Very Wet Le Mans 2007....

[andyroo75]

So... it rained ...alot!
Was anyone there?
What did you make of it?

[Simes]

One word ....

Brilliant...

The rain wasn't as bad as it was made out to be .. A couple of hours on the saturday afternoon/evening and the last 90 minutes was the worst weather - and the hour after it finished.

The LMP1 class was really interesting with the Pugeots and Audi's - the Peugeot very quickly got the nickname "ghost" the audi was more like an alien invasion.

The factory Aston team finally got to lift the GT1 crown and with the additional feat that all 6 Aston Martins entered finished.

Saturday night was clear and cold - Sunday morning was cool and clear. The rain cleared up as most people were struggling to leave the track - we left 9:00 yesterday morning and got home about 11pm last night.

I'm processing the photo's I took at the moment and will load some on photobucket.

Who's up for next year?

Simes.

[Q TOY]

I had a class time too. Spent the last hr in the Dunlop bridge listening to the half arsed proccession of cars cruising to the finish, put a bit of a dapner omn the weekend but was far from ruining it.

Will ngo again next year i think. Hopefully Diesel cars will have been banned by then though. Quiet race cars are plain wrong, we need more Panoz's and Cheveys!!!!!!!!

[NellyWannaGTV]

Woo! Aston won at last!

The Astons have always been quicker than the Corvettes but have lost due to technical trouble. This year they seem to have improved with all 6 finishing although some did have trouble and spent time in the pits.

Top marks to Peugeot for putting their car and team together at such short notice, only 6 months. It was quite a bit behind the Audis though, at 10 laps! Goes to show that the diesel regulations need more tweaking as they are still too fast.

Rain wasn't really an issue. The last two years have been unbearably hot so this year it was quite a refreshing change.

One thing I did notice is that the crowds are getting larger and larger. Much more queuing this year than last year, especially for food, drink, toilets etc. I think maybe they need to open a new viewing area, perhaps at one of the Mulsanne chicanes? The work done at Tetre Rouge is great, much expanded viewing areas, hopefully they will carry on and maybe redevelop Porsche Curves or put in a new spectator area.

Saw a few nice alfas including an British SZ (at Houx camp site I think), and a nice Dutch GTV6 in black with a 3l conversion and enormous power bulge in the bonnet.

Maybe we will see the 8C there next year on the track!

[Simes]

Yeah saw the red SZ - was at houx - I was in the annexe in the Brera..

Saw I nice UK classic 2.0 spider in black on the way home as well - got a wave!

The place was packed - and the organisation for transport into/out of LeMans for the drivers parade left a lot to be desired....

some photo's in the images section including a classic alfa from the historic races...

Simes,.

[Q TOY]

Originally Posted by NellyWannaGTV

Woo! Aston won at last!

The Astons have always been quicker than the Corvettes but have lost due to technical trouble. This year they seem to have improved with all 6 finishing although some did have trouble and spent time in the pits.

Top marks to Peugeot for putting their car and team together at such short notice, only 6 months. It was quite a bit behind the Audis though, at 10 laps! Goes to show that the diesel regulations need more tweaking as they are still too fast.

Rain wasn't really an issue. The last two years have been unbearably hot so this year it was quite a refreshing change.

One thing I did notice is that the crowds are getting larger and larger. Much more queuing this year than last year, especially for food, drink, toilets etc. I think maybe they need to open a new viewing area, perhaps at one of the Mulsanne chicanes? The work done at Tetre Rouge is great, much expanded viewing areas, hopefully they will carry on and maybe redevelop Porsche Curves or put in a new spectator area.

Saw a few nice alfas including an British SZ (at Houx camp site I think), and a nice Dutch GTV6 in black with a 3l conversion and enormous power bulge in the bonnet.

Maybe we will see the 8C there next year on the track!

Are the diesels too fast or the petrols to slow??? Either way it needs sorting as the petrol teams might not bother in future.

[Simes]

Originally Posted by Q TOY

I had a class time too. Spent the last hr in the Dunlop bridge listening to the half arsed proccession of cars cruising to the finish, put a bit of a dapner omn the weekend but was far from ruining it.

Will ngo again next year i think. Hopefully Diesel cars will have been banned by then though. Quiet race cars are plain wrong, we need more Panoz's and Cheveys!!!!!!!!

I love the noise from the Panoz, think it just has the edge on the chevvy...

