Le Mans Legends

Photo: Philippe Pouvreau/Flickr

The 24 hour race was not the only event at the Circuit the la Sartre this past week end.

Hard to argue with a bunch of GT40s, Cobras, Jaguars, Alpine, Austin Healeys, Lotus even a Mercedes sedan, roaring down Mulsanne,  sliding their way around the chicanes.

Unfortunately an Aston Martin DP214 spewed a truly epic among to oil, its driver seemingly going for the world record for speedy dry stripe lenght and the race ended under yellow.

The winner was the number 12 GT40 of Bernard Thuner and Claude Nahum. Full results HERE



This second clip had much better picture quality and Spanish commentary.

 Fast forward to 10 min:30 secs for the race start.

Car Porn: Ford GT 40 Lightweight.

One of two surviving Lightweight GT40 versions.
Driven by the likes of Jackie Ickx, David Hobbs, Brian Redman.
First car to ever win with the famed GULF livery.
Used as camera car for McQuesn's Le Mans.
Restored to
And yes it's for sale but if you have to ask...

Safety...

Take a look at these two clips, both laps of Le Mans in Ford GT40s, the first is 1968 with narration by Sterling Moss, the second one year later in Peter Sadler's GT40 (who wold later retire at the 10th hour with electrical problems). In the narration for the 1969 lap, Vic Elford mentions how the circuit "has really been made much safer by the organizers" with the additions of barriers and that on the Mulsanne straight the year before one would "wonder what tree you would hit" if a tire blew... Well, I looked and I looked and I finally saw the "safety improvements" over the '68 clip: one single hay bale propped up against each tree on the left of Mulsanne. People actually thought that this solution ought to work just fine of a tube frame car with no roll cage traveling at 240 mph?!? And you got to love those sand traps shaped like launch pads too.

If you are in a nostalgic pre-Steve McQueen mood, I've included some youTube clips from the documentary "La Ronde Infernale" produced in 1969 by Castrol. Check out those quaint movable flippers on the Porsche 917's!
In part 2 you will see Jacky Ickx start dead last, he did this to protest the insanity of the "Le Mans start" where most drivers did not put on their harnesses before driving off. Sure enough on the first lap, privateer John Woolfe was killed in a 917, he was not strapped in. Ickx went on to win the race for Ford.



Le Mans 1968 from Axis on Vimeo.


Le Mans 1969 from Axis on Vimeo.