Great Hisory of 24 hours Lemans- Motorsport tv

Hope all have been watching the old Le mans films on Motorsport tv (formerly Motors TV- Sky 447/ freesat253/Virgin 545) tonight 10pm it starts to get interesting.... its 1976 Porsche V Alpine rivalry now getting serious.
think these are also available on demand at www.motorsport.tv

next wed, 14th March will be the 1978 edition. 10.pm

[johnb]

Also 1977 at 08.00 and 14.00 on Tuesday the 13th March.

I've watched 9 of these programmes so far as a result of a tip-off on the C.A.R. Forum. Definitely worth a watch. The programmes are repeated several times and at different times of the day/evening.

the 70's ones are great and an insight into the trippy times as the opening credits for 1974 show:

https://youtu.be/iiwxQ_k9shU

great direction/ camera works. lots of bellbottoms, hairy blokes and zoom shots of lady's backsides!.

repeat on at 2pm today (Thursday) if you missed it.

Tonight's was from 1979 and my first ever visit there. We had travelled across in a friends Vauxhall Venturer (3.3l IIRC) and had completely underestimated the journey so didn't arrive until the race was well underway and couldn't even find the circuit as I naively thought it was a Monaco style street track so we headed to the city centre and nothing was happening. Somehow we eventually found ourselves in a Supermarket car park and could hear the race engines nearby so just followed the sound and soon were watching cars rocket through the Dunlop bridge clearly taking air as they crested the brow of the hill. What's more we bought the cheap "populair" ticket that only allowed access to the Tetre Rouge/ Esses area (back then there was a fence just by the Dunlop bridge). We didn't mind, the funfair was located there and what the heck could be better than that?
As night fell I suggested we take our sleeping bags onto the circuit as I wanted to sleep out with the cars racing by- back then there were a lot more grassy banks and places to do that then there is now. So there we were on the side of the track just before the esses watching the tail lights and flames as the cars raced by and drifted into sleep only to be woken by a crack of thunder in my drenched sleeping bag some hours later. Seems my three friends had woke me when the rain started but I had insisted on staying so they left me there while they headed back to the car. I don't know what happened in those few hours till dawn as I shivered on my own on that bank in my soaked clothes but the battle between the Gelo and Kremer Porsches was intense and the flame outs on the overrun to the esses were immense illuminating the night sky. That and the odd flash of lightening is still with me to this day and no doubt a seed was planted in my young(ish) mind back then.

IMG_0172.JPG

[johnb]

The 93 race showing as I write. Quite a few Venturi in the race. Repeated tomorrow (19th) at 08.00 and 14.00.

[johnb]

Tomorrow (Friday, 20th) at 22.00 is the 94 race with more Venturi and the Societe Legeay A610. Repeated again on the 21st at 00.30, 08.00 and 14.00.

On Monday, the 23rd at 22.00 is the 95 race with more Venturi. Repeated again on the 24th at 00.30, 08.00 and 14.00.

Tomorrow (Friday, 20th) at 22.00 is the 94 race with more Venturi and the Societe Legeay A610. Repeated again on the 21st at 00.30, 08.00 and 14.00.

On Monday, the 23rd at 22.00 is the 95 race with more Venturi. Repeated again on the 24th at 00.30, 08.00 and 14.00.

Given that these were rather barren years for the race, hence the Venturi's bulking up the field, the range of cars racing in the "GT classes" was incredible. from Honda NSX's to a Detomaso Pantera via a Bugatti and the A610. Add some Nissan 300's and Dodge Vipers to that mix as well and just imagine the varying engine noises. I didn't go to any of this era races but regret that now after watching that. (not finished watching it yet but up to the point I left it the A610 had not yet made a on screen appearance)
Cannot help thinking the super professional GT cars nowdays, while impressive, are probably less of a spectacle than it was back then.

[johnb]

A pity the A610 didn't feature at all, unlike the Bugatti which was given quite a lot of coverage. Looking at the results, the A610 finished 13th whereas the Bugatti and Pantera both were DNFs.

So far, I've found these films very watchable because of the variety of the entrants and being able to put 'faces' to names of some of the cars that will have had little, if any, visual (and sound) coverage when the races were actually run.

[johnb]

The 1957 race was shown today and is repeated tomorrow (24th) at 20.00, Wednesday at 14.45, Thursday at 20.45 and Friday at 17.45.
It was only a short film but it featured the Renault 'L'Etoile Filante' (Shooting Star) which was there to do a demonstration lap. This was a gas turbine driven vehicle that, in 1956, attained a world record speed of 191 mph at Bonneville. The car possibly still holds some of the records it achieved in 1956.