Le Mans Classic 2014 round-up

So that brings The 2014 Le Mans Classic to an end, just as the sun starts to break through 

Apart from the weather it has been yet another breath-taking event. The statistics alone are mind boggling .. around 110,000 spectators have fought the weather.. around 450 superb, fully functioning,  racing classics driven hard by around 1,500 ‘pilots’ have given us some splendid racing.

Add to that the massive 8,500 strong collection of road going classics on display ranging from the exotic Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins to the slightly more humble MGB. There must be at least one of virtually every marque ever built. The crowds are cheerful, well behaved and very knowledgeable.

The whole operation has taken a big step up this year.. we are convinced that there are far more than just the 1,000 additional spectators than we saw two years ago.

Maybe they all brought a car along because the traffic was as challenging, or maybe even more so, than at The 24hrs of Le Mans.

There was so much to see beyond the actual racing and club displays. At the outstanding Artcurial Auction, there were examples everywhere of the French skills in ‘carrosserie’ (coach-building).

There were very classy retail outlets persuading you to part with €€€, even a re-creation of the ‘Drive in Cinema’ where you could relive films like ‘Un homme et une femme’ , ‘Bullitt’’ Le Mans’ the movie. You can even take another look at the infamous ‘ That was a rendezvous’’ shot at speed in the streets of Paris! If your nerves could stand it there was a traditional ‘Wall of Death’ or in French , more dramatically, ‘Mur de la mort’!  There were cafes, bistros, diners and even an ‘English Hall’.

You need at least three tiring, foot sore days to this weekend justice. Outside the Circuit bars and restaurants are serving ‘normal’ food not ‘menu rapide’… and so on.  It is expensive  we agree and that may deter some enthusiasts . We do feel that food and beer prices in the circuit were excessive but where else can you enjoy such a feast of exotica?

Why not pencil in a visit for two years’ time .. You won’t be disappointed.

Final results can be found on this link 

Jock Simpson and Tony Light

Artcurial Auction .. Classic Cars booming?

Wow.. pause for a sharp in-take of breath! 

Artcurial are an important French Auction house and they have held one of their most prestigious auctions here at The Le Mans Classic since 2007.

The results are spectacular to say the least ! They sold more than €13M worth of cars ( that is around $17M). 15% of their sales went to America and 52% remained in Europe.

Photo: Artcurial

Two of the ‘star cars' in the auction have 'Le Mans' in their genes. The 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster went for €1,115,600 is one. The 300SL Gullwing started it all when Hermann Lang stepped out of the car after winning Le Mans in 1952. The ‘Gullwing’ did go into production and even to this day they turn heads everywhere. There are two examples racing here at Le Mans Classic. Despite its good looks it was a few problems.. It apparently suffered from serious understeer, which is strange bearing in mind it was a powerful rear wheel drive  machine, but just when you thought you had got on top of the understeer you would be greeted with ‘snap oversteer’ when the rear swing axles gave up the unequal struggle.. Drum brakes slowed the car up but really didn't do much to stop the car. Plus the interior was cramped and got very hot. OK it looked a bit smart with all that chrome and bright red leather – for some reason , who knows why,  SLs were known as tart traps! 

But the Gull wing did spawn the far more civilised 300 SL Roadster, many say that while it is less iconic it is in fact a much better bet and almost as desirable nowadays .. hence European collector who paid €1,115,600 for one here at Le Mans!

Another car in the auction with actual Le Mans history was the 1964 AC Cobra 289 MkII. This fetched €761,000 ($1,034,522).

Photo: Washington Post

This Cobra 289 raced here 50 years ago , it was driven by Jean de Mortemart and Régis Fraissinet and they came 18th overall. It is alleged that Régis Fraissinet, wealthy heir to a dynasty of industrialists, calmly announced to the press that he raced motor cars in order to provide a different perspective on his everyday life : " There are those who like to play tennis and those who prefer golf. I play tennis and golf but, most of all, I prefer to race cars...” I wonder if he had any idea what would happen to AC Cobra prices fifty years later !

Take a look at www.artcurial.com 

Après Le Deluge !

This seemed an appropriate quote to start the day with.. until I looked up its correct origins only to discover the full quote is “après moi, la deluge” which is attributed to Louis XIV and at the time it seems he meant  "when I'm dead, all others may die too". So not quite so apt.. however it has been a pretty miserable night and as the French might say “pisser avec la pluie” . 

