Revealed: Mansell's Le Mans Car With PH Stickers
Provisional, unconfirmed, don't get over-excited but...
...Team Beechdean Mansell have just emailed this photoshop rendering of where they hope to put our PistonHeads 'Smiley' stickers on the LMP1 car that Nigel Mansell and sons will race at Le Mans. The placement is still provisional, but this picture is so unbelievably mega we just had to share it.
You won't be surprised to learn that we're already speechless (almost!) with pride here in the PH office, because you don't need us to tell you that Nigel Mansell ranks as one of the greatest racing drivers this country has ever produced.
(Yep, an F1 World Champion and all-round driving legend making his racing debut at the world's greatest motor race, and us just a little ol' website, an' all...)
Wherever Smiley ends up on the car on race day, we'll still be proud as Punch to know we're going to be riding with the team. For every racing mile that a combination of the legendary Mansell magic, the team's preparations, grit, commitment, and a dash of good fortune may take them, we hope our fellow PHers will be cheering all the way!
Blimey, PHs don't follow the Mansells much do they? At last year's Silverstone Le Mans, son Greg set a blistering pace and fastest lap in the Ginetta!
Here is a quote from last year at the Silverstone race, qualifying:
'Team LNT's Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S has qualified for tomorrow's Le Mans Series finale in an impressive 5th place at the hands of 21 year old driver Greg Mansell, who put in a stunning performance under glorious blue skies at Silverstone.'
'Greg Mansell, who had his FIRST test in the LMP1 'Red 5' JUST 3 WEEKS EARLIER, showed an astonishing grasp of the 4.5 litre engine car to put in a FASTEST LAP TIME of 01 min 35.296 seconds, BEATING the previous Le Mans winning AUDI R10 and AMR Eastern Europe's LOLA ASTON MARTIN into sixth and seventh position on the grid. A total of 39 cars will roar off the starting line at 11.35am.'
The race proper and car had a wishbone failure early on which saw it lose too many laps otherwise I reckon it might have been in contention at the end. As it went, the car and the Mansells still completed the race.
There is a lot of work gone into these cars - I'm confident the LMP 2 class will be won by a Ginetta Zytec. And I reckon the Mansells will turn in a good result too. And especially from Greg, not Nige.
One sore point. WHY no Ginetta badge on the front of the Beechdean car?
As for his kids not setting the world alight with their racing prowess, no doubt both of them will be catching up on 24 hours sleep, and "our nige" will be doing one helluva long stint .... prior to the car breaking or something.
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