Le Mans the movie

[Semi hemi]

Is this not the best petrol head movie or do you know better

[sniff petrol]

Not much of a 'story' though is it? just glorious sights and sounds for an hour and a half.

[Semi hemi]

sniff petrol said:

Not much of a 'story' though is it? just glorious sights and sounds for an hour and a half.

and your prblem with that is

[sniff petrol]

Semi hemi said:

sniff petrol said:

Not much of a 'story' though is it? just glorious sights and sounds for an hour and a half.

and your prblem with that is

Nothing, just something the GF pointed out when we watched it. I'd never noticed it TBH.

[o.versteer]

Semi hemi said:

Is this not the best petrol head movie

It is. It's the complete disregard for anything but the atmosphere and the cars that makes it so great. Any attempt at a story would simply have turned it into a 70's version of Days of Thunder. Who needs a story anyway when you have 917's going sideways through Indianapolis corner? Plus, I think Steve McQueen enjoyed only having to look moody and say very little when not in the car

[Semi hemi]

could have been worse could have been Grand Prix

[dougc]

Semi hemi said:

could have been worse could have been Grand Prix

A fine example of what happens when you try and put a story line to a car movie.

[celticpilgrim]

saw it for the 1st time recently - a neighbour gave me his copy to watch. Bugger the story line - such as it is, just enjoy the movie, and the 2-fingered salute at the end!!!

[Semi hemi]

celticpilgrim said:

saw it for the 1st time recently - a neighbour gave me his copy to watch. Bugger the story line - such as it is, just enjoy the movie, and the 2-fingered salute at the end!!!

thumbupthumbupthumbup:

[skeggysteve]

Semi hemi said:

could have been worse could have been Grand Prix

What do you mean?

Grand Prix is a great film.

Driven is not!

[DBSV8]

skeggysteve said:

Semi hemi said:

could have been worse could have been Grand Prix

What do you mean?

Grand Prix is a great film.

Driven is not!

Both filmed with Petrol head actors
Le Mans Steve McQueen
and Grand Prix James Garner
The Lotus type 22 used by James Garner in the film was up for sale

http://www.race-cars.com/carsold/lotus/1057251778/...

[Asterix]

Le Mans is Ace!

Just love the build up - watched it again recently with the sound turned up rather a lot

[Andy Zarse]

I've attended the last twenty Le Mans 24 hour races, and no matter how much the ACO keep ruinning the track and to a large extent ruinning the atmosphere, watching the rolling thunder start still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

[Eric Mc]

Grand Prix is not perfect but it is still one of the best motor racing films ever made.

Both Grand Prix and Le Mans got to the heart of what it is exciting about motor racing. No other feature films have even come close.

[GBGaffer]

What a coincidence, 'er indoors was away last night so I settled down with a few glasses of wine and Le Mans at full volume on the tv!

[enioldjoe]

I watched that last weekend! And it would appear for the first time too!

I was waiting to see James Garner and Graham Hill do their thing, but soon realised I had got it confused with the other film 'Grand Prix'.

Great opening sequence! That black 911 is just perfect .(Octane did a feature on it recently, iirc.)

Edited by enioldjoe on Sunday 30th March 10:02

[CanAm]

[Anorak mode]Don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but I seem to remember that they used Lotus 27s for their replica F1 cars, as they had 'solid' top wishbones and inboard spring/dampers like the Lotus 33 and the Ferrari and BRM central to the plot. The Lotus 22 said to have been in the film has tubular wishbones and outboard springs.[/Anorak mode]
Like Eric said, despite the feeble story lines and poor acting, still two excellent films.

[Eric Mc]

Yep - they mocked up some Formula 3 cars to look like their F1 counterparts - reasonably convincing up to a point. However, they did intercut footage of the real GPs they attended that year.

If nothing else, GP allows us to have a window into a world that has long since vanished - cinder laid paddocks, advertising draped on hedges, hardly any armco barriers, cars in their national colours, drivers weraing open faced helmets and goggles. Little did they know it at the the time but that traditional form of F1 only had one more season to run.

Edited by Eric Mc on Sunday 30th March 10:24

[Fetchez la vache]

Got out Gumball Rally 3000 the other month to see what it was like...
Don't. What a pile of toss, full of tossers (ETA: where's the swearfilter?).

Mind you the original Cannonball run was on Five last night

Edited by Fetchez la vache on Sunday 30th March 10:25

[CanAm]

The 'real' 1966 season did make things difficult for Frankenheimer, eg when John Surtees walked out on Ferrari so "J Sarti" in the Ferari had to change his helmet colour so that the film footage matched the race footage it was interspersed with.
And vice versa. I'm sure white wouldn't have been Bruce McLaren's first choice of colour for his M2B F1 car if it hadn't fitted in with the film's plot.