But after a very wet start the rain has relented a bit. Our thoughts go out to the marshals, drivers of open cockpit cars and those brave souls out there camping.

At least the live motoring extravaganza that is the roundabout by L’Arlequin was upto scratch. Even our chum in his 14.5 litre Le France/Simplex beast was doing a bit of ‘showboating’ and it is not like him at all. Arnage was heaving with very jolly (over jollyied?) fans and the locals were certainly making a brisk living, at least they did last night. 

This morning dawned badly for your team.. one member wound up in the medical centre. The symptoms were ‘indigestion based’ but this didn’t stop the doctors giving him a full 10,000 mile service and check up!  After being royally looked after he asked if he could contribute to a local charity, the staff simply said “ Non..Money is money and health is health”.. which is a  refreshing attitude to medicine. He is now proclaimed fit and back on the team!

Strange how you miss effective wipers when you normally take the things entirely for granted, how did the heroes of yesteryear cope? The driver’s side wiper cried enough and chose to simply move water around rather than remove it. Even that is now cured with a rather short replacement blade found in the boot!

If you have been following Tony’s Tweeting (if not why not !)  you will notice that keeping on top of results is well-nigh impossible. The provisional results are posted and then hours later all the penalties arrive and they are then re-posted. Some penalties are heroically draconian.. one driver was penalised five laps and he hadn't actually completed any laps.. so he went ‘minus’! It is very easy to fall foul of the stewards during this event .. speeding in the pit lane, circuit limits, taking your pit stop early, late or not at all, not stopping long enough during your stop and so on. The tricky bit is that they don’t explain on the results what heinous crime had been committed. So it is all as clear as mud to us.

There is one scheduling problem and that is irritating fact that the ‘big bangers’ in Grid 6 go out at midnight on Saturday,( time to in bed or bar!)  then again at 08:00hrs ( coffee and croissants time ) and finally they end the show at 16:00hrs on Sunday.  Having been a lucky lad I have driven various ‘classics’ in the dark on the public roads and the headlights give a cheery glow ‘illuminating’ the road about a foot in front of the car on main beam and then six inches on dip. This may be why the older cars don’t go out in the dark during the Classic.

There have been no mishaps to speak of and  as far as we know the level of retirements has been very low as well. Even so a few have fallen by the wayside, despite this the grids remain 60-65 cars strong. 

Jock Simpson 

On Your Marques! The 2014 Le Mans Classic is up and running!

On Your Marques! The 2014 Le Mans Classic is underway..

It is Saturday, it is Le Mans Classic and ‘the weather is here ..wish you were lovely’!  I try and avoid clichés like the plague as you know.. actually the weather is unimpressive, cloudy, overcast with rain and with the threat of more to come. Despite that it is really rather busy. We get the feeling that it is far busier than it was two years ago when we are told 109,000 people braved the weather and came to watch. Someway to go then before it rivals the 263,000 spectators at the man event but still rather impressive for any type of motorsport outside F1.

The first thing that strikes you is how many ‘classic’ road cars there are in The Sarthe at the moment. Unlike the 24hrs of Le Mans everywhere you go you stumble upon groups  of half a dozen or so enthusiasts happily haring around the minor roads having a ball. We had lunch about 40kms from Le Mans and were surrounded by a number of Healeys, a TR , Jensen, Lagonda and a crazy Simplex. (more of this later!).

It is not too surprising when you consider that there are 119 Motor Clubs of one sort or another parked up on the Bugatti Circuit alone. Porsche Club France has 900 cars here, while The TR Dorset Club have 8! Just to get you googling ( and to save us the trouble)  ever heard of  Les Amis des Automobiles Michel Hommell ( 15 cars) or Club Automobiles Martin? 

Back in the main event the basic rules are relatively straightforward.. it gets harder as you go along!

There are Six ‘Grids’ , each grid starts the weekend with 75 cars so there are 450 cars here! To be eligible they have to be an example of a model  that raced at Le Mans. If the actual car raced at Le Mans it gets priority of course. Each grid has six reserves. You are allowed a maximum of four drivers per car. Each race lasts 43 minutes and each grid gets three races. So your track time during the 24 hour period is about 2hrs 15 mins. However a considerable number of drivers are involved  with driving more than one car which makes the project rather more financially attractive ! 

The date spans of the six grids are as follows:-

Grid One 1923-1939

Grid Two 1949-1959

Grid Three 1957-1961

Grid Four 1962-1965

Grid Five 1966-1971

Grid Six 1972 -1979 

That will do for a start .. we will back later ..

