Mary, Sue and Densie with the guys from Toulouse

Red Car flies the flag:Le Mans Classic

Round and round they go

In keeping with theme of the trip, a drive through France would not be complete without a trip to Le Mans Classic. For someone who had never been to such a race meeting, it reminded me of the Melbourne Cup but with classic cars.

The drive down the freeway to Le Mans was an experience in itself as every conceivable racing car, both new and classic, passed us and the drivers waved…..a good sign, I thought. Porches, Ferraris, you name it, they all sped by and if you were a “car tragic” it would be a dream come true.

We drove in and parked in the designated MG area. Our cars were parked near the main MG tent amidst about five hundred other MGs from all eras.  There would have been at least five thousand  classic cars at the event and it looked like you could not park in the ground unless you arrived in a classic vehicle.

 At the MG enclosure, there was a tent where they served pastis, pate and baguette and all the car folk stood around chatting and admiring cars. We meet people from France, Belgium and Italy and some of the folks we had met in Switzerland.  The talk was light hearted and after a time we made our way to the stand to watch the start of the big event, the Le Mans Classic. 

Apparently only those cars which had competed in the original  Le Mans can now compete it this classic event. So all the cars were built prior to 1972.  France is experiencing an uncharacteristic heatwave and Le Mans is not the shadiest place to spend a day so we spent most of the time in one of the stands watching the races and parades.  Instead of replicating the original Le Mans 24 hours race they run a series of races on the hour for about ten laps and you watch a wide range of classic race cars going as fast as they can.  We observed the races on an upward S bend and the crowd were delighted when the odd driver took the bends too quickly and spun out.  The crowd showed great admiration for a very old Renault which was lapped after about two laps by the winning Ferrari.

The Le Mans Classic is a three day event and people come from all over the world to participate and the entry and exit procedures with cars and people is quite controlled.  Some of our convoy had to wave and drive past the officials smiling, chatting and then blaming our ticket problems on the fact that we do not speak Francai, in order to exit the course at the end of the day. Driving in and out of the course had all the problems associated with any big sporting event but eventually we found the A11 and headed back to our chalet. 

Our favourite car was an exact duplicate of our son’s 1960 Austin Healey and we were also keen to watch the performance of the four Healey’s in the first race. One of the real crowd pleasers was the parade of miniature classic cars driven by children of all ages. A good day and the size and magnitude of the event leaves a lasting impression.