Circuit Changes

[Kpy]

Ppppppphhh...

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

[Fax]

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

[Robbo SPS]

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

[Barry]

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?

[Fax]

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

[Fax]

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

[Rhino]

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.

[Perdu]

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

[Mr. Rick]

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...

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......

[Black Granny]

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...

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

[Fax]

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

[mgmark]

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