24 HEURES DU PISTONHEADS
Aside from the racing, BBQs and beers PistonHeads arranged two reader events at La Sarthe. Here's what happened
Friday Service
It's Friday AM and team PH are sitting in an overcast and empty field listening to Radio Le Mans and passers by are wondering why three cars and eight chaps are loitering with intent. Soon enough some beer is being delivered, taps are installed and BBQ grills are fired up. All of a sudden we have created a Friday Service venue from a patch of dry grass in central France.
An hour or so later and the gates are opened as we welcome a few hundred cars and a few hundred more pedestrians. Beers are consumed, burgers are eaten and the PH team become traffic marshals and parking attendants to ensure everyone gets parked up safely. The diversity of vehicles is pure PistonHeads, ranging from a Granada ‘limousine’ to a brand new MP4-12C with everything from a caravan–towing Allegro to a Diablo in between.
PH tech man Switch took this time lapse video watching the event unfold.
Thanks entirely to you guys we had one of the best PistonHeads meets ever with great weather, no traffic issues and no bad behaviour (bar one chap who was insistent on chewing up the grass, there’s always one…). We really appreciate your support and were amazed to see so many of you take the time to pay us a visit. Let’s hope we can do it all over again next year.....bigger and better.
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Nissan DeltaWing Garage Tour
Saturday night saw Stuart and I make our excuses to the team as we begrudgingly (yeah right) made our way over to the Nissan hospitality building to take four PH competition winners over to the pitlane while the race was in full flow. Sipping a cold beer on a balcony overlooking the track, we all shared our Le Mans tales before piling into a Nissan-branded golf buggy for a ride into the pitlane.
Little did we know that while this short drive took place the DeltaWing would be cruelly knocked out of the race and we would arrive at a subdued garage and glum faces, but to their credit the show went on regardless and we were as gutted as everyone else to see the 'Wing out of the race.
Not only did we get a full talk through of how the DeltaWing was created, we were also treated to a tour of the Greaves Motorsport LMP2 garage and had a look down into the pits from the DeltaWing lounge too, before heading back to the Nissan hospitality area to watch the racing from their balcony. A tough gig for sure, but made all the more enjoyable by the excellent company of our fellow PHers and the enthusiam and hospitality of the Nissan team despite the sad circumstances.
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Thanks to: 1st-Tickets. ACO, Laverstoke Park Farm, Nissan, Jardine International, Greaves Motorsport and you, the PHer.
Photos by: Dant Trent, Darren Curtis and Stuart Forrest
