24 Hours of Nostalgia: A Motoring Celebration at Le Mans Classic

In 2019 the film “Ford v Ferrari” hit the screens, released in several European countries as “Le Mans ’66”.

The film, based on real events, follows the team of racing drivers and engineers sent by Henry Ford II to build a race car that would beat Ferrari in the arena where it was most dominant.

In 1963 Enzo Ferrari held meetings with Ford executives, aiming for a deal that would bring cash into his company - a luxury car maker in financial difficulty. Ferrari killed the move once he realised Ford was after not only the car factory he had founded in 1947, but also his racing team, the basis for everything: Scuderia Ferrari, whose origins go back to 1929. He blew up the deal in a manner that insulted Henry Ford II, who responded by deciding to build a car that would take Ferrari on in the place that mattered most to it: the race track.

The film builds towards the 1966 Le Mans race, which ended with three Ford GT40s crossing the finish line first.

But the 24 Hours of Le Mans never needed that film to become famous. It is commonly counted as one of the three great events in motorsport, alongside the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indy 500; purists add the Monte Carlo Rally.

Time Machine

The 24 Hours of Le Mans carries a rich history, a one-of-a-kind event in which very different kinds of race cars competed: from familiar road cars converted for the track, through “ordinary” racing models, all the way to the truly unique ones - extraordinary in their design and outrageous in their specs and performance.

That long history is why, since 2002, Le Mans Classic has been held every two years. It is a biennial event organised by Peter Auto, which specialises in classic motorsport events - Spa Classic, Imola Classic, target races and rallies across Europe - together with the luxury watchmaker Richard Mille, and in cooperation with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the largest and oldest club of its kind in France, founded in 1906 and the organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from the very beginning.

The event, held three weeks after the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, lets owners of cars that raced there - or of cars with identical specifications - take part in a race of their own. The same section of public road used by the original race is closed for it, so a lap of the classic race is exactly the same length: 13.65 km. In 2023 the original race marked its 100th anniversary, and so the event was held two years in a row.

A personal introduction

I first heard about Le Mans Classic at another, similar event: the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed. My friend Guy Amoudi called me and said: “I get that you’re enjoying Goodwood, but you have to come with me to Le Mans Classic next week.” Guy had already told me he planned to share an old Morgan with a relative in a race at Le Mans - except that during the call another Pagani rolled past me, and I really couldn’t picture myself watching a race of old wooden cars on the smaller Le Mans circuit, the Bugatti track. Later, though, I met a crew that comes to Goodwood every year with two cars that spend most of the year in a museum in the United States. “Isn’t it too much trouble to fly these cars over every year just for the festival?” - “These are the two biggest motoring events in the world,” one of the crew answered, “Goodwood and Le Mans Classic,” and they fall very close together. By that evening I was already sitting down with Google for a chat.

The details that came up included: around 700 historic cars racing on the full circuit, La Sarthe; some 8,000 collector cars on display and on the lawns; an expected 200,000 spectators.

When the Movie Comes to Life

On the flight back from London to Tel Aviv I watched Steve McQueen’s film, “Le Mans 1971”, and 48 hours later I was in France standing in its opening scene: the eastern paddock of the circuit, a Shelby Cobra rolling off a transporter onto the trampled grass, caravans all around me with old race cars beside them and stacks of spare wheels, an ATV towing an unidentified prototype, a Porsche 911 up on stands without wheels, an older gentleman wiping down a beautiful Jaguar D-Type with a cloth; later I would find out he had once won the race itself in a Jaguar XJR-9, His name was Andy Wallace . I walk towards the sound of engines, and there’s a GT40, and another one, and a Ferrari too. At that point I still had no idea how vast the Le Mans site is, but I sorted myself out with a bicycle and managed to reach every possible corner of it. So how vast? It is 3.5 kilometers long.

I am writing this after returning from my third visit to Le Mans Classic, one of 238,000 spectators - I feel enlightened, and I feel compelled to spread the word.

