For those who like a bit of Motorsport, this is a real blast from the past. Probably best avoided if you have an interest in health and safety.
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Saw one coming up the M20 near Ashford a few years ago. 
Can you imagine todsy sending out a full race car amongst a bunch of Renault Dauphines and cyclists? Happy days 
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When motorsport was motorsport.
I remember being flat out on the Mulsanne straight in the early eighties in a Hertz FIAT Panda (or equivalent, as they say). I’m sure I touched 110kph at times.
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Missionary position 
Frightening. It didn’t seem safe strapping all that metal to his chest when he started but I suppose if he hit anything it really wouldn’t have mattered. Has anyone been to the 24 Heures du Mans? I’m thinking of trying to go while I can still walk around. I grew up in Daytona and saw a lot of racing there when I was a kid before it went viral. I think I probably saw 4 or 5 24 hour races there, once working in a pit crew. I sold newspapers in '67 and witnessed Ferrari finishing primo, secondo, terzo…
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One summer my daughter drove to France to visit us bringing our two young teenage grandsons. They came via Caen and insisted that, on the journey south, they travelled via Le Mans so they could go down the Mulsanne straight.
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The Mulsanne Straight is the Mulsanne Kinky these days 
Edited to add: I was lucky enough to do some parade laps of the entire circuit as part of the Le Mans classic one year. Driving down the Mulsanne Straight I was reliving the text of a novel (ostensibly by Mike Hawthorn) I 'd read as a young child!
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Likewise of the same era a book by Douglas Hamilton describing the events of that time. It was a pre first edition with just a brown paper cover but a wonderful read.
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Over the years, with our pals from UK, Paris and elsewhere… we’ve visited most car orientated parts of France… and I’ve held my breath/closed my eyes as we’ve “hurtled” round the track etc…
thanks for the video @JohnH … brings back so many wonderful memories
I’ve been 37 times, first in 1981and last in 2024, it has become really hard to get tickets which is why I missed last this year, plus it has lost quite a bit of it’s special French charm (for me) in recent years as it has become more like F1 in its organisation
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Yes indeed …
I had the pleasure of working on a “Laser and Giant Projection” show,
all through the night, for both the 1976 & 1977 editions …
I think you can see our huge ( for the time) screen in the 1977 poster …
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When motorsport was motorsport, and not just a revenue generating circus.
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That’s one of the reasons I do regularity rallying - it’s just like the RAC Rally was in the 60s/early 70s
We’ve entered September’s Classic Marathon, a recreation of the famous marathons of the 50/60s. Hero Era’s event is Geneva to Biarritz, via every conceivable alpine road, including some of the Le Tour Cols, similar Pyrenean roads, and of course the famous Monte Carlo roads.
For anyone interested in old cars check
And if the Saab 96V4 survives that we are seriously considering
next January/February’s Monte Carlo Historique .
The rally attracts around 250 entries from around the world, with various European start points before converging at Valence and then into the days and nights of the rally proper
The furthest away start location for 2026 is John o Groats. 100 years ago that was one of the starting points for the world’s oldest rally. And, driving a big old open topped tourer an English driver, who started in the north of Scotland , actually won the rally outright.
So if the Saab manages the Alps, Auvergne, Pyrenees etc in September we may be heading north.
And this year the organisers have decided to make the rally more like those in the 60/70s and all competitive regularity sections will be on closed public roads (with crash helmets compulsory!)
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