Article: Holiday Snaps - Part 2

[Steve Holmes]

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As petrolheads, we all have 'bucket list' items that we tick off in life. For many, that list includes a visit to the Circuit de la Sarthe, on the outskirts of the city of Le Mans. Obviously, attending the 24 Hour race, or even Classic Le Mans, held every two years, would be a priority, but just visiting this great race track is itself pretty awe-inspiring.

I'm not a big fan of museums, but I was excited to visit Le Mans museum. We'd hired a rental car in Amsterdam and driven down to the city of Rouen the night before. This was part of a road trip that would eventually take us as far south as Montpellier, before before working our way north once more up the East side of France.

Rouen, as many of you will know, had its own impressive racing circuit, which hosted the French Grand Prix on five occasions, the last being 1968. The drive from Rouen to Le Mans took us a couple of hours. I was surprised to discover the race track is actually on the edge of town. In fact, its neighbours could probably look out their windows and watch the cars drive by. Not sure what they do when the race takes place. I guess they either leave town, or just don't sleep.

The museum is right next to the race track. Its nicely laid out, starting off with a section which I assume is changed regularly, and which on our visit featured the history of childrens miniature cars, which are a tradition of the race.

From there, we enter the museum main section, which flows mostly in chronological order, beginning with the modern cars and gradually working through to the old stuff. In addition are various vintage and classic road cars, old trucks, etc. Basically, anything to do with French motoring history. Its a really enjoyable museum to visit.

This chapter focuses on our Le Mans museum visit, and these are the snaps I took. As usual, we had limited time, so I grabbed photos as I passed through, and only on occasion did I photograph the information sheet for each vehicle. But I know you smart folk will be able to ID most of what is featured.

[Steve Holmes]

This is it! Hallowed ground. There is just so much history here. This is the entrance to the race circuit, the road for which passes beneath the track, and out into the pits. To the left of this shot is the museum.

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Here is the museum entrance, as well as a small cafe. The cafe was closed. There were very few people visiting on this day, which was good news for us.

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As mentioned above, the first exhibition is that for the childrens cars.

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This art car was given pride of place at the entrance. If you look closely you can see the bodywork is made up of thousands of small metal coloured sections all joined together. And yes, it did race.

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OK, so I said the cars were displayed in order of age, which was obviously not quite correct, because this Porsche 936 was parked at the head of the queue.

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This is the oddball Nissan GT-R LM, which, in my opinion, is pretty damn ugly. It was fitted with a 550hp turbocharged V6 Nissan engine which drove the front wheels, while an electric motor drove the rear wheels.

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I have to admit that for the most part, the cars that have raced at Le Mans for the past 20 years leave me cold. However, there are a few exceptions, this being one of them. I just think this is beautiful.

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[ERC]

At one stage, Andy Culpin was going to do a recreation of the Bentley!

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At one stage, Andy Culpin was going to do a recreation of the Bentley!

I would love to have seen that. I assume it never got started?

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The information plaque for each vehicle tends to discuss the make and model, rather than the actual chassis. Therefore, I assume this to not be the actual 1991 race winner (the first and only Japanese car to win outright), but rather a sister car or factory replica.

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Finally, this was the section which really began to get me excited; the pre-1980s era. While the obvious top flight sports car machinery from the late 1960s and 1970s were the Porsches, Ferraris, and Renaults, I've always been fascinated by the smaller and lesser known French entrants, such as Rondeau, Alpine, Matra, Courage etc. The museum had a good selection of these:

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The Oct/Nov/Dec issue of Automobil Sport has a really great story on how Renault got involved in sports car racing in the 1970s through Elf oil, and how their development of turbocharging in sports car racing led firstly to their Le Mans win, and then to their entry and ultimate success in F1.

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A Le Mans museum just wouldn't be right without at least one Matra.

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Likewise, it just wouldn't be right without a Porsche 917.

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American muscle. This French owned Corvette contested the race several times.

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[Bruce302]

That's a great museum Steve, Thanks for taking the photos and sharing them.

B

[Steve Holmes]

That's a great museum Steve, Thanks for taking the photos and sharing them.

B

Thanks Bruce, glad you're enjoying them.

[Steve Holmes]

OK, jumping a little further back in time now. I've seen a few genuine Ferrari 250GTOs in my life, and I honestly couldn't tell if this was the real deal or a copy. Only the info board provided my answer.

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And now for another area of interest for me; tiny French sports cars with such interesting bodywork, designed mostly to contest the Index of Performance. Just look at the lines on this car. I absolutely love it.

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[Oldfart]

I loved the place. So many that look as though they finished the race and were taken straight to the museum. Thanks Steve. I have so many pics I took while on my trip, but very tedious to post :(

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Rhys, I really enjoyed the museum, its an absolute must for any race fan. The French cars were the highlight for me.

