Real Racing: 24 Heures Du Mans
This weekend is the 84th 24 Hours of Le Mans. There are many storylines to follow this year, not the least of which is the return of the Ford GT, marking the 50th anniversary of beating Ferrari and placing 1-2-3 in 1966.
A couple of weeks ago, Audi landed atop of the timesheet during Test Day, when Lucas di Grassi blistered the track with a time of 3:21.375s aboard the #8 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro.
The history of Le Mans is fascinating. At its inception in 1923, a winner was to be declared following three years (yes, years) of competition. The Rudge-Whitworth Cup would be given to the driver combination completing the farthest distance total over those three years. For reasons that should be abundantly clear, the idea was abandoned in 1925 after the end of the first three year segment. Here’s footage of a pit stop purported to be from that era.
In the hairy-chested ’70s, Le Mans was the subject of a movie featuring Steve McQueen. With little plot and acting, the film entertains primarily by the sight and sound of Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s, fantastic racing cars with great visual and audio appeal.
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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one of the things I miss about having cable. Oh well, will be at wok all weekend. Hopefully will be slow and I will be able to watch some
My favorite race of the year, and one I hope to attend at some point. I also bought the FIAWEC access for the second year. Even got to see a great safety car recovery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqB6qRXmCNo