[s-cars] RE: Le Mans Classic - have I been to heaven ?

Wed Sep 25 12:26:55 EDT 2002

Hi,

With such report, I bet you have pissed off half the list !!!!
Anyway I should start to prepare an S-Internationnal Meeting in 2004 at Le
Mans !!!

It was definitely an outstanding WE. Thanks for coming all the way from
North Europe.

Regards,
Frederic

PS:
You could not resist to mention the oil part for my V8 !!!!!
You forgot to mention this guy who did not believe that you could get 400+
HP from your engine because of size of the injectors !!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: joeamund [mailto:joeamund at online.no]
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 7:26 PM
To: Frederic L'Huillier; Keith Maddock; s-car-list
Cc: tsaltino at ups.com
Subject: Le Mans Classic - have I been to heaven ?

So I'm finally back at work sobering up, and will try to share some of the
insane experiences on my 1000mile(one way) trip to France and the Le Mans
Classic 2002.

Left the oilplatform in Denmark on wednesday and first stop was MOVIT brake
factory in south Germany close to the French border. I picked up my custom
made rear rotors 322x28mm GT3 which is going together with big reds(993) and

RS2 handbrakesystem for the rear installation. According to the owner(Guido)

they had problems with the deliveries from Brembo and with Porsche twisting
their prices, and MOVIT was almost finished with  two new brake systems.
342x34mm(will fit 17") and 370x34mm, both sets with their own design new
monoblock caliper manufactured in Germany. As soon as I have the rear brakes

installed I will post a separat "how to" on the list.

Then off to Paris, and I can only agree with Keith, the Paris traffic  is
INSANE. I arrived @1400hrs and was actually frightened for my car, got lost
in
the traffic and parked it. I was waiting in the car until Jean took his
pearl
S4(Frederic's old car) found me and guided me to Freds office building at a
speed only worthy Michael Schumacher. Finally there, it was nice to meet Tom

Saltino and Keith Maddock and we found the tone at once. Good for me  to
have
some english speaking persons, since my french is zero, and we got real
technical by the time. Very nice guys.No offence Fred, buth the French do
not
like  to speak or learn the English language at all, which is a pity.

We then left Paris(after topping the V8's up with oil...) with two blue
S6+(Tom taking one) and a wide body avant with Keith and myself on the
highway
not caring for the 130km/h(81 mph) speed limit at all. At some time we hit
270km/h+(170mph- I just had to smoke the S6+)  but was "cooled down" by a
local traffic police moving into the tree lane highway from side to side.
Finally we arrived Le Mans and met Norbert who was setting up the Audi-tent
with a beautiful white URQ-84 model completely restored, and the famous
winner
of 2001 Le Mans Audi R8 which came from the Audi Museum in Ingolstadt on a
trailer. I have to give the French Audi Club credit for beeing well
connected
when they get two Audi Museum employes to drive the car to the stand,
Impressive..........

Then after a good night sleep on a  small charming hotel in the countryside
we
were ready for the "cristmas day" on saturday morning. The french left
@0800hrs,  while a lazy norwegian and two americans left @1000hrs but found
the track and the right entrance easily.

And what a day it became, seeing as many beatiful cars at the club stands as
I
have ever seen at one place. I counted more thar 200 Porsches, some 80
Ferarris, Lamborgini Diablos, and then the race cars with 427 AC Cobras, 67
L88 Corvette, 69 L88 Corvette,Ford GT350 Mustangs, Ford GT40 with the
302Boss
engines,Porsche 917 with 12 sylinders and 1200 hp all in the race shape they

had when they competed some 20 years ago most of them owned by private
collectors.

At some point Frederic is poor on information to his friends letting out
only
bits by bits, and by a coincidence we found out that they was actually
letting
the cars from the clubs on the big 14 km track for a charge of 100 Euros for

the first time in the Le Mans history . By god, its probably the best money
I
ever spendt in my life so far. Keith,Tom and myself got in the black beast
and
sneaked out a little ahead of the french Audis. This gave us company as
Porsche GT3's, Ferrari F355-F55, GT40's,AC cobras, Corvettes ,Shelbys and
some
English cars.

So with Keith in the front passenger seat with my video-camera, and Tom in
the
back we were let out on the track some 40-50 cars at the same time. No
instructions, no helmets, no "windows up", no seatbelts,  just the plain
"french way of driving". What at least I thought should be a parade,
developed
to be a full race between my black beast, a Porsche GT3 and a F55 Ferrari,
and
everybody on the track just "floored it".

 At the Moulsanne(?) straight we hit more than 160mph with Tom hanging out
of
the rear right window with his upper body and with his video-camera shooting

both forward and backwards. Actually we were hanging up with the Porsche and

the Ferrarri, and some comment from the americans like-"overhauled by a
station car " and so on. My white shirt on a hanger on the left rear door,
halfway out of the window as a big flag, and Keith trying to shoot some good

videos from the front and at the same time trying to save my clothes from
beeing sucked out of the car. I can not in words describe the craziness that

was on the  track. I'we watched my video again and again and again, and I
will
make a copy for both Fred,Keith and Tom as Tom promised he would do with
his.

I had a long distance to drive back home again, and left early sunday
afternoon trying to avoid  the heavy traffic and headed for Ingolstadt and
MTM. My intentions were to buy some parts for some friends, check to see if
I
could buy a MTM intake for Toms RS2  and  discuss the SQ-4000 rpm cut off of

Norbert's car and a possible HP-upgrade of my car, but unfortunately as I
crossed the German border close to Kaiserlautern the right front wheel lost
some of its rubber.

 I had some vibrations at various speeds the previous days but thought it
was
some balance weights, but at this time it was serious. Good thing it did not

happen at the track................ I barely got to a hotel and used most of

monday to get a new tire. The Avon ZZ 265/35-18 is not easy to find, and
next
year I'm going back to Michelin Sports again although its a bit noisier but
superb at the track. I then lost the opportunity to reach MTM, too bad.

But before I got to Germany, just outside Paris I was overhauled by a
certain
red Ferrarri  and he was gesticulating wildly for me to stop and I did. His
first comment was" My god its a stationcar, and you actually hang on to my
Ferrari. Can I test it?" So we swapped cars for some kilometers and I was
another experience richer. I looked quite handsome in that red car Fred!

As you all can understand it was an incredible weekend, and I wish to thank
Frederic,Norbert,Tom,Keith and all the other making this an unforgettable,
once in a lifetime opportunity. Those  of you with a long vacation horizont,

prepare for the 2004 event, I will be there if I am still
alive.................

Best regards, Joern MTM RS