Circuit history

[Christopher]

I would like to try and learn a bit more about the history of the Le Mans site (not who won when in what, that’s easy to find in several books written over the years).

But more specifically:

(i) the changes to the layout over the years, ideally being able to overlay images to see the various line changes to certain corners, etc.

(ii) the location of monuments, plaques, and unique points of interest.

Are there any good sources for this information?

Thanks.

[Andy Zarse]

Try Maison Blanche:

http://www.maisonblanche.co.uk/circuits.html

Hope this helps.

[Lawnmower Man]

This years Program has some of that information.  i.e. when changes were made to the curcuit.  www.wikipedia.org has quite a lot of good information too.

t.

[BigH]

There was someone on this forum last year who found a load of old photographs and literature in a skip. It was pretty good stuff. Use the search function and see if you can find the posts and get in touch with him. Anyone remember who it was?
H

[Steve Pyro]

AFAIR - Dreamracers, although the scanned pics will no longer be on this forum.

[pretzel]

AFAIR - Dreamracers, although the scanned pics will no longer be on this forum.

To confirm what Steve said it was Dreamracers that posted all that old stuff.

[Christopher]

Thanks for all the suggestions. It was the article in the program that got me curious in the first place.

I have read all the info you suggested, all very interesting.

But I could not find any real detail about the exact changes made in 1972 to create the Porsche Curves section to bypass Maison Blanche.

Is it still possible to identify the 'old dangerous' Maison blanche section, either on a map or at he circuit itself?

[Matt Harper]

Is it still possible to identify the 'old dangerous' Maison blanche section, either on a map or at he circuit itself?

Indeed it is. The 'old' Maison Blanche section was a more or less straight blast from Arnage all the way to the Dunlop Curve, with a slight kink where it passed the eponymous White House. It is now the access road on the outside of the circuit and runs through the "Garage Bleu". The road was really narrow and had a sunken ditch on either side. Imagine blasting down there in the dead of night, in the pissing rain with magneto powered headlights on your Blower Bentley. The section was the undoing of many (Old No7 of Sammy Davis and the fatal accident that befell John Wolff. I read that parts of his 917K were found in the ditch only a few years ago). It's a haunting place - best visited outside of the race weekend.

[Christopher]

So if I understand your description correctly…….

As you follow the circuit down from Arnage, you get to the point where the permanent section peels off to the right (direction of Porsche cures) and the public road drops down hill slightly to what used to be a cross road junction (but has now become a roundabout).

Then straight over this roundabout would take you into the old Maison Blanche section.

Correct?

Does 'the' white house still exist?

Are there any plaques or monuments that depict events at this section (i.e. the fatal crashes, not meaning to be morbid just interested).

[Steve Pyro]

The white house is gone but, if when walking (is best) along this stretch of road, you will see that there are various places where someone has painted in large white letters on the road surface particular points of interest.
There's one marking where, at the beginning of the Le Mans film, Steve McQueen stops and gets out of his car for a look at the road.

[Christopher]

I saw the markings on the road in several places this year.

Was it part of a tour or something?

Does anyone run a history biased tour of the Le Mans circuit showing points of interest?

[Gilles]

The Maison Blanche still exist but without anymore "Martini" white letters on the roof.

[Lorry]

There are several shots in the Steve McQueen film (which is post Ford pre Porsche) where they look left from the pits and the road is blocked by straw bales beyond the Ford chicane, and hence you can see that the pit straight used to come from Maison Blanche. Until this year, with the new Ford/MB grandstand bypass, you could see the old road running past the grandstand.  You could stand there and it all made sense (sorry if this doesn't)

The other major change, after the Porsche curves and the loss of the Pontluie hairpin (yes the Bentleys went past Carrefour) is the pit straight and esses section.  I know this was rebuilt in 1955/6, but were the pits bypassed at this stage, (as the pit straight is the original road) and the esses must have been bypassed by the dual carriageway some time later.

I've read this all somewhere, it may be the book by Clausager