Jock Simpson 

Freaky Friday

IT IS FRIDAY. .. WHAT ON EARTH DO WE DO NOW! 

With that rather shortened qualifying session done and dusted, today is the day that the teams set about repairing and rebuilding their cars. AF Corse will be starting all over again with their replacement car and moving all the settings across. The drivers will be off to Le Mans town centre to take part in the famous "Driver's Parade"and then back to the circuit for the pit lane walkabout and maybe to sign even more autographs.

Your Club Arnage Team will also be recharging their batteries... Bit like a human hybrid! Part of the team is back in the Media Centre ready to assist the ACO and the other bit will be wandering around the shops trying to resist buying a memento.

Our only main appointment is a lazy lunch which has been a long term feature of our event. Our restaurant of choice is up for sale and closed which after so many years is a serious blow. In retrospect we realised that maybe we helped to close it down by keeping it "our little secret" and forcing our friends never to reveal the name and place. .. Even under torture! However we are told it will be back in action under new management for next year so all is not lost. We are going boldly to seek out a new venue for today and The Classic.

Lennart is building up our Twitter feed which can be found at @clubarnage. So if you get the chance take a look and better still send us any feed back. Remember this is for you guys so lets make it as relevant as possible.

It was a sunny, hot and sticky day yesterday and today looks like being much the same. Lennart, who is our insider in the world of European weather forecasting, is looking at totally incomprehensible charts and graphs and radar data and he reckons that Saturday and Sunday will be dry with plenty of sun but the odd cloud here and there. There is a shower or two lurking around to the West of Le Mans so there is risk of an isolated shower.

Tony is beavering away in the Media Centre gathering information from every source imaginable.. Given time he could become a Trussers clone! 

Jock is waiting for the pubs to open and Le Grand Fromage is busy with ACO tasks until lunchtime. ... He hopes!

So.. Relax..Enjoy. . Keep an eye on Twitter and The Blogs..

Jock Simpson

Final Qualifying Session - Toyota take pole at Le Mans

After all the excitement in the 2nd session the 3rd and final session started at 21:30 make up for the lost time in the previous session and will last for 2hrs 30min. So the start of the ‘in the dark bit’ wasn't quite as dark as it usually is! 

Nobody can recall such a strange couple of days of qualifying session and maybe questions will have to be asked about the masses of red flags and incidents  and of course the number of accidents at the Porsche Curves. We also heard that James Calado ( #71 Ferrari 458 Italia) was taken to hospital and will probably stay in overnight for observation after his accident. The team are asking if they can use a new chassis and Colado says he is fine  ‘just a bit of a bump’ .. It will all become clear tomorrow morning… hopefully! 

I should never have written that! We have just got a note from The ACO saying that AF Corse can replace the chassis assuming the scrutineers had checked  it out and that Pierre Kaffer will make up the team replacing Colado. We wish James a swift and full recovery.

Quick bit of ‘hot news’ … Lotus revealed their new LM P1 here today will debut at Austin USA in September. The new car  is called the P1/01 and shares nothing with last year’s T128 LM P2 car. This bit of lotus isn’t based in Norfolk.. it hails from The Czech Republic. 

Traditionally it seems to be late in this session when it is cooler when things begin to pan out. The quick drivers don’t seem in the least bit bothered that it is actually dark! After all they know the circuit pretty well by now ! 

As far as stoppages were concerned this was a better session that its predecessors, but that isn’t saying much really. All the teams were way behind with their planned schedules for qualifying and this meant that everybody was working to different agendas.  The big question that was teasing the Radio Le Mans Team and us was who is actually the quickest? Porsche started the session at the top of the timing sheets and as the ‘shoot out’ in the dark got closer they simply sat tight , no doubt playing mind games with Audi and Toyota. Everything was teed up nicely as Nakajima did a blindingly quick lap and looked set for pole. But Audi and Porsche were keeping their powder dry.

