Noel's Le Mans Dream

[24lemons]

I'd been searching on and off for this documentary for a while now as it was one of the first things that opened my eyes to Le Mans.

It seems someone on Youtube has uploaded both episodes (Clips are entitled Panoz lemans 1997 1-8)

http://www.youtube.com/user/PANOZMAN

Regardless of what you think of Edmonds it's still an interesting watch.

Enjoy,

Lemons

Edited by 24lemons on Wednesday 7th July 21:43

[gt6]

I remember seeing him there and enjoyed the programme, worth watching.

[Gordy7]

I remember being at Le Mans that year and through a beery haze listening to the Panoz rumbling through the night... lovely sound.

[FredericRobinson]

Interesting, but the first half was all about Noel's dream of driving at Le Mans, by the time the race comes around there's no explanation of why he's not in the car. Realised he wasn't up to it? Didn't have the right license?

[italianjob1275]

Randomly thought about this old documentary today and did a google search. Thankfully someone has uploaded it to YouTube

Was going to share it here but did a search first hence the thread revival

https://youtu.be/YdZSczZekYY

[fatboy18]

I remember seeing that 1st time around, Coor he threw some money into that project, nearly broke him!

[LawrieC]

And they told him to buy a Porsche, because they finish, so he bought a Panoz

Interesting piece of history, and we did see Clarkson (who's in it at the start) near Dunlop around Midnight, probably a year or two before. Clarkson lost interest because there isn't a 5 star hotel nearby

[chrisring]

what exactly was Noel's involvement?
As said, the first half showed him wanting to drive, by the end he is feeling the car.
Did he have a financial involvement? The team name was 'David Price Racing' and could not see any mention of Noel in entries or on car.
Did it just become that his 'involvement' was being there?

[//j17]

I remember that going out on TV back in the day. Proably the first time I ever heard of Le Mans!

[LawrieC]

chrisring said:

what exactly was Noel's involvement?
As said, the first half showed him wanting to drive, by the end he is feeling the car.
Did he have a financial involvement? The team name was 'David Price Racing' and could not see any mention of Noel in entries or on car.
Did it just become that his 'involvement' was being there?

Edmonds seems to have funded most of it through his production company, and at the time, they were worth a fortune. It must have cost the equivalent of £1million. David Price was paid to run the car. There's a bit more detail in https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/people...

I think its the BBC film that says Edmonds was expecting to drive, but was not good enough

[wsn03]

Part way into it, respect to Noel, really enjoyable video

[eps]

First year I went to Le Mans

I dimly remember one of their cars doing test runs up and down the airstrip at 1am or so on Saturday morning... Such a great sound to arrive at Le Mans to!! We only had a couple of parking spaces in Parking Blanc or similar.


We 'only' did the weekend that year. Came back for longer the next year and every year after that!