, Hommell and Marcadier.
To save you looking them up on Google let me fill you in ... Donkervoort.. was founded by a Dutchman called Joop Donkervoort in 1978. There are currently four models D8 GTO, D8GT, D8 and D8270 are reputed to be nice “raw” machines with no ABS, traction control or power steering. The power comes courtesy of Audi. They are not cheap, you would need to set aside €137,000 for a ‘pre-enjoyed’ D8270 GT !
Next up is a Hommell.. Michel Hommell decided that in 1970 he would start building cars. The result is very pretty car powered by various mid-engined 2.0 litre Peugeot lumps. Production stopped in 2003 when the company ran into financial problems... not the first specialist car manufacturer to suffer that fate.. and negotiations with the Chinese failed to save the company. Finally we come to Marcadier... Andre Marcadier started building bikes near Lyon in 1947. He and his business partner, Marcel Fournier, carried on building cars until the late ‘70’s. They built some 486 cars over the years, not bad for a small manufacturer and they were successful racing machines and were also very competitive in the world of hill climbing... so, there you go!
Like we said the infield is totally crammed with cars...(luckily no Silverstone Swamp problems here .. yet) for example Porsche Club France have a mere 1,150 cars here.. Morgan have 300, Renault 320, Club Lotus France 330 and multiply that by fifty four clubs and a few ‘extras’ and you can see why the local roads have been a wee bit crowded..
The good news is that it really is quite a sight (and sound) sitting at L’Arlequin sipping beer and watching a steady stream of rare and exotic cars stream past. Lunchtime yesterday was enlivened by four crazy ‘Brits’ dressed in their brand new Goodwood style mechanics overalls ( smoking pipes and wearing flat caps and Google!) doing impromptu ‘pit stops’ on the road outside the bar ... some surly foreigners didn’t join in the fun... but all the serious nutters did! Even the local French laughed and enjoyed it.
The bad news is that with so many cars from so many Clubs taking to the roads it seems more chaotic than the main event... if that were possible !
Here we go then .. six grids of 68 cars .. three forty three minute races for each grid ... two or three drivers... driving one session in the dark .. the time behind the wheel for each driver is around 64 minutes over the 24 hrs. The entry fee appears to be €5,450 .. Gulp ... so your scribbler’s wobbly arithmetic suggests that is a mere €42.5 a minute!! But you do get ‘full credentials for two people’, plus catering for two people throughout the event, plus an invitation for the official dinner on the Thursday night .. and finally three ‘General Admittance’ tickets.
Seems a lot of money but every year the weekend is oversubscribed. But you do get to drive competitively on the truly amazing full Le Mans Circuit in daylight and in the dark. As a footnote a friend of ours, who best remain nameless, did say that “in a 1930’s Talbot the Mulsanne Straight simply goes on and on , thank goodness for the chicanes otherwise you might nod off”.
The racing has begun so we will be back soon .. two days may not be enough to cover this epic event.
