Please excuse my ignorance gentlemen (and ladies), but I think the last time I went to the great race was in 2000. (That's why I was looking forward to going again this year so much, it's been too long!)
I remember it was hot, really hot, and the awesome noise of the Astons and the Panoz, like the much-amplified sound of someone ripping carpet still rings in my ears.... (The Wailers lived up to their name on the stage
)
At the risk of getting ridiculed for being nostalgic my most vivid memory is of my brother and I drinking beers into the night, sitting on the banking at the inside of Terte Rouge. We could hear the cars weave through the chicane at the end of the start/finish straight before they came into view on the skyline at the top of the hill beneath the Dunlop bridge, and
hurtled down towards us under maximum acceleration before breaking so hard that the discs glowed red hot to take the left-right combination just in front of us, and away, and listened to their gearchanges as they went round towards the Mulsanne....
OK, yeah yeah, nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but when did they lose the straight? I haven't noticed it before on the various maps, but there's a daft wiggly bit there now!
When I do eventually get to the circuit I'm sure I'll see many differences, but why mend what isn't broken? The experience of seeing the drivers charging through that short section of the track is something I'll never forget.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not being maudlin', and I'm not against progress, but I am relatively new to this august forum, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be interested to hear what changes the more regular and more experienced frequenters of the circuit have seen over the years.
Answers on a postcard to....