What I did on my summer vacation (many pictures!)

At this time last week, I was at the Le Mans Classic, watching Porsche 917s race in the rain. Janel and I made a trip to Europe to visit some friends, check out some of my old stomping grounds and see some legendary cars on the track they were built to run. Le Mans Classic is the only other race that uses the full Le Mans circuit, and it runs every second year. It's a fairly major thing, even off the track. According to the organizers, 170 car clubs showed up with 8000 classic cars.

It's not a 24 hour race. Instead, the field is split into six groups by age (1923-1939, 1949-1956, 1957-1961, 1962-1965, 1966-1971 and 1972-1979). Each group races for a 43 minute race, then the next one heads out. Well, a bit more than 43 minutes, the cars have to complete the last lap and this can take 5 minutes depending on the class! This keeps going over 24 hours, so you do get a chance to see GT40s diving into Tetre Rouge at 3 am or watch the sun come up over a Daytona Coupe. If you want to hear what a Ferrari 3-litre V12 sounds like at full chat as it chases a D-type, it's the place to be.

The big hero of Le Mans? Steve McQueen, apparently. Gulf clothing was everywhere. I'd say at least 30% of the crowd had some sort of Gulf branding, and there were McQueen posters and the like all over. Janel was no exception. Here, we're waiting for Grid 4 (I think) to line up for a Le Mans start. Every group (except 5, the 1966-71 cars) did one, although the races themselves were a rolling start.

It's about to get quite noisy. This was taken on Sunday around 2 pm or so. The "main" start on Saturday afternoon had the grandstands packed.

The Le Mans starts were not without casualties. There was some bent Ferrari, Lotus and Aston sheetmetal after this one. Racer tape to the rescue.

Another victim of the start. This is the car that actually won Le Mans with Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori driving. And it won this heat as well, despite the little bonk.

Maserati Birdcage. I had a new camera and didn't know the track, so I didn't get a lot of good racing pictures. So you won't get to see the Daytona Coupe, the mass of Ferrari GTOs, etc.

A Mirage leading the pack. The level of racing as well as the quality of the cars was a step up from what we see in US historic racing.

Crappy picture of a 917, but since I've been on a reading binge of Wyer, Horsman and Donohue I had to include it. This particular car is also a Le Mans winner, I believe.

I kid that no race is allowed to run without a 911 of one sort, but Le Mans seems to have grown the freakiest variants. This one had the complete exhaust system and turbo visibly glowing under the car at night. Check out the rooster tails, it's raining hard. Really hard.

Over the course of the 43-minute race, every team had to make a pit stop of at least 90 seconds. Driver changes were optional, and some were a bit longer than planned.

Spectating by Tetre Rouge while munching on a baguette filled with Brie.

Night practice in the dry. The Esses (I think), which don't look much the same as they used to.

There was also Little Big Mans, which is a race for kids to race these little guys. The field was an unbelievable 80 cars, and they were all different. It's quite likely that Daddy owns one just like the little one.

A wander around the paddock and the club parking to come soon.

Awesome.

Awesome.

The paddock area was very accessible. All the cars were stacked in stalls like this one, and there were six areas for the six grids. As you'll figure from the pictures, I'm more interested in the later groups than things like Bugattis and Bentleys. Here's Moby Dick. A car so well known it has a name.

A pair of iconic 917Ks. One a winner, the other a very famous livery.

Depending on the team, you could also get all around the cars. Here's a peek under the skirt of a Gulf-liveried 917. Check out the under-body airflow. NACA ducts feed air channels that are aimed to the transmission (the round ones) and I'll bet the others cool the brakes. That's a 908/3 next to it.

A Lola T70 (I think) that had been damaged in practice getting some work. The seat is removed - if you leaned back too far, you'd get a water pump pulley in the back!

The cockpit of the Howmet turbine-powered car. I loved hearing this one go past.

GT40. These things were like cockroaches, they were everywhere. So were Cobras, but it appears they do not interest me as I took not one picture of them.

