Le Mans Classic 24 hours - July 4-6, 2014

[Jeroen]

Even though I have many great memories of the 'regular' 24 hours races, after the diesel and e-tron cars took over the larger part of the event I more or less lost interest, I find that race cars should scream and make the ground rumble, not create a cemetery atmosphere! Good thing there is the Le Mans Classic 24 hours, the original of the Classic events series. Only held once every two years as it is a lot of work to make the original track available (75% is public road). Sadly I couldn't be there in 2012 so below a few pics from 2010. But I'll do my best to be there again this year! Anyone else already made plans to go?

Full 2010 report

[Thegs]

Time to upload some Le Mans Classic pics!

This time first some pictures of the terrain and location to capture the event. Real big and full of beautifull cars!


In the white tents we find the teams tinkering with the cars, in total 6 locations with all the classes in action:


Travelling in style means finding some great transportation!



In the mean time there is enough food and drinks, but also live music:


Entering the BMW factory tent (while still building) we stumble accros this beauty. Later I get the change to see it in action!

Also a wonderfull 328 Mille Miglia took place.

Outside just two E21's, but still they are present.


And to satisfy my Ferrari needs, some more candy:



Going out to the first Le Mans style start, Little Big Le Mans is for rich children!

Some of these make 100.000 euro in auction

And no, that's not a real 288 GTO but a childrens toy with lawnmower engine:

From old to real young, keep racing!


And then time for some real action, but this are the worst pictures I've made. It's due to the pitch black night, which makes taking pictures really hard!



The cars are from grid 2, 1949-1956 era:


Something different:

Also some BMW action, but no flaming M1's for me this time:



Grid 6 (top of the line) are cars from the 1972-1979 era:

See the exhaust and turbo glowing in the night!


For final today of course a BMW, next time some daytime action pictures:

[Jeroen]

Very nice work! Did we have a great time or what?!

[Jeroen]

A brief report and a few pics, more pics to follow!

Th July 3rd
Gerwin (Thegs) and yours truly used this day to drive over to Le Mans. As we needed a work horse to carry our stuff and our on-track transportation, motorized autopeds, great fun!

Fr July 4th
The starting day for the event covering race cars that used to do the Le Mans 24 hours over the years 1923-1979. Cars are divided in 6 age classes with each their own paddock. Paddock 1 starts with the oldest Bugatti's, Bentleys and no less than four 328's. Last class is grid 6 with big fat 935's and prototypes but also the CSL's and M1's from BMW. Qualifying only starts late afternoon so we have time to check out the paddock and BMW Classic's tent with among others the 328 central headlight Touring Coupé Le Mans, McLaren F1 GTR longtail, M1, E30 M3 DTM and the 2011 E91 M3 Le Mans contestant.
We get the chance to watch the training session in full sunshine but for the 2nd series of training sessions (night training) there's a lot of rain when grid 6 is due. Pity as we weren't planning to spend much time outside in the rain.

Sa July 5th
Just like the training sessions, the 24 hours race starts late afternoon so we have time to go to the Bugatti circuit that hosts all the clubs, including the BMW Club France where we encounter some nice cars including two E21 323i's and also a few Dutch forum members. They will be doing a parade lap and the E21 will join them...



Before the parade lap BMW will do a little racecar demo. Somehow I overlooked Yannick Dalmas who is going to drive the V12 LMR, but I manage to get my camera inside a few other cars as I find Jorg Muller who will be driving the F1 GTR 1997 car, Cecotto in the 2011 Le Mans M3 and in the E30 M3 DTM we see Leopold Prinz von Bayern. For now here's the F1 GTR getting ready



The E21's at the parade lap





After Jean Todt and Sebastien Loeb open the event, followed by a running Le Mans start of Plateau 1, we see two 328's that are right at the front of the field, nice work!





Going through the classes the pace goes up rapidly. Gary Pearson is stunningly fast in the D-Type he shares with Chris Harris for the event.



When it's way past midnite and time for Plateau 6 (after which they just started over again) we are again struck by rain grrrrr!





Sun July 6th
Only a brief visit to the track, and time to drive back to Holland. In Belgium, near Antwerp, we run into fellow forum member Peter_P on his way back from the day's Sharknose Tour event, funny coincidence!

The next couple of days Gerwin and I will be sharing more pics, even though I have to reserve most of my BMW material for BMW Car Magazine. In the August issue )that will be at the news stands the upcoming week) you will first find my report on the Spa Classic event, Le Mans will most likely be covered in the Sept issue.

[Duracel79]

Both of these meetings (LeMans & Spa) are on my goto list for next year. Some lovely cars and great circuits.