At last we were set for the shoot-out with 15 mins to go.. and it all went to bits! The #90 Ferrari 458 driven by Montecalvo went off causing damage to the surrounding countryside. It wasn’t a particularly big accident by current standards but it gave the Race Director the chance to try out using the new ‘Slow Zone’ procedure. This simply slows the cars down around an incident and saves deploying the safety car. This of course screwed up any chances anybody had to put in a series of pole position winning laps. The Shoot Out was on hold with 15 mins to go! The disaster was that it stayed in place until the chequered flag came out and that was that! A huge anti-climax if ever there was one! So the timing sheets stayed the same and none of the burning questions had been answered. How quick are the Porsches.. we  don’t know… are the Audi actually rather quicker than they were letting on .. we don’t know… are the Toyotas the fastest cars out there.. again we don’t know. All in all very frustrating.

So in the end the Toyota # 7 on pole from #14Porsche and #8 Toyota in LM P1, #12 fastest LM P1-L

In LM P2 #46 Ligier was fastest ahead of the  #38 Zytek and the  #35 Ligier

In GTE Pro #51 Ferrari was fastest ahead of the  #73 Corvette and #97 Aston Martin 

In GTE Am #81 Ferrari was fastest ahead of the  #98Aston Martin and #95 Aston Martin 

In the end the #0 ZEOD, whose progress we have been watching with interest  finished up a respectable 27th overall.

Tomorrow is a rest day and we will take a closer look at LMP2 and the GT’s. As always seem to happen we  got distracted by the potential  dramas in LMP1 and the astounding number of red flags, accidents and chaos.

Jock Simpson

Second Qualifying Session

De Grassi hit the barrier in the run-up to Arnage
then Roussel in #29 Morgan had a shunt while
avoiding the stricken Audi while it was limping home 

After the very muddled and interrupted session yesterday, the time had come for the teams to get stuck in and do some serious running. Strangely it carried on being very fragmented with everybody popping in and out of the pits, mending, and tweaking, swapping drivers and so on. No real pattern seemed to emerge.

The ‘new’ #1 Audi has made it out and was going remarkably well, bearing in mind that they were still shaking down the car. We will never know just how hard Audi had worked to arrive at this point! Some suggested that this was a ‘Testing’ chassis so pretty well sorted and complete.. Others swear blind it was a new chassis and tub. Whatever.. It is up and running, it has a strong set of drivers and is on the pace.

It was very hot for this session with the air temperature hovering around 26.6 C.. The track was 30.0C and the humidity was 45%. It felt a lot stickier than that over lunch! The downside was that it seemed to be causing the most grief to the Porsches. There have been reports that both the batteries and the turbos have been getting far too hot. The battery has its own cooling system because lithium ion batteries apparently run pretty hot even on a good day. You may have noticed how warm your cell phone gets.. now multiply that a thousand times and you will feel the difference. Why the turbo were overheating is a bit of a mystery, it is not as if Porsche are new to ‘turbo technology’!

Things were bubbling along OK until 19:45 when #71 Ferrari 458 Italia driven by James Colado went off... You guessed.. in the Porsche Curves. The red flags came out and the medical team swung into action to extricate Colado. He was taken to the medical centre and the marshals set about clearing up the mess yet again.

Racing restarted at 20:10. Ten minutes later it all kicked off again! This time the #1 Audi, with De Grassi at the wheel,  spun at Indianapolis .. It is not entirely clear what happened but he hit the barriers pretty hard, bounced back and set off back to the pits. You could almost hear the groan from the hard pressed Audi mechanics! The poor old #1 had taken another hit! But there was worse to come, just as the #29 Morgan Nissan, driven by Roussel was passing the damaged Audi #1 (that had almost made it back to pit entry by then), the Audi swerved slightly left for no obvious reason, leaving Roussel nowhere to go and he had to take to the grass. Then he hit the wall spun across the track and it all ended with a hefty rear end impact. #1 Audi in the meantime headed off to the pits and Di Grassi was off to the Stewards. And our 7th Red Flag came out!

Elsewhere the #79 Porsche driven by Bret Curtis had a big off into the barriers at The Dunlop Eases. We are not sure which incident brought out the red flag!

The green flag was waved at 20:45…

With all this time lost.. again.. the final session will be extended by 15 mins. It must nearly be time for a bite to eat and a rest! But no chance! The # 98 Aston driven by Dalla-Lana, #60 Ferrari with Giammaria at the wheel and finally the #92 Porsche driven by Makowiecki all in got involved in the same incident. The exact sequence of events is hard to work out but we think the #92 Porsche was hit by the Ferrari which then spun off into the gravel. The Porsche staggered back to the pits and the others were extricated from the gravel! The #98 Aston spun avoiding the chaos.

Finally the chequered flag came out and we will wander off and try and work out what happened!

Jock Simpson