Grids and vintages

Taking part in Le Mans Classic as a competitor is open to anyone who owns a car that raced at Le Mans between 1923 and 1981, or a car of identical specification. The original split is into six classes (“Plateau”) by period; the number of years in each is not the same, and is set by technological turning points as well as by how many cars are available - a relatively newer car is easier to recruit.

The original, main grouping: about 80 cars per class, two drivers in each.

• Plateau 1 — pre-war, cars from 1923–1939: Bugatti T51, Alfa Romeo 8C, Morgan 4/4, Bentley 4.5L and more
• Plateau 2 — 1949–1956: the battles between Ferrari and Jaguar, with Mercedes joining the party
• Plateau 3 — 1957–1961: the golden era of Ferrari, Jaguar and Aston Martin, plus many privateers with small-displacement cars
• Plateau 4 — 1962–1965: Shelby Cobras and GT40s make their presence felt, Porsche stars in the small engine classes with the 904
• Plateau 5 — 1966–1971: Lola T70, Ford GT40, Chevron B19 and Porsche 917 - the era of the monsters
• Plateau 6 — 1972–1981: mostly Porsches of every model, plus BMW’s M cars

A newer grouping, added in 2018, brings three grids of more modern machinery:

• Group C Racing — cars from 1982–1993 built to the prototype regulations, mainly the Porsche 956 and 962, the Jaguar XJR8 and Peugeot’s 908
• Endurance Racing Legends — LMP1 and GT1 cars that raced between 1994 and 2005: Maserati MC12, Bentley Speed 8, Dodge Viper GTS/R and more
• Porsche Classic — 911s only, in every racing version of the model

How the Weekend Unfolds

The event opens on Thursday with a welcome for the competitors, registration and visitor entry, with no track action. Friday brings practice and qualifying sessions, including running in the dark. On Saturday, from morning until midday, the three modern grids race. The main race of the six classic classes is started on Saturday at 16:00 and runs for 24 hours straight; every fifty minutes another grid takes to the track, so that each class gets to race in every part of the day and night. Every car must stop once during the race for a driver change, and even those who choose to drive alone for their 50 minutes have to come in for that stop. The whole thing runs like a conveyor belt: as each race ends, during the cool-down lap, recovery trucks stationed at strategic points around the circuit head out to retrieve broken cars, and the track is ready again during the following race’s warm-up lap. On Sunday morning there is another Group C race, and towards 16:00 the endurance “legends” grid closes the event.

Packed grandstands

Each year two grids are drawn to start their race in the traditional Le Mans style, and those are the moments when the grandstands are filled to capacity. The competing cars are lined up in starting order along the pit wall, the drivers stand facing them from the other side of the track, a marching band passes by and the announcer works up the crowd and fires up the drivers. When the starting horn sounds, the drivers sprint to their cars, fire them up and charge off. This starting method, used in the past, was abolished for safety reasons, not least because many drivers didn’t bother to buckle up and there were cases of serious injury and even death. So at Le Mans Classic the competitors are stopped before the Mulsanne straight, and only once every driver is confirmed to be belted in is the race started again, after a slow lap behind the safety car.

Little Big Mans

The second occasion when the grandstands are full to bursting is the start of the children’s race, Little Big Mans. Sixty kart-sized cars take part, styled after classics - Ferrari 320, Ford GT40, Porsche 917 - powered either by an electric motor or a four-stroke kart engine. They are driven by children aged 7 to 12, dressed in period racing suits. They head out onto the track escorted by moustachioed gendarmes, some cars carrying two children; demand is high. And as in the classic start, here too the cars are on one side and the children run from the other side of the track when the horn sounds - and sometimes because one of them started running by mistake. About ten of them fail to get away for one mechanical reason or another, and it is a common sight to see, at the back of the field, a father pushing his son’s car to the cheers of the crowd. Either way, the children’s race ends after the first corner.

