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So,
what did the Tourists want more than anything
in 1996? Yes, sunshine, lots and lots
of it! Not only had we got pretty wet
at Le Mans in '95, but Pierre and I then got
well and truly drowned at the Global GT
Championship round at Silverstone later in
the year. It was
certainly sunny enough when we met up as
usual on Friday, 14th June for our trip to
Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Caen.
After
a standard and uneventful (but sunny!)
crossing, we motored on down through Falaise,
Argentan, Alencon, Mamers, La Ferte-Bernard
and St. Calais, pausing only for a quick cup
of coffee on route. This year our
overnight stop on the Friday night was
actually about 50 miles south of Le
Mans. Chief Tourist Ian had once again
stuck his pin in his Michelin Guide, and had
come up with the Auberge
de la Madeleine
at Vendome. It was to prove to be yet
another inspired choice!
As
you can see from the shot below, there were
only 6 of us in 1996. From left to
right: Jim, Alan, Nick, Ian and Martin at the
front. The one in the green shirt is me
- wearing a tie for the one and only time on
a Le Mans trip! I think for the
first time, there were no Le Mans "newbies"
this year. Sadly, my mate Pierre had to
miss out on Le Mans this year, as he was away
on holiday and couldn't get back in time to
meet up.
Vendome
really is a splendid place and we had time to
do a spot of exploring on Saturday morning
before we packed up and left for our usual
journey to Le Grand Luce, where everyone
apart from me would return to the Hotel
Restaurant Le Cheval Blanc
for some sleep during the night. After
a couple of beers we were back into the cars
again for the final leg of the journey to the
circuit. Boy was it good to arrive in
bright sunshine - not only that, it was
really hot as well, so much so that Martin
and Jim decided to breach the normal rules of
good taste and decorum by putting on their
shorts! I'm not sure that the people of
Le Mans were quite ready for the overwhelming
expanse of lily-white legs!
After
getting into the circuit, it was time for
Ian's mad dash into and along the
tribunes. What I tend to call Ian's
annual "annoy the spectators who took up
their places hours ago" manoeuvre!
But it was an awful sight which greeted us
when we got onto the tribunes. Awful
for me, anyway, as an amateur photographer -
the entire straight had now acquired debris
fencing. The fencing itself wasn't an
overwhelming problem (you can deal with most
of it by using very little depth of field),
but the posts to which the fencing was
attached were much more of a problem.
Gone was that fantastic view along the
straight. More progress for safety (but
then again, it wasn't put up after 1955 so
why 1996?).
Nevertheless,
we managed to get a great spot on the
tribunes just in time for the driver parade.
The
sun was still very much shining on the
righteous and it was a lovely build up to the
race.
As
far as the entry itself was concerned, there
was definitely some quality there.
After the marvelous McLaren debut win in '95,
the F1s were back in force, with entries from
GTC (in those glorious Gulf colours), Bigazzi
(in effect, the works BMW entries), as well
as the return of the West and Harrods
cars. Facing up to the McLarens were
the new Porsche GT1s, a host of Ferrari F40s,
a strong Courage entry and the Daytona and
Sebring winning Riley & Scott.. And
then there were the two TWR Porsches, run by
Joest. Built by TWR based on the XJR14
Jaguar, it had been ordered by Porsche for
the '95 Le Mans but was moth-balled, from
where it was rescued by Joest. A Dark
horse?
But there was something else going on
that weekend in 1996 - football! Now
don't get me wrong, I enjoy football as much
as anyone, but I didn't wait all year to go
to Le Mans and watch England v. Scotland in
Euro '96! So after the start of the
race, the other five Tourists left to go in
search of the Diamondvision screen to watch
the match, while I indulged in two of my
favourite things, watching the race and
eating a merguez!
My
biggest difficulty in compiling the story and
galleries from 1996 is that, for once, I took
quite a lot of reasonable pics! As a
result, there is a special extra gallery of
shots that I took from the Ford
Chicane. Just click on the link below
(or go straight to page 2 for the
continuation of the story).
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