[LM24] Your Favourite Le Mans Moment(s)

[Fab]

Originally posted by kdr
i still know where my votes lies...eh fab

That's another nice one ! I can't match it ...

Changing of subject (Ayse, is this worth for a new thread ? I dunno...), what's your favourite moment about LM :
- the entering in the circuit the PQ sunday ?
- the first sound of an engine, at PQ day ?
- arrival of tickets at home ?
- the minute you enter the circuit during THE week ?
- the start of serious things, wednesday night qualification ?
- the start of the "great day", with first warm up sound ?
- the start of starting procedure, with cavalcades and so on ?
- the start of warming lap ?
- the start of the race (with the music, Star Wars style, and the safety car vanishing) ?
- the Shampoo bar hour, starting the night ?
- the evening meal, wherever you take it - for me, the Brasserie with a Jarret de Porc ?
- the morning coffee at 6 between Welcome and Grand Marnier desk ?
- the arrival - cups and everything ?
- your mother in law offering the ACO annual at Christmas ? (I've already bought it !)
- less than six months, and counting ? (closer from the next than from the last !)

I can say the worth : sunday, leaving the track !!!

[kdr]

this is definately another thread...but i'll go first sound of an engine at pq

[Fab]

Originally posted by kdr
this is definately another thread...but i'll go first sound of an engine at pq

I was not sure it could be interresting for anyone...

Well, imagine, 8h30 on first sunday of May, in the silence, and suddenly a "vroap", often a Porsche... really something !

I had a good moment two years ago, beeing at the track few days before PQ, and there was two Lola Rafannelli out in the pit lane... it was sunny... I spent an hour, completely alone in the afternoon, sitting in the grandstands watching those beautiful cars... what a "souvenir", like a Dome (child remembering) !

[Mal]

I love the end of the parading at the start and when the cars all leave the old formation to do the warm up lap and to form on the real grid. This is when the atmosphere changes from Fun and Games to anticipation of the serious stuff.

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by Fab
...what's your favourite moment about LM :
- the entering in the circuit the PQ sunday ?
- the first sound of an engine, at PQ day ?...

Having never been to LM, I'll have to substitute ALMS:
Waking up Saturday morning, sunny. A bit hung over. Making coffee. It's about 7:30. And then you hear that first blip of the throttle echo over from down in the paddock - "WhuuUUP." I know I'm in for a good weekend.

[SL]

For me it is the moment practice starts, all the promises are on show. Wednesday evening is the best as teams try for times then, Thursday is normally race set ups.

Although grid positions are somewhat by the way in a 24hr race everyone wants to be fastest, as a race driver should.

Then the Friday, walk around the pits and seeing the cars.

The actual start and first hour are good racing but it seems more a race when they settle into their groove which brings the second best, Tetre Rouge at dusk, seeing the brakes glow red and the noise as they head off down the straight.

Simon

[Aysedasi]

This is a excellent idea for a thread Fab and I would have suggested a separate one, however, as I'm rather late on parade and you've all got going on it, I'll adjust the title of the thread so people know where to look. (Oh, and thanks for the diversion from the F1 racing? nonsense!).

My favourite moment?

Well aside from saying all of it , there are two main moments for me:-

1. On the tribunes for the driver parade and the build-up to the race, the babbling commentary (which I struggle to understand), the quest to get as many pics of drivers and cars as I can, listening to the excitement on Radio Le Mans (Mr. Truswell and Mr. Titchmarsh in particular), feeling the sun burn into the back of my neck (hopefully). Then, after the cars have headed off on that final "parade" lap, with the helicopters charting their progress around the track - the suspense and the tangible excitement in the crowd until the cars burst into sight around the Ford Chicane and Le Mans is off again for another year. Just absolutely fantastic!!

2. As for the second - it's quite simple. The night. All of it. Absolutely magical.

There you are. If you still not going after reading this - shame on you!!

[FG1]

Asye, you said it all.

The best few seconds of what you describe; being someone who enjoys the luxury (!) of the ACO tribune, it has to be the few moments of the start, when all the cars go roaring through the grandstand complex close together. The noise!

FG

[TimD]

First streak of sunlight at dawn on Sunday morning for me. When the night finally gives up its hold on the race, and there is a sensation that the cars are on their home stretch.

Except of course, we know really that there's almost half the race still to go.

And that time of the morning is when the real diehards are the only ones on the tribunes and terraces. Everyone else is either sleeping off beer or sleeping off the funfair. It's as though the race has been handed over to the care of the serious crankcases.

[Fab]

Originally posted by FG1
being someone who enjoys the luxury (!) of the ACO tribune, it has to be the few moments of the start, when all the cars go roaring through the grandstand complex close together. The noise!

As quite a neighbour of Francis in the ACO grandstands (I like the luxury of clean loos , possibility of having a sandwich or a coffee without leaving the grandstand, without losing anything of the show/race !!! ), I have to admit that all the moments I mentionned thereover are really something for me.

But the one is when the pace car goes suddenly on the right, dashing in the pits, and the front line start a 24 hoiurs battle as if they have only ONE lap to do... this first straight, the SOUND ! And a real silence during 3 minutes, waiting for the first ones coming from Ford esses : everybody is standing, to see which one is fighting for the lead...

Ayse, thank you to have dedicaded a thread on the subject !

[Fab]

Originally posted by TimD
Except of course, we know really that there's almost half the race still to go.

It seems that you know well that moment, Tim, if you are who I imagine you are !

Lots of pilots say that the early morning hours are really misleading : still 40% of the race to do !

A french writer said that "days are beautiful because of their tomorows"... that's why, for me, I especially love the "moments before" : the moment I leave my house, the moment I arrive at the track, etc...

