Searing heat and poor event organisation marred the Le Mans classic for me yesterday. The current heat wave that parts of France are currently experiencing meant temperatures were well over 30c when we visited the track.
Furthermore we purchased Grand stand tickets prior to the event but clearly the organisers had oversold the tickets relative to the number of seats in the Grandstand meaning that there were no seats for us when it came to the start. Spectator numbers seemed to be up considerably on the previous event and possibly the infrastructure was struggling to cope?
Still the car clubs areas provided an wide mix of cars on display, the highlight being a selection of race and rally Citroen SM's. The Porsche clubs provided their usual sea of 911's although a couple of 914s and 914/6's stood out.
The Ferrari area was far more sparsely populated than my previous visit two years ago with only a yellow Daytona, silver Dino and Silver 365 Boxer representing the classic contingent. Separate from the Ferrari section were a couple of other Daytonas one of which had, had a semi competitzione conversion and the other weirdly had had a sunroof fitted.
I find the Le Mans circuit to big to really appreciate the racing (the classics can take five minutes or more on a lap) so hanging around the paddock provides much more excitement as the cars head to the staging area before the start of the races. Catching the early seventies group heading out was spine tingling (and not just because I had cooped myself in the back of a Porsche 993 Targa to get to the circuit) especially the Ferrari 512 and Porsche 908s.
In my opinion as a specatotor the Le Mans classic has a long way to go before it can emulate the likes of the Goodwood Revival and more attention needs to be paid to the details.
Tomorrow we head back to the UK and hopefully the ambient tempratures will be a little bit lower, as I think the Daytona may start to struggle a little especially in the queue for the tunnel.
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