GT40 rubber. Or, now that I look at the wheels, probably from the Ferrari in the picture. 512BB, possibly.

More GT40 details. Based on the gold color and the number (3), I'm guessing it's the one wrecked by Andretti in 1967. But anyhow, I loved the way you can check the oil level.

Yes, that's a hand-machined over-center latch for the rear bodywork with some help from an extrusion.

A number of manufacturers brought along historic racers that weren't racing. This one might be familiar. The engine was being exercised at this point, mostly because everyone liked the noise.

It should be no surprise to anyone that I love this livery.

A number of notable cars were set aside in this display area. Anyone could enter, but only a limited number were allowed in at a time. The GT40 is the 1966 pole sitter driven by Gurney and you will probably recognize Le Monstre. I don't know the specifics of the Testa Rossa, but they need no excuse for sitting pretty.

Might be a notable car based on the display space. But it's definitely gorgeous.

Lotus interior.

Various special Nissans were also on display in the same compound, although the DeltaWing was notably absent. The headlight covers on this old Skyline were molded plastic and probably weigh nothing at all - but they look exactly like someone's covered stock lights with painter's tape!

Next post, we'll head out for a walk around the club parking.

Remember what I said about 170 clubs and 8000 cars? Here's part of the parking. This is the Porsche area, almost every car in the picture is a 911.

Elises and Exiges. I was about halfway down the row when I took the picture, there are at least this many behind me.

One of the Seven parking areas. There were other clubs with Sevens elsewhere as well. The club parking came in three basic tiers - inside the permanent Bugatti circuit as seen here, just outside the circuit, and then further out again. The permanent circuit is used for all manner of 24 hour races, by the way. There had been a 24 hour rollerblade race the week before.

Nice.

I swear, every Alpine ever made was in attendance.

Second only to the Alpines were the Morgans. I'm ignoring all the Astons (including a Superleggera set up for vintage rally and at least one Zagato), the Bentleys, the Ferraris, just about every make you can imagine. And a few you can't.

Ever hear of a Mini Marcos? It's a Mini in a lighter, more aerodynamic shell. There were a bunch of them, and this one even competed. No, Janel is not 8 feet tall. There were non-Mini Marcoses there as well.

Winners of the best facial expressions award.

Peter Egan once said that French cars look like fish.

A car from the past future.

Parked at the back of the lot near the entrance. Just your usual leftovers.

This thing had the look of a sports car, not a museum piece. It gave every impression of having run hard over back roads to get here.

We had flown over to Europe and didn't have a car or camping gear. The Le Mans full circuit is mind-bogglingly big, and it's hard to find accommodation that's close and affordable. The solution? Flexotel! Basically, a flat-pack hotel room that can be erected anywhere. Water tight (yay!), secure, comfortable and private. Plus we were a 3 minute walk from the gates of the track, making it easy to get to and from. Still, we only covered a small bit of the full circuit and I only found out when we left that the big campground nearby had an eye-watering collection of cars. We made our arrangements through Travel Destinations, who made life very easy for us and even ran us to McDonalds so we could use the free WiFi there to check in to our flight home!

Next, the rest of our trip...

Incredible pics! Hope to make a trip like that one day. I saw that red 917k in the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. The "Hippie Car" is one of my all-time faves.

Before going to Le Mans, we met up with some German friends who lent us a car. Then we went on a blast through Germany, France and Switzerland on back roads. This is fairly typical. Up and down passes as quick as we dared. Wiggle wiggle wiggle, as the song says.

Our little convoy. I'd forgotten just how little power there is in a stock 1.6 Miata, that poor little thing got thrashed hard.

A very unexpected sight on the autobahn.

Janel the giantess again. This thing looked like a full size semi truck trailer.

We spent a few days in Paris before jumping a fast train to Le Mans. Many car manufacturers have really high-end showrooms on the Avenue des Champs Elysees. For example, here's the little Peugeot show car that just set the EV record at the Nurburgring. Scuffed tires and all. I was the only guy taking pictures of the brakes and footwell, so security was keeping an eye on me.