[touringcarfan]

The information plaque for each vehicle tends to discuss the make and model, rather than the actual chassis. Therefore, I assume this to not be the actual 1991 race winner (the first and only Japanese car to win outright), but rather a sister car or factory replica.

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Hi Steve

Loving your photos and I love this era of Group C Sports Cars. My understanding is that the 1991 winning chassis is in the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima.

Anthony

[Steve Holmes]

Hi Steve

Loving your photos and I love this era of Group C Sports Cars. My understanding is that the 1991 winning chassis is in the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima.

Anthony

Thanks Anthony, that makes total sense to me. I assumed the car in the Le Mans museum was either a sister car or a mock-up chassis designed to celebrate the win. Mazda entered three cars in 1991, so they have several chassis'.

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Jean Rondeau was a very clever man and a fine driver, sadly gone way too young

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Jean Rondeau was a very clever man and a fine driver, sadly gone way too young

I agree Sean, and his cars just had so much charisma.

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As well as the race cars, the Le Mans museum also features a large number of road cars. Many are of French origin.

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[Paul B]

Wow Steve, some great shots there of the 1952 Socema Gregoire, an amazing example of French design being so far ahead of its time and Turbine driven! Top speed 200kmph!
A bit like the Citroen Ds they were also a very advanced design for the day.
Cheers

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Thanks Paul, yeah this one really stopped me in my tracks. An amazing looking car.

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My wife loved this one, she is a big Citroen fan, particularly of the SM.

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This room was impressive. It featured a large scale model of the race track, as well as a number of hand built dioramas from different eras. Then, the entire wall section which wrapped around the room was fitted out with cabinets displaying models car. My photos don't do it justice.

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[Paul B]

My wife loved this one, she is a big Citroen fan, particularly of the SM.

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That's a French Cadillac for sure. As only the French could do. I love the rear quarter window style. Cool!

[Steve Holmes]

That's a French Cadillac for sure. As only the French could do. I love the rear quarter window style. Cool!

They're fitted with a Maserati V6 engine. I think they move along pretty quickly. They were used for rallying too I think.

Niki Lauda owned one back in the '70s which recently came up for sale. I imagine it was quite expensive.

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[Bruce302]

Great photos Steve, Thanks for sharing them. I guess that makes the trip fully tax deductible.

[Steve Holmes]

Great photos Steve, Thanks for sharing them. I guess that makes the trip fully tax deductible.

Thanks Bruce, glad you're enjoying them. I'd love for it to have been tax deductible, but the fact we were gone for two months could be a hard sell!

[Steve Holmes]

OK, once we were done with the museum, we headed out to take a look at the track. I did enquire about driving the rental car around the track, but was kindly told Non Monsieur. I guess it could be possible to walk around it, but it'd take a long time, and time wasn't on our side. But it was exciting for me to see that famous pit straight, grandstand, and sweeping first corner that I've seen in so many times in books, magazines, and on tv.

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[Oldfart]

Next time Steve! The bit you have the photos of is pretty much the only part you can't drive round. The majority is public roads.

[Steve Holmes]

Next time Steve! The bit you have the photos of is pretty much the only part you can't drive round. The majority is public roads.

Thanks Rhys, yeah I figured that was probably the case. As always though, time was in short supply.

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I'm not entirely sure why I took a photo of this Mustang at a roadside service area, other than the fact it looked so out of place against the mostly very small French cars that were everywhere.

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As I mentioned earlier, I have a thing for very small vehicles, particularly the older vintage types from the 1950s. But in many European countries small vehicles are still very popular. This little inner city truck was being carried somewhere.

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One of my bucket list items for this trip was to see and drive across the incredible Millau Viaduct. This incredible structure is the tallest bridge in the world, with its tallest point 343 meters above its base. It is staggeringly impressive! But typically, to really get a good view, you have to pay, and on the day we passed through, there was no way to do this, even if we wanted to! We snapped a few photos before then driving across. The majority of major French roads are toll roads, but the Millau Viaduct also commands a toll. I think it was about 8 Euros.

Sadly, our photos are crap, made worse by the fact the sun was directly behind the bridge.

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Here are various random photos I grabbed off the internet that are far better than what we managed:

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Montpellier is a beautiful city. We stayed in the old part, which is right in the centre. The streets are unbelievably narrow. Because the city is so old, the streets were built before cars were invented, making many parts inaccessible by car. But that doesn't stop the French. They just get small cars. Its truly impressive to see.

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I'm going to end this chapter with these two creative machines on display at a service area, just outside Dijon. I couldn't really find any info on them, other than some brochures suggesting they were from Sbarro.

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