Classic Le Mans 2014

Each time I travel across to France for the Classic Le Mans I worry that the specialness of the event will be subsumed under crass commercialisation and overcrowding. Well, in spite of the best efforts of the organisers to do just that, I still had a great time, and still rate it one of the 'must do' old car events in Europe. 

As in 2012, I took my son and we travelled in my 964, just back from having its original, not messed with, thrashed, tracked or neglected & completely bullet-proof engine completely rebuilt. Also travelling with us were various old Porsche driving friends, so we were nine in total at our Gites, some 10km west of the circuit. After years of camping in the Le Mans circuit wastelands, I'm at an age when a comfy bed, hot shower and good food are as important to me as the track action, so as far I was concerned the additional cost was well justified, especially as our host turned out to be an excellent chef. 

The 964 outside the Gite with a 1966 predecessor

Another improvement on previous expeditions was the decision to travel a day earlier, arriving on Thursday evening after taking the scenic route down from Dieppe. It meant we had to whole of Friday to wander around the paddocks in relative peace, and could get close the cars and even talk to drivers and mechanics before the bedlam that is the Saturday. 

Even with a bizarre schedule that saw the first race only get under way at 5pm, it's still magic to see old racing machinery being driven properly on a track that lets big, fast cars really stretch their legs. Inevitably, our focus was on the later grids; four, five and six, where six, eight and twelve cylinder Porsches from the 1960s and 70's were out in force. Although the Saturday evening's races were affected by the weather, our successful blagging of access to the ACO's clubhouse meant we weren't. 

The view from the roof of the ACO's clubhouse

I'm no great photographer, but one of our party is, you can see some of his pictures from the trip on his Flickr page here.

On the Monday we left, but rather than head north back up to the ferry port with the others we decided to spend a couple of days seeing the Normandy D day sites, finally arriving back in sunny West Sussex on Tuesday evening.

Good trip.

SS7