And it happens only once in a year !

[Adam43]

When you arrive and you see the grandstands and the circuit for the first time that year. At this point I get a mixture of eager anticipation along with the knowledge that everything is right with the world!

[Fab]

Originally posted by AdamAshmore
When you arrive and you see the grandstands and the circuit for the first time that year

Each time I've a professionnal appointement at Le Mans, I drive along the track... and the sensation is always the same : I HAVE to stop, even a short visit to the museum and ACO office, I cast a glance at the track, at the grandstands, I check if there's work in progress somewhere... and I have a coffee in Arnage village.

This view you have - from the road - of the back of the grandstands... I love it.

[egor]

Sat outside the tent on a lovely sunny evening, having a and a bit of food listening to the cars accelerate from Tetre Rouge down the Mulsanne, the sound is crisp and clear especially if you manage to get a car out on its own. You just know when the revs are at thier peak this guy is flat out.

A great moment was a couple of years ago, on the friday evening when Mr Truswell and Titchmarsh got a bit pie eyed on Radio Le Mans (i think it was these two as i was a lot that way myself), one of the funniest things i had heard in while, it was the same year as the jiffy condom ad's were on.

[Bodysnatcher]

Le Mans is 5 days of special moments, but some of my moments are.

The first beer with steak n' frites in the Boule D'Or down in Mulsanne, then you know you've arrived (safely).

Pitching the tent in the local's back garden that the crew use as their base for the weekend. Meeting the rest of the crew that you have'nt seen for a year - sharing a few beers.

The fun and games involved in getting signed on at the circuit as an official.

Pulling on that year's whites. (or the oldest set you own, just to prove you ain't a newbie).

The field streaming toward you on the first lap.

Grabbing whatever flag you can on the last lap and doing the Le Mans thing for every car that finishes.

[AllonFS]

(Whoops, posted in the McNish thread, this is what happens when you try and catch up in the forum and read from the bottom up )

My overall top moment was my first year (1999) at about 4 minutes past 7pm on Wednesday. Waiting in Maison Blanche campsite for the first sight and sound of the cars. I was virtually hopping up and down with excitement, and then that glorious sportscar sound. I was hooked!

My favourite annual moment has to be 4pm Saturday. Standing in the tribunes craning my neck looking down past the Ford chicane, seeing the cars blast through the chicane, past the roaring crowds and up to Dunlop. Who would want to be anywhere else at that moment?

(This year my favourite moment will be at 4pm and 20 seconds when the 3 top Audis trip over each other at the new esses and end up stuck in the kitty litter )

[rdjones]

Not sure what mind is, asking me in three weeks when I get back from this years race....

[Fab]

Originally posted by AllonFS
This year my favourite moment will be at 4pm and 20 seconds when the 3 top Audis trip over each other at the new esses and end up stuck in the kitty litter

THAT will certainly be a special moment !!!

I got a souvenir in 1999, I was in the grandstand in front of the first pits, we were asking for ourselves if it xas time to go to Tertre Rouge (it certainly was, we should have been gone for more than an hour...), and i was distractly watching the big screen... when the CLR took of... there was no car on the pit straight, and the crowd made a "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!!!", time was hanging just for few seconds... we really had the sensation of beeing a part of "news today"...

Not a very good souvenir for the car, but fortunately not so catastrophic for Peter Dumbreck...

If we start with the souvenirs...

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by TimD
It's as though the race has been handed over to the care of the serious crankcases.

That's the first time I've ever fitted the description of a serious crankcase!!

[rdjones]

Originally posted by AllonFS
(This year my favourite moment will be at 4pm and 20 seconds when the 3 top Audis trip over each other at the new esses and end up stuck in the kitty litter )

Now that would be a great momment, but somehow I can not see it happening......

But we can all dream.....

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Fab


Each time I've a professionnal appointement at Le Mans, I drive along the track... and the sensation is always the same : I HAVE to stop, even a short visit to the museum and ACO office, I cast a glance at the track, at the grandstands, I check if there's work in progress somewhere... and I have a coffee in Arnage village.

This view you have - from the road - of the back of the grandstands... I love it.

Fab, I am truly envious of you.

[kdr]

i love that lull after the cars go by for the first time - the french announcer challenging my secondary school french...but with the occasional burst of "....marteeen brundullllee...."

[Aysedasi]

Yes, nice one! I always remember Philippe L.E.O."

[Fab]

I can do that for you if you wish

"Ils sont partis ! A la chicane Dunlop l'Audi numéro 1 part Ã* la faute et la Dallara s'infiltre Ã* la corde, tandis que la Bentley passe par l'extérieur évitant de peu la Panoz qui la suit..."

And so on... for 24 hours !

[ginettag27]

Favourite moment...

The first time I went (only 1997) arrived at about 12:30am Saturday morning (first and only time we only stayed for the weekend) arrived in Parking Bleu.... and there was a car (think it was a Panoz, but maybe someone can enlighten me) doing 'runs' up and down the airstrip behind the Parking and Camping. You could hear it above everything a really good roar, pop and bang, sheer magic and now we just can't not go to Le Mans!! Now go to the PreQual weekend, plus the race from Tuesday to Sunday evening.

Plus a couple of years ago when the 360 Fezzas were new about 2/3 left the pits - fairly quietly, but then the drivers planted their right foots and the engines just gave a beautiful sound - unforgettable.

Moments in general... Hearing the engines warm up for the first moment, especially at PreQual, hearing cars blast along the Mulsanne from the village area. The sound of the 97 Panoz. Plus we thought that the cars this year sound so much better (from PreQual) than in the last couple of years.

Can't wait.

EPS