Le Mans Prototypes and GT video project by slightly mad PHer

Le Mans Prototypes and GT video project by slightly mad PHer

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legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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Hey everyone.

Thought I’d share with follow PHers a fun motorsport/music project I’ve done together with the 90s and 00s historic race category Endurance Racing Legends.

It all started when I went to Le Mans in 2017 in my Porsche 964 (manual C2 obviously!) and it ticked over the magic 100,000 mile point on the odometer the way. I found this quite fun.



Edited by legalknievel on Sunday 12th May 14:44

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
After missing the start of the race after getting a little too excited the night before, my friends Jack and Petey and I had an awesome time. The Toyota tragically stopped under our viewing point a lap from the end, and it all couldn’t have been much more memorable.

On the Sunday night back at our accommodation, after a local beer or two and the whole of the album Dark Side of the Moon, I picked up a guitar and started singing over and over ‘a hundred thousand miles to Le Mans’. We all chanted it for a bit like fans on a terrace, fell asleep, and in the morning drove back to Blighty, a little the worse for wear, but pretty elated at the weekend we'd had.

A few months later I wrote a verse or two about racing to that same annoyingly memorable hook from that Sunday night. The problems was, the lyrics were predictable and a bit crap. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard any songs specifically about racing. They are invariably naff. It just doesn’t seem to work. Here is a valiant effort by the bass player from the great 60s band the Troggs which demonstrates the point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXwDXyxpdkI

NB - For the avoidance of doubt, this is not my song.

Edited by legalknievel on Sunday 12th May 14:47

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Meanwhile I also started to get into the idea of racing and with the encouragement of some of the Porsche guys on PH I bought a 996 GT3 Carrera Cup car. A guy called Karl Leonard helped me find a car being sold by an equally cool guy called Ivo Van Reit over in Holland. Here’s that thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

The idea was to enter Global Endurance Legends (now Endurance Racing Legends) demos and maybe even race properly. I was way out of my depth and having a lot of fun.

Then I saw this video about the drug running racers who won Le Mans outright as privateers in 1979, placed at Indy and bought Road Atlanta (!) before all going to jail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U8Uy_0qFuk

It was time to revisit the song. It was now about the Whittington Brothers, possibly the greatest motorsport buccaneers in history, and their racing and running from the competition and from the Feds.

It started out as a joke for my friends, but because it was a bit better than I expected, I decided to spend an afternoon recording it in the studio. That afternoon became 65 hours and 1500 different takes, and the same again in mixing.

We then went to the Le Mans Classic, and my friend Jack and I threw a party together for friends and the drivers of the category Endurance Racing Legends, along with Jarrah Venables who is the founder of ERL. We also performed it. It was a bit ropey but a lot of fun.

We’ve spent bits of time since, evenings mainly, putting a full on rock tribute to the crazy Whittington Brothers with all of the footage from the club’s cars, Its and Prototypes including the Lark McLaren F1, one of the 2003 Bentley Speed 8s, and the race winning Peugeot prototype. We also threw in the journey footage down there and the gig we did.

It’s now finished, and I think it’s a little bit good. I would love to know what fellow PHers think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IxHGOEKBg4

The ACO are looking at it now apparently, and we’re told it’s not beyond the realms of possibility as to whether we could actually be invited to play it at this year’s race. Frankly I can’t believe something so cool is even possible. I’m just really pleased to have written and recorded a genuine motorsport song that doesn’t blow.

Be kind everyone!

Legal Knievel AKA Joseph

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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I've done a couple of small edits above to improve phrasing. That's kind of been the story of my life with this song for the last year!

Truckosaurus

11,291 posts

284 months

Monday 13th May 2019
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Nice song, is it for sale on iTunes or anything or will we have to shamelessly make bootleg copies for the trip down?

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
Hi mate! In hand and will post it soon! That’s taking a bit of time along with Spotify for some reason! Thanks for the positive feedback!

The song has had another thousand YouTube views and 5000 views on Instagram since I posted this yesterday. It’s all pretty exciting.

Edit for typo.

Edited by legalknievel on Monday 13th May 10:24

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Wednesday 15th May 2019
quotequote all
Truckosaurus said:
Nice song, is it for sale on iTunes or anything or will we have to shamelessly make bootleg copies for the trip down?
Hi Truckosaurus!

Here’s the Le Mans Song iTunes link:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/100k-miles-the-l...

Please share it with any of your Le Mans buddies for the journey and buildup and follow Joey Heizerm on FB and instagram. Let us know how you get on at Le Mans!

I played it live for the Mercedes Classic pre-Mille Miglia party last night and I think we’ll put that up soon.

Magnus Walker enjoyed the song and we hung out afterwards and told me some Eagles stories from the early 2000s.

We were also asked by Walter Rohrl’s last co-pilot to come and play at a rally in Germany this autumn.

I’m really hoping we can play it at this year’s Le Mans. We hope to know for sure next week. We’re now at around 20k views across platforms since last Friday but I think we need a few more to make it convincing!

Thanks again for eencouragement and support.

Joseph

Edited by legalknievel on Wednesday 15th May 08:22

Truckosaurus

11,291 posts

284 months

Wednesday 15th May 2019
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Very good. I shall invest 59p on it when I get home from work.

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Wednesday 15th May 2019
quotequote all
Truckosaurus said:
Very good. I shall invest 59p on it when I get home from work.
You may well be the first! It’s doing about 150 views an hour on YouTube but I don’t think anyone knows about the iTunes except on here!

Thanks!

smile)

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

197 months

Thursday 16th May 2019
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Update: It's now also on Spotify I'm told. 100k Miles (The Le Mans Song).

Youtube is free of course. This is that again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IxHGOEKBg4

Joseph