Tuesday 10th June 2014

Le Mans on the street: Time For Tea?

A trio of Japanese Le Mans fanatics indulge in their classic racers ... on the street

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Normally you'd dismiss Sparco racing gloves for a city centre pootle in your supercar as something of pretentious affectation. We'll forgive 'Mr A' in this video on the basis that his Jaguar XJ220 is actually a racing car with genuine Le Mans provenance. Even if he is just pottering around downtown Hiroshima.

And his pal with the Rothmans liveried Schuppan street legal 962? We've met before, in this very slot. Add in another obsessive owner with a Mazda 767B, again with genuine Le Mans history, and you've got a fairly amazing trio of cars all regularly driven and with owners keen to share the experience with as many as possible. Not sure we'd stand quite that close to a 767B on an acceleration run - the noise alone would be uncomfortable - but as a way of accompanying your afternoon brew and getting you in the mood for a certain 24-hour race later this week it's an excellent appetiser. Thanks to PHer David Gaunt for bringing it to our attention.

Enjoy!

[Source: Japanmotorhead, via YouTube]  

[V8KSN]

[caraddict]

Seen it before, one of my favorite clips on YouTube. Love those owners!!

In case you've missed it, this is also an awesome clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51VJgvZ7Hxg

[Baryonyx]

That Jaguar, and that Mazda, just stunning!

[11110111]

stunning

[Chris Y]

Great stuff.

[anonymous-user]

The funny thing about the Porsche and Jag, is that they both make more sense to use on the road than a P1. 300+ less horsepower and I think the P1 probably produces more down force.

[naveedgt]

RenOHH said:

The funny thing about the Porsche and Jag, is that they both make more sense to use on the road than a P1. 300+ less horsepower and I think the P1 probably produces more down force.

Not sure about the Jag but the Porsche produces close to twice as much downforce as the P1 at around 150mph

[Leggy]

In black that Jag looks the dogs.

[Chicane-UK]

Can't imagine enjoying those cars, with that sort of chassis and engine setup, on public roads - it must be in a totally different world. So good to see these cars being USED and not collecting dust in a museum

[sideways man]

Amazing cars,great video,poor sound editing.
Who wants to hear music when you have a mazda rotary race engine- not me!

I was at Le Mans the year mazda won. Boy are they loud,watching on the start/finish straight,where there are grandstands either side of the circuit,was painful even with earplugs!

[DiscoColin]

RenOHH said:

The funny thing about the Porsche and Jag, is that they both make more sense to use on the road than a P1. 300+ less horsepower and I think the P1 probably produces more down force.

The 956 - predecessor of the 962 - still holds that 6:11.13 Nurburgring lap record. The P1 is good, but it is ultimately still a road car on road tyres without full underbody ground effect...

The Mazda in the video looks and sounds glorious, but being over 6' tall I somewhat suspect that driving it would be the exclusive preserve of people at the shorter end of racing driver sized... ?

[Pommygranite]

Money doesnt make you happy. Apparently.

[BBL-Sean]

Pommygranite said:

Money doesnt make you happy. Apparently.

True. But I believe I would rather cry in the solitude of my own Le Mans car instead of on a crowded city bus.

[Pommygranite]

BBL-Sean said:

Pommygranite said:

Money doesnt make you happy. Apparently.

True. But I believe I would rather cry in the solitude of my own Le Mans car instead of on a crowded city bus.

I was being sarcastic

[F1GTRUeno]

Leggy said:

In black that Jag looks the dogs.

Should probably tell the owner to change it from dark green then.

Anyway, I'm sure when I was looking into things a while back that the Porsche is a Schuppan 962. Was once a 962CR that looked like this:



Nice to see the Jag (well, both) being used, will probably benefit from it. Would be nice if the owner put it back in it's Le Mans livery. Jag own one of the other ones but I've no idea about the last chassis of the three from 1993.

Edited by F1GTRUeno on Wednesday 11th June 00:19

[Hitch78]

The view from inside that Porsche is epic. Well done boys.

[apgreco]

Japan is one of the few countries in the world with near perfect road surfaces to drive these cars on - imagine trying to use them on our pathetically potholed and rutted tarmac!

[Dr S]

Glorious!

[LaurasOtherHalf]

I can't remember what is the most impressive mechanical sound I've ever heard, the Mazda at full chat or the Vulcan bomber going vertical!

Both seen at goodwood festival of speed

[T1berious]

Just watched that twice.

Just awesome. Time to get a track car and a trailer.....