Heads up - Steve McQueen: Le Mans and the Man

[Eric Mc]

If it claims that Gordon Murray was the first to use pit stops tactically, then it's wrong.

[ewand]

Eric Mc said:

If it claims that Gordon Murray was the first to use pit stops tactically, then it's wrong.

Well, not entirely - but oversimplifying, Murray and Brabham were the first in their era to hone the pitstop on the basis that they could use it to leapfrog otherwise faster cars.

[carl_w]

I assume the green 917 in David Piper's garage is the one that Mark Hales blew up at Cadwell Park?

[coppice]

ewand said:

Eric Mc said:

If it claims that Gordon Murray was the first to use pit stops tactically, then it's wrong.

Well, not entirely - but oversimplifying, Murray and Brabham were the first in their era to hone the pitstop on the basis that they could use it to leapfrog otherwise faster cars.

Absolutely - I had been watching the British GP since 71 and pit stops just didn't happen except if the car was ailing , had a puncture or needed to change from dry to wet tyres, or vice versa . Tyres and fuel lasted the race - and actually that fact alone made watching races live much more enjoyable , as keeping up with a pit stop race was almost impossible . As was shown in the wet/dry Canadian GP in 73 , whose result is still debated .

At Brands in 1982 there was a real buzz about the fact that Brabham had been rehearsing fuel/tyre pit stops and was going to use them in the race. Circumstances stopped this happening but the die had been cast . I can remember our little group thinking 'pit stops? Isn't that what they did in the Thirties ? How quaint..'

[Eric Mc]

coppice said:

Absolutely - I had been watching the British GP since 71 and pit stops just didn't happen except if the car was ailing , had a puncture or needed to change from dry to wet tyres, or vice versa . Tyres and fuel lasted the race - and actually that fact alone made watching races live much more enjoyable , as keeping up with a pit stop race was almost impossible . As was shown in the wet/dry Canadian GP in 73 , whose result is still debated .

At Brands in 1982 there was a real buzz about the fact that Brabham had been rehearsing fuel/tyre pit stops and was going to use them in the race. Circumstances stopped this happening but the die had been cast . I can remember our little group thinking 'pit stops? Isn't that what they did in the Thirties ? How quaint..'

As I said at the very start - it depends on the era. The modern era of tactical stops began in 1982 - after a 20 year period where pit stops were not seen as beneficial. Prior to that, pit stops were pretty much the norm. It was the advent of the lightweight 1.5 litre era in F1 that more or less killed pit stops for 20 years. We have had 114 years of GP racing of which there was only a 20ish year period where we didn't see many pit stops.

[CooperD]

Watched this last night. Found it very interesting.

[outnumbered]

ewand said:

if you haven't seen it before, there's an excellent 45 min documentary on the history of the pit stop in F1. It seems that before Gordon Murray, nobody had thought of using a stop for competitive advantage... seems obvious now (when the rules allow it) but prior to that, cars coming into the pits was an uncommon occurrence and not something the teams planned for particularly.

https://www.redbull.com/int-en/films/the-history-o...

Thanks for posting, really enjoyed watching that.

[2fast748]

Got round to watching this last night and really enjoyed. I think Le Mans is one of my favourite films but probably because it isn't very Hollywood, it's all atmosphere and awesome cars with minimal plot and dialogue.

I've never been to Le Mans so can't say if it captures the atmosphere from there but it does capture the atmosphere of most race tracks I've been to.

As for McQueen himself, I've seen a few documentaries about him and he does come across as very self centred, but he did seem to have a charitable side to him as he grew up in the American version of Barnados and Chad still does a lot of work for them.

[CooperD]

There are a few exhibits at the Le Mans museum remembering Steve McQueen even if they spelt his name wrong in one of the posters. . It's worth a visit if in the area.

[droopsnoot]

Nickp82 said:

Tiny subtitles are a bit annoying

I'm only a bit of the way in, and that's my thought too.

[Big-Bo-Beep]

McQueen doesn't come out of it very well, a sex obsessed, low intellect egotist, who, when given lotsa money to make
the ultimate race movie, finds himself out of his depth and turns in a lack lustre flop, so much so that he can't even be arsed to attend
the premiere.

Plus he is more than happy to deflect blame onto his injured PA for a car accident that, due to his poor
driving skills, nearly killed his co-star.

[rdjohn]

The film is really poor.

I don’t think I would have attended the Premier, either. I was underwhelmed when I first saw it. I bought the DVD a few years ago, and it had not improved with age.

“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” He should have spent more time racing, or simply, he lacked imagination.

At least there was some substance to tear holes into Le Mans 67.

[Eric Mc]

Watched the doc last night. Thought it was pretty good.

I've never watched the entirety of "Le Mans" all the way through.