Article: Holiday Snaps - Part 2

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[ERC]

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

[Steve Holmes]

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?

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]