Friday 31st October 2014

Derek Bell at Le Mans: Time For Tea?

Celebrate the great man's birthday with a superb Porsche 956 onboard

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There should never be any justification required to feature a video of a Group C sportscar or a Le Mans onboard. Given today is Derek Bell's birthday it would have been rude to feature anything else.

Eyes on the prize Derek, eyes on the prize...

This four-minute clip is from the 24 Hours of 1983; the video doesn't state whether it's during the race, part of qualifying or in practice but that doesn't matter. This video is all about speed, the absurd velocities that the old cars reached down the Mulsanne without the chicanes. There isn't a visible speedo but the way everything gets quite blurry is more than enough. It's terrifying in fact.

Then it's very slow for Mulsanne corner, a dab of corrective lock on the way out and off again at warp speed towards Indianapolis. The exit of Arnage is sideways too and the Porsche curves are, you've guessed it, very fast.

There were nine Porsches in the top 10 at Le Mans in 1983. Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx came second behind the other Rothmans 956 of Vern Schuppan, Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert. There isn't any detail on where the Hawaiian Tropic girls finished... Happy birthday Derek!

Watch the video here.

 

[Pics: LAT]

[Dr G]

PHer ukkid35 owns the 928 Derek had about this time; I wonder if any of those girls...

[patmahe]

I've seen that video a few times and the sheer speed, combined with the rate of acceleration even from high speeds is astonishing. Would take balls of steel just to keep your foot buried in a car like that, let alone negotiate corners, traffic, rain, darkness and sunlight for 24 hours. Unbelievable stuff.

[StuntmanMike]

Nice

[Dave Hedgehog]

st your pants fast!

The skill of these guys

[clubsportguy]

Met him a few times and he is a true gent, who is very easy to chat with. Unlike some racing drivers. He owns a 924 GT and Ferrari and drove for them briefly back in the day

[maxypriest]

Almost leisurely gear changes and smoothness – required to keep those cars going for 24hrs! Epic speed. Fantastic.

[UltimaCH]

Those straights are long, long, long,... Impressive!

[tr7v8]

There is another vid called 962 which is Derek Bell driving the 962 around 10 odd circuits in the world including the ring. Absolutely brilliant!

[Claudia Skies]

The guy is a real star.

Few people are aware that he was headed for life as a farmer - studied at Cirencester Agricultural College - before making the transition to racer.

[Dapster]

tr7v8 said:

There is another vid called 962 which is Derek Bell driving the 962 around 10 odd circuits in the world including the ring. Absolutely brilliant!

This one I think? http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-Car-956-Porsche-Experie...

And when you say "vid" it really was a "vid" - I have this on old skool VHS. I used to slip it on surreptitiously when I was supposed to be "working from home". No honestly I did. That's how sad I was...

[tr7v8]

Dapster said:

tr7v8 said:

There is another vid called 962 which is Derek Bell driving the 962 around 10 odd circuits in the world including the ring. Absolutely brilliant!

This one I think? http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-Car-956-Porsche-Experie...

And when you say "vid" it really was a "vid" - I have this on old skool VHS. I used to slip it on surreptitiously when I was supposed to be "working from home". No honestly I did. That's how sad I was...

Yup thats the one! Don't trust to memory it isn't too reliable! Umm DVD maybe I need to replace my VHS copy of it...

[daytona365]

Wow. Just checked the specs. 1714 lbs weight and 635 bhp. Bit of a handful, even for me.

[struttob]

The stuff of legends !! immense speed with less poise than you think they had (exit of Arnage shows that)truly a drivers car. I was on the wall at Mulsanne corner that year signalling for Chamberlain, remember it well.

Bring back that "straight" immense.

Bob

[Turbobanana]

Interesting lead image - shows the 956 in "high wing" / high downforce spec, not the usual "low wing" Le Mans spec which was used for longer circuits to allow higher top speeds.

[Budgies]

Can't beat a little bit of "In car 956". Bought the VHS about 12 years ago...magic. Couldn't help humming some Human League when i took this pic at Le Mans in Sept this year...

Edited by Budgies on Tuesday 4th November 08:19

[corvus]

Love that video. On the straight at 200 mph+ he even has time to reach across and adjust the radio