Le Mans Classic 2010 |
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GALLERY 1GALLERY 2 |
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Le Mans Classic
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Almost in the shadow or the bridge is one of the loveliest of little postage stamp towns, Honfleur which is a nice place to stop off and spend the night to get an early start on the following day ... the harbor is completely surrounded by restaurants and half of them are selling edible food, word to the wise, do not appear on a summer weekend bank holiday, is a _popular_ getaway point for the Parisians ... |
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An early morning arrival on the day of the races and we are set up for nostalgia and everything retro or vintage or period ... |
We've a setup of period movie making equipment, something that might have been used to shoot films such as the rather well known film Le Mans which is one of the few films that manages to get a good 30 minutes into it before the first dialogue is spoken ... and is _very_ popular here as quotes and Steve McQueen memorabilia abound throughout the merchandisers ... |
And where would we be without a representative of the ever-ever-trendy Airstream in aircraft grade aluminum ... |
Well, there is an entire camp layout with many other types of travel trailers you never would have heard of setup as a total period piece, amazingly enough, some of the track goers are actually staying here, I guess that is one way to secure one of the best camp sites in the center of the happenings, just be ready to appear in a great many photographs ... |
However of all the period pieces, my favorite is the travel trailer cooker, a little trailer with everything you would need for a summer vacation camping expedition ... |
Hardly a square milimetre of the area is not covered in period/retro tidbits ... it is hard to get higher camp than this, egregious pun entirely intentional ... |
One of my absolute all-time favorite 'modern' artists is Alexander Calder is well represented to motoring fans .. and this year BMW has shown up with the very famous Art Car. Calder is very well connected to France, having some of his seminal successes in Paris that set his work and friendships for later in life ... to get to see the actual car that ran here in 1975 and gave rise to all the trailing arts cars is a special treat indeed ... |
Of course several of the race cars in the paddocks sport a more representational style of art that is well known to little boys everywhere ... this porsche's back deck is tilted forward as the mechanics are working on it, however this one comes with a twist ... |
Peering behind the hood we find the mechanics in rather compromising positions that are not at all appropriate or consistent with the promises, false advertising indeed! |
Our friends over in the Ferrari paddock are not afraid to make some rather brash statements as well ... |
This being france, in previous years there has been appeals to event-goers to dress 'period', or at least nicely, the young man with the kewpie hat, vest and thick-framed glasses is looking good, as is the darling in the Pucci cling, there are more than a few dramatic sun dresses on display, the lovely lady's hat is only slightly outshone by the dramatic eyeglasses she is wearing ... there is one unforgivable crime appearing this day, roman sandals with scrunched-boot-style tops, call me catty but this is one 'fashion' that cannot go away soon enough, eek! |
Am not entirely sure why the appeal for dressing up when the paddock display for the 1970's cars bearing the Porsche logo reinforces a rather well worn stereotyping ... good thing the bright red fire extinguishers are here in case anyones eloquence gets overheated ... |
If the mostly nude lady is emblematic of the Porsche marque, well, the display producers for the 1950's cars are doing no favours by reinforcing the image about Jaguar ownership ... have to say, having watched the many Jaguars drive in this was not at all the appearance they were giving upon arrival ... |
Back to something I am not sure how to categorize as Kitsch or Camp, but maybe will just have to put down as 'Cute.' There is a history of something called 'Little Big Man(S)' that has historically put kids in motorized replicas of the real motorcars ... |
They really are quite cute, and just about everyone stops as they wend their way through the race vehicles all q'ed up for the next race ... |
You do have to be careful of hitch-hikers though. Actually these appear to be minders leading the kids back to the paddock where the replicas are kept ... awww, spoilsports, shoulda left them out running about ... I want it officially on record, I was abused as a child, I did not have a motorized replica of a Le Mans race car to tool around the old farm stead in Northern California ... |
Abarth has come back in a big way this year, now a sub-brand belonging to Fiat, it appears their sport logo and there are modern Punto's and the super-souped-up Fiat 500's wearing the Abarth logo, as well as more than a few all-out race cars in the racer's paddock ... Am not sure what this vehicle was ever meant to be, but it seems to be a transport being used about the paddocks today ... |
In the red and curvey department is a pair comprising a little Vespa and red bus ... |
Yet another period piece, nothing too dramatic to say about it, just a rather curvey piece to French hardware with li'l chrome bits affixed wherever possible ... |
Out of the track it is getting kitsch-y again. In the early morning before the real races start there is a 'run-what-you-brung' exercise, you can take your street car for a run around the track and they let everything out here, but I am set back a bit to see a VW Camper Van out there, even more surprised to see it rip-snort around the chicanes and over the hill, it may have a normal looking Bus body, but there is something non-stock in the engine bay, and those are porsche Fuchs rims underneath it ..... |
After the street cars it gets darn ridiculous as the period buses that greeted us at the beginning are all loaded up with people and run around the track, this one with a Marsh-Mallow be-suited Michelin man holding onto the rear deck ... |
Lest there be any doubt, I leave you with a small view of the industrial aspect of this undertaking, the sellers of beer are not to be allowed to run out and everyone makes plenty of room for the deliverer of the kegs making the rounds to the different vendor tents ...
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