At Mercedes.

Also at Mercedes.

Citroen. That's a WRC car at the bottom, the Gran Turismo replica car next, then a series of wacky showcars stacked up above and out of sight. We couldn't figure out how they got the cars in place.

I was happy to see that Loeb has to deal with the same crappy hood pins I do instead of Aerocatches.

That should do for pics. It was really interesting seeing the Classic, although next time I think I'd go to the modern race instead of going back. The big difference is that, even though the Classic racers are going hard and really racing - they're doing it in short stints. The magic of seeing the dawn over the race cars isn't the same when they're in the middle of a 43 minute race instead of hour 15 out of 24. The organization of the event was stereotypically French. But still, I'm glad we went. There's simply no other opportunity to see these cars run like this.

The one thing we realized that you just don't get from TV is how freakin' huge Le Mans is. You'd see a couple of cars go by battling for position, and you wouldn't find out how it turned out until 4-5 minutes later. We walked our tootsies off and never got out of the confines of the Bugatti circuit, never mind down to Arnage or along the Mulsanne straight. You apparently get to see more of the racing at the Goodwood Revival, but that's just not Le Mans.

Thanks for sharing Keith!

Well that beats mine Looks like an awesome event, definitely on the list

I did get to go to Goodwood last year, never did post pics...

Mercedes brought that 300 SEL "Red Pig" to the launch of the S63 in Stuttgart. I got to drive it.

Awesome, looks like you had an awesome time!

That looks like a ton of fun!

Bucket list! Lemans Classic added

That red 917 is painted in the livery of the Porsche Salzburg Team. First overall win for Porsche at Le Mans.

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2010/06/milestones-first-porsche-overall-win-at-le-mans/

Sheesh, and I was amazed the wife and I could secure a few days off just for New England Forest Rally, well done!

Le Mans and Goodwood are on my list. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing.

I don't like you a whole lot right now, Keith. Feeling rather jealous.

Looks like a great trip.

YOU UNBEARABLE MAN!

Okay, that looks damned awesome and I'm completely jealous.

We're tentatively planning on going to Europe in 2014 to watch a friend graduate and we want to see LeMans, so maybe we'll include LeMans Classis in the schedule as well. We'll see how the logistics work out. :)

Speaking of which, thanks for the details on the lodging, etc. That was a concern for us as well, since the wife doesn't do camping.

Time to 'pimp ze auto, ya?'

BTW, I covet your vacation

Turbo Swede, I'd definitely recommend the Flexotel and Travel Destinations. Le Mans isn't a cheap date if you want to sleep in a bed, but the convenience of the location and the price is hard to beat. Expensive compared to camping, very cheap compared to a hotel. BTW, we took a high speed train in from Paris, then it was a 10-minute tram ride to the track and our "campsite". There were clean heated showers as well as toilets (not porta-potties) on site as well as a cafe/bar where you could get sandwiches to bring with you to the track.

Inside the track, food was mayhem. Long lines, stuff not always available and the usual French service. I watched a woman behind a counter refuse to sell a can of Coke to a customer because the next line over was for cans. At THIS line, they only sold it in bottles and they'd run out. You'd have to go to the other line and wait there for 20 minutes instead. And these were both for the same concession stand, with the counter staff standing next to each other in the same uniforms. LMC was not the most organized event in a bunch of other ways - but hey. That's part of the adventure. No such trouble with the accommodation, that all went off like clockwork.

Apparently there are 100-150,000 people at Le Mans Classic and about 250,000 at Le Mans.

Looks like a great trip Keith. How'd you hear about Le Mans Classic?

Btw - Thanks for sharing the photos.

I originally heard about LMC through EVO magazine, I think. Then, when I was researching a trip to Le Mans last year, I came across it again and started thinking it might be a lot of fun and a different sort of experience.

David from GRM was there this year as well, if the Facebook posts are to be believed.