24 Hours of Le Mans

[4th]

... or one of the few real automobile races left, starts at 8:00 this morning

 

[l00p]

Nice, thanks for the heads up. I would guess on Speed