Rather than create one long monster liveblog we'll do day-by-day ones instead. You can catch up on
yesterday's action here...
Anyway, welcome here to Friday at Le Mans 2013, where the PH team is gearing up for a number of important activities including Friday Service and a trip into town to see the parade and generally start getting into the mood for a bit of racing. Yes, there is some motorsport going on too apparently...
Stay tuned for updates and give us all a wave if you see us out and about!
Last update: 2045h, still at someone else's party
Keep in touch with us on Twitter at @PistonHeads and by following #PHLM13 for updates from the whole team
Traditionally dawn is announced by the crowing of a cockerel, or perhaps the distant chime of bells. At Camping Bleu Nord it's a Herbert on a mini moto doing burnouts outside your tent at 6am. Such is the 'charm' and 'atmosphere' of camping with your fellow petrolheads...
Anyway, with internet in short supply last night I wasn't able to bring you my update from my first visit to the track but here, in essence, is what I found out.
I went for a bit of an explore on my folding bike, which I'm glad *just* fit inside the Aston because it's a superb way of getting about. What would be a 20-minute schlep on foot is five minutes pedalling and you're there. At Porsche Curves and want to get up to the Dunlop Bridge? Another five minutes, not 15. Brill.
And I actually managed to see some racing cars going round the track. I know, mental!
What to report? The Lotus LMP and Greaves Motorsport Caterham LMP2 sound ANGRY, the Audis look relentless metronomic (surprise...) and the GT cars are cooler than anything else going round. Honestly, the LMP cars are impressive in their pace but I'm much more interested in the 'vettes, Vipers, Ferraris, Porsches and Astons. The Corvettes in particular sound epic, one lap where one came round with an Aston snapping at its heels a little slice of La Sarthe sonic heaven.
Pace? Runners, riders and contenders? Not a clue. But it's good to see some on-track action at least.
1045h, Aston Martin Racing paddock
So Stuart and I headed trackside to do battle with French internet and French bureaucracy. Failing on both, unsurprisingly. The answer? A fortuitous meeting with a contact at Aston Martin and access to their paddock hospitality for a welcome caffeine hit.
Early on the track was eerily quiet, the empty stands and deserted pitlane nonetheless brooding with anticipation of what's to come. I like these stolen moments of calm at big events and the build-up, a bit like the beginning of the McQueen Le Mans film in fact. You know, the half hour of scene setting before anyone even offers a word of dialogue!
Stuart and I stopped by the NISMO FanZone to catch sight of the ZEOD RC unveiling. There was certainly a lot of pumping music 20 minutes before the covers came off but a rather small crowd. It was early though and now the car is out in the open it's sure to get a bit more interest - you can read the full story here. At the polar opposite end of the eco friendliness scale it was good to see the V10 and most definitely not electric, hybrid or tree hugging Viper on their stand. And hear it last night too. Not quite as thunderous as the Corvette but it looks the biz.
I think I've stuffed as many croissants as I can down me before the Aston boys get suspicious too. So time to hop back on my bike and pedal down to Friday Service and join the team there...
Being a host at a party always has its stresses. You sort the venue, you sort the food and drink ... and then you wait for people to turn up. Well, when the PH team arrived at our Friday Service venue we found the entrance blocked with a large mound of earth. And the beer truck hadn't turned up. Poor old Garlick looked stressed. But book them - and borrow a JCB - and they will come and as I write Friday Service is in full effect with a field full of cars, plenty of people in PH T-shirts with beers in their hands. First one free if you're suitably attired and all that.
Harris has turned up too, following editorial protocol by arriving on a Brompton folding bike and full of tales of 170mph scariness in the one-off, £2m Lister he'll be driving in tomorrow's Legends race. On a track he doesn't know. A standalone blog on this from the man himself shortly but he sounds genuinely nervous.
Time for me to go and check out some of the cars though, the beauty of PH being that an F40 can be followed in by a Diablo and an Enzo to join a herd of Atoms and lots of TVRs. All willing to park in a muddy field for the hell of it. Bravo!
1800h, somebody else's party, Le Mans centre ville
So I accepted an invitation from Dunlop to join them for a bite to eat and a grandstand view of the drivers' parade in the centre of Le Mans. Fine. Get on Brompton, follow the tram route into town, locate restaurant, easy. Actually not. I haven't the first clue of the route of the parade in Le Mans but it seems to go everywhere and I was always the wrong side of it. A few jumped fences, some very angry Frenchmen in flouro tabards and eventually I made it. Only the Dunlop party appear less ... resourceful. And are still a way away. So I've gatecrashed the party of, well, everyone else. The SRT guys are here, as are the Corvette team. Wonder if they'll have a fight after a few beers? Probably not, everyone seems far too cheerful for that, though allegiances are very clearly broadcast according to teamwear. I'm also hoping to meet with
Russ Ruedisueli from SRT
, who I met at the New York show a couple of months back and is on his first trip to Le Mans. Nice guy and a proper car geek too so hopefully he makes it through the crowds.
At least I've got a good view. I've just got up from my seat to take a pic and snapped Lotterer, Fassler and Treluyer in a passing ... Horsch? Not sure. Something big, black and from the Auto Union era. I'm sure someone can set me right on that.
Given that the Dunlop party have set aside a fair amount of money behind the bar and they're not here I guess it falls to me to try and put a dent in it...
2045h, still at someone else's party
So I found my SRT guy Russ and, as luck would have it, the amazing Texan couple he mentioned in our chat back at the New York Show - the ones who at the time had 50-odd Vipers. Well, they're now up to 65, according the husband. No, wait, 68 said his wife. Yep, three more about to be delivered while they're here in Le Mans. And they all get driven, she explained. Along with the Lotuses, the Camaros, the pick-ups. She apparently has it all organised with a key board on the wall logging which has been driven and when so she can keep track.
An interesting Q&A with some of the drivers from both Corvette and SRT teams, together with a bit of good-natured banter, booing and whooping from the partisan fans. Cooper MacNeil in the #70 Larbre was saying how he's only done 18 laps of the track full stop, four of those dry. And it's a similar story among many of the other drivers, all expressing similar amazement as Harris at how little experience of the track many get before attacking it in anger. Many are experienced drivers with plenty of hours at Sebring, Daytona and elsewhere under their belts but all seem a little wide-eyed about the challenge here. Jan Lammers followed up with some amazing insights from his era, including his first ever run here in a Gulf liveried 917 - not a bad start - and the sage advice "you can only do one thing here at Le Mans and that's screw it up."
Meanwhile Jonathan Bomarito in the #93 Viper was genuinely chuffed to hear the Vipers have a bit of a popular following here, this being his first time at Le Mans after a few seasons racing Grand Am Mazda RX-8s. Bit of a contrast going from a buzz-saw triple rotary to a thundering V10 but he sounds up for it, team mate Tommy Kendall summing up the Viper's emotional appeal quite nicely at the end of the Q&A. "There are a lot really cool cars here," he said. "But there's only one big sexy." Cue much whooping.
Time now for me to pedal back to Bleu Nord and catch up with the rest of the team. And the 'Beery Danes' camped next door, no doubt...
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