I'm going to have to try to extract the engine noise from the video I have....

Simes.

[NellyWannaGTV]

Originally Posted by Q TOY

Are the diesels too fast or the petrols to slow??? Either way it needs sorting as the petrol teams might not bother in future.

The diesels are too fast. They have the same power, or slightly more, but a huge amount of torque. They out accellerate the petrols coming out of a corner. Several of the petrol drivers commented that the Audis and Peugeots would just fly by - one minute behind you the next its past you.

The ACO are famous for tweaking the regs so I expect it will get evened out as they get more experience with the diesels.

[Trailbraker]

For forced induction engined the diesels are allowed 40% larger capacity than the petrols, so it was all a nice PR exercise for those that entered diesels.
No doubt money changed hands somewhere to give Audi and Peugeot a craxck at some easily gained Marketing Le-MAns winning deisel oomph!
Everybody knew 40% was too much, ..and ended up devaluing the event IMHO.

Originally Posted by Q TOY

Are the diesels too fast or the petrols to slow??? Either way it needs sorting as the petrol teams might not bother in future.

[Oliver_K]

Im glad you started this discussion because i was going to begin a topic. Le Mans 2007 was awesome but there are some complaints....
1. Why get the safety car out when it rains...drivers adjust to the conditions and change to wet tyres
2. Did anyone camp at Beausejour. Why make the entrance so narrow that 2 cars and lots of people could barely squeeze by thus causing huge traffic problems
3. The village now has no character like it did 3-4 years ago

other than that it was good and i got some nice pics of fellow alfa owners cars from Beausejour

[NellyWannaGTV]

I kind of agree about the safety car. These guys are professional drivers and don't need to be forcibly slowed down because its raining. The rain adds another element and the drivers/teams should have to make their own choice about changing tyres.

I camped at Beausejour and the traffic control was shocking. We watched most of the night on Sat and got back to camp on Sunday morning at about 6am. We planned to get a few hours kip then get up at lunch time to watch the final few hours of the race, which in my opinion are the most exiting. We got up at 11.30 and by 12 were packed and ready to go, planning on driving to Mulsanne. It took us an hour to get out of the camp site as they had set up some bizarre one way system, directing traffic on its way to the technopark through the campsite!

I like the new village, it used to get overcrowded but now has much more room.

[andyroo75]

Originally Posted by Oliver_K

Im glad you started this discussion because i was going to begin a topic. Le Mans 2007 was awesome but there are some complaints....
1. Why get the safety car out when it rains...drivers adjust to the conditions and change to wet tyres
2. Did anyone camp at Beausejour. Why make the entrance so narrow that 2 cars and lots of people could barely squeeze by thus causing huge traffic problems
3. The village now has no character like it did 3-4 years ago

other than that it was good and i got some nice pics of fellow alfa owners cars from Beausejour

Yes was camped in beausejour. I found the way in more of a pain - we arrived at about lunchtime on friday and they were letting in about five cars at a time and waiting until the marshalls had marked out the camping pitch for those five before allowing anymore in.
Done to limit the pitch sizes i guess - just the organisation was just rubbish. Used to be better when it was a bun fight for a pitch then it was more entertaining.
The whole event just seemed a little serene this year. Maybe this was partly the weather it just seems the event organisers have somehow taken some of the fun out of it.
Also dissapointed i didn't see another alfa the whole time i was there. but did see a ferrari F40 blast past on the way back to the ferry. Was right in front when we got there and held us up getting on the boat. Took ages and countless ramps and bits of wood

[Oliver_K]

andyroo75....when i get a chance ill post some pics i took in BSJ campsite just to prove there were other Alfas.
Im glad others do agree with some of the points i made...i thought it was just me....that said i will certainly be back next year especially if rumours are correct, which i suspect they are that Aston MArtin Racing will race an LMP1. I spoke to a prodrive technician at Goodwood FoS who would not confirm this but then he did not deny it either.........

Sorry i forgot this is the alfa forum......but i do love Aston Martin

[andyroo75]

I heard that too.
I read an interview from Dave Richards in which he said he wanted to go for an outright win next year.
It didn't give much away, but an outright win can only mean one thing "prototype"!!
That i would like to see, an Aston Martin LMP1. I'd like to see that more than when the Bentley was racing.

As for the campsite - the part we were in there weren't many exotic cars at all, one ferrari and a couple of lotus that was it really