Le Mans Classic
For years I have wanted to attend the 24 Hours of Le Mans but every year I keep missing it by a few days. This year was no different but … I did make it to the Le Mans Classic.
The drive to Le Mans from Orleans is about two hours. There are several different routes you can take but I knew I was on the right one when I saw a black Corvette ahead of me. You don’t see too many American muscle cars in these back roads and with signs for Le Mans popping up every so often, I knew where this car was going. Closer to the track, a bright red 911 joined our caravan as did a yellow Lotus Exige and at the pumps I spotted a pair of Morgans fueling up.
I may have missed the 24 Hours of Le Mans but the Le Mans Classic is actually more of my type of event. Basically, it tries to recreate the past Le Mans races with vintage racecars. The cars do not run 24 hours straight but the event sort of does: racing starts at 4PM on Saturday and continues until about the same time on Sunday (with breaks for lunch). The cars are divided into groups (the groups are made up of cars of similar years) and given several heats to race in. Like in the old days, you may find one heat in which Ford GT40s are going at it against Ferraris and Porsches. You will also see Austin-Healeys sharing the track with Jaguars. Or you may find a BMW 3.0 taking on Porsche 911s in yet another heat.
Since I was in France, of interest to me where French sports cars. More specifically, I wanted to see Renault Alpines and I got to see plenty of Alpines! I spotted one vintage Alpine with a racing history for sale that made me start thinking of what I could cash-in for the purchase. But then I was distracted by the sound of an airplane (my other love) taking off. With an airport nearby, my attention kept going back and forth between the cars and airplanes.
I did watch some of the races but I have to admit that most of my time was spent checking out parked cars that I rarely saw in the States, cars that I had never seen in the USA or cars that I never knew existed. For example, seeing a group of Matras, Renault Alpines or a Citroen race car was a treat.
Many different car clubs have their own sections. These clubs may be divided by brand (Porsche, Ferrari, BMW), by different touring clubs or by social clubs. By far, the biggest turnout was by the Porsche Club – I am talking about several acres of Porsches (hundreds) parked in one area. The BMW aficionados also had their area (with several 3.0s, 2002s and Z1s on display) but it was not a big group.
Did I mention the track? What a great track and facility!! For starters, I could not believe how nice the spectator bathrooms were (just remember to grab some paper on the way in) – nothing like some of the dumps I’ve had to use in Texas. I don’t even think some of the private tracks in the Houston area have such nice facilities. There were also plenty of places to spend your money (restaurants, shops, etc) when you were not racing. The track itself was beautiful – it looked like it had just been paved, painted and the runoff areas manicured. I really wish I could have driven this track … I’ll have to work on that. Oh, if you are staying town and you want to visit the track, you can always catch the tram to the track.
Leaving the track you do run into quite a bit of traffic but what a traffic jam: in front of us, a Lotus Elan, behind us an Alfa Romeo 2000. Way ahead is another Morgan but its passenger is holding an umbrella because of a light shower that is passing by. On the way out of town you see local residents sitting outside of their homes or at cafes watching the parade of cars heading home.
Note: Can you believe I ran out of batteries on my cameras?! I had to resort to using my iPhone. In any case, I hope to add more photos later.