PS found a good picture (dump) report on the event on the other Sharknose forum, hope its alright to post the link here?

http://bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

Ben

[Jeroen]

I'm not the kind of frustrated monkey you find on other websites, forums and Facebook, afraid to lose viewers haha, just a huge collection of pics so that gives a good impression, thanks for sharing! If you want to attend something, this year there's the OGP which is the biggest event when it comes to BMW's, next year also Spa again, Le Mans is only every other year.

[Thegs]

Time for a photo update. We start with the BMW parade, not a many cars as at the Oldtimer GranPrix but still some rare cars!


As stated, seen it in the tent but now also in action:

The noise of the V12 LMR and the F1 GTR gives you goosebumps!



A beautiful 2000TI trying to hit the apex:

The french E31 club attenting with 4 cars:




A fast 02 came over from the Netherlands:



Love the nostalgic looks of this car!

Allright, time to quit the children toys and parades:


Le Mans style start with pre-war cars only!

The official event opening by Sébastien Loeb:

But we've seen more familiar faces, Jean Todt:

To bad Sébas isn't that good with a flag

The run to the cars to get the old bodies inside:

Then chaos broke out, cars everywhere, media people and cameraman, but I turned around and captured some action at least:

And for final tonight action pictures from the pre-war class (Grid 1). Not all are in great quality, I had some problems with distance due to a 200 mm lens.

[Jeroen]

Not bad at all mate!

[Jeroen]

Here's a selection of my non-BMW photos. I already shared a few BMW pics, the remainder is reserved for BMW Car Magazine's September issue.

Let's start on the paddock. Contestants are divided into 6 grids or Plateaus based on year of entry, each grid has its own paddock. Let's start on the oldest paddock where, besides four lovely BMW 328's and a whole bunch of big fat Bentley's we also find several Bugatti's



A lot of classic Ferrari cars on display that are quite popular among the public. One of the real special cars remains the 250 GTO. Chris Evans' in this case.



We run into two time Le Mans winner and the guy who set the lap record that stood for nearly 30 years (1971, Porsche 917 driven together with Helmut Marko), Dutchman Gijs van Lennep. The former F1 driver was caught chatting with Leopold Prinz von Bayern aka 'Poldi', one of the party dudes of the late DRM and early DTM years. One of his original race cars (Munchen livery ProCar M1) is in the BMW Classic tent but is not seen in action. But both will be on the track later, van Lennep in a Porsche as usual, Poldi does a little show in a E30 M3 DTM.



In a parade of the most special cars in the 24h history we see BMW's V12 LMR, Van Lennep in a 911, a Bentley Blower but also this stunning 250 Testa Rossa



Porsche 917, pity we didn't see it in action this year, well not in this livery





The old stuff in action, starting with pre war Plateau 1 just after Sebastien Loeb gave the start signal right in front of us, and under supervision of Jean Todt. Here under Dunlop bridge



Even with that real old stuff there's more action than expected perhaps! Two 328's battling for 2nd place big time, but also these big Bentley's are fighting like their lives depend on it! Fabulous driving and spectacle!



Even the Talbots, the fastest cars in the field this year and ending up in positions 1 and 2 really were given the beans!



The lighter cars require a little help from the driver for balanced turns haha





In grids 2-3-4 it gets more recent step by step, more or less threw them together here

Jaguar D-Types aplenty hence various shots of these great cars. Here's Andy Wallace who has won the regular 24 hours several times, in the ex Mike Hawthorn D Type





Nice battle agains Maserati 300S



Wonderful!



Aston Martin DB4S



Alpine Renault remains a beautiful design and fast too! Weight counts!



Gary Pearson was incredibly fast and together with Chris Harris he brought the Jaguar home with an overall victory in Plateau 2



Some rain, didn't bother anyone and made for some nice action





911-914-GT40





Gijs van Lennep on the loose in the 911



The 'one off' 250 GT SWB Drogo 'Breadvan' that is not an official Ferrari, but still...



No one off with two pieces ever built haha, open Ford GT40, and driven hard! Here followed by a Ferrari 275GTB/C



Flagged...



Exiting the Ford chicane onto the pitlane straight





Slowly we see more recent cars including an ever so impressive Porsche 917



Speaking of impressive, the Ferrari 512 BB LM, in this case spilling some coolant!





In the most recent grid (until 1979) we of course see M1's and E9 CSL's, but also several 935's that are always good for some fireworks





Last but not least a few night shots



The Renault Alpine (howcome I keep typing Alpina first haha) A443 ex Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Patrick Depailler (both also former F1 drivers) now driven by French rally legend Jean Ragnotti

[Jeroen]

Meanwhile, in the September issue of BMW Car Magazine

[Jeroen]

Apologise

[Jeroen]

Need to fill this page with a few posts

[Jeroen]

So we can jump to the next page

[Jeroen]

Just to prevent your pc from crashing with an overload of photos on one page!

[Jeroen]

OK almost there! With the article in BMW Car a good couple of months behind us I guess we can share some more of the BMW action here as well now!