For the whole family

Le Mans Classic is an event for the whole family. Most visitors are grown-up car enthusiasts, but you can spot plenty of families in the crowd and a fair number of women too. Across the four days of the motoring festival you can walk along the trackside inside the Bugatti complex and pick a different vantage point each time - whether it is the thrilling night-time sight of glowing brakes at the Tertre Rouge corner, or a seat in the grandstand overlooking the Dunlop bridge. In between you can wander among the hundreds of car club vehicles displayed inside the complex and along the unused section of the track: Alfa, Peugeot, Porsche, Lotus - I never imagined you could see so many 911s in one gathering. Along the way there are dozens of food, drink and ice cream stands. Most of them are in the central complex, which also has an enormous restaurant and no end of merchandise stalls - from keyrings, shirts and caps to wheels and spare parts. Next to the restaurant is an open-air pub that is really one giant party that never ends, with a rotation of DJs through the evening. Nearby is an area of manufacturer pavilions showing off a new concept or racing legends, and then a small stage hosting local rock bands with sixties music and outfits, backed by dancers dressed in the spirit of the era. For those tired of walking, a fleet of 20 Volkswagen T1s serves as shuttles, carrying visitors between fixed stops around the site in exchange for a smile. The competing drivers get a VIP shuttle in the form of a nostalgic green military command vehicle.

The heart of it

The most interesting area is the paddock, where the competing cars are parked, and each of the six grids has a yard of its own. It is worth getting tickets that grant paddock access, where you can see the cars up close, take photos and exchange a few words with the mechanics working on them. The paddock for the three additional grids sits relatively far away, next to the karting track, but it is open to everyone. Every fifty minutes a convoy of cars leaves the paddock for the assembly area ahead of its race, so you can see them from very close up - a good chance to swap a few words with the drivers, some of them genuinely famous names who raced at Le Mans, like Formula 1 driver René Arnoux, or Emanuele Pirro, who won at Le Mans four times (!). This year the race was flagged away with the tricolore by former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa.

Logistics at Le Mans

In the evening you discover there is a huge stage in the parking area, and alongside the endless beer-and-chips party there is a major concert by well-known French artists I have never heard of. There is no shortage of options: one person is hunting for spark plugs and trying to get his car ready for the next session, another is sitting on a terrace listening to the commentator and watching the glowing brakes, a third is karting with friends on the on-site track, and another is at a live show in the park.

A little after midnight it starts to rain. July, summer, rain - that’s Le Mans for you. I decide a brief break in the rain is a good moment to pedal back to the Airbnb I rented. Accommodation options at Le Mans are varied and some are quite expensive. Many spectators arrive with caravans, which can be parked in a lot inside the complex overlooking the track, in a lot just outside it, or in a more distant one; it’s a question of budget. Some pitch a tent next to their car in a dedicated lot, and you can book a simple tent, a glamping tent, a cabin “pod” or a caravan in advance - these too can be found inside the complex, next to it, or by the Arnage corner, where you can watch the action on track but need a bus to reach the event site. The hotels in town are fully booked a year in advance and prices are sky-high.

For the rest of the year the La Sarthe circuit is inactive and most of it belongs to the public road network; by five o’clock on Sunday the roads are open to traffic again. You can then drive the line of the circuit and get a rough sense of what it is like, and it is very strange to see coloured kerbs and gravel run-off areas along a public road.

Some of the houses beside the track cannot be reached by private car while the circuit is live, and the track’s effect on daily life is plain to see. In the yard of the house next to the Indianapolis corner, concrete blocks are permanently stored, serving as a barrier for the road leading to it. The town of Le Mans is home to a great many specialists and boutique builders of race cars and spare parts. Inside the circuit there is a Porsche driving centre and a training facility for the security services. Right by the main entrance is a museum with a permanent display of cars and artefacts from the circuit’s racing history. And a short wander through one of the public car parks near the track turns up motoring gems that would not embarrass a car show of their own.

Photos: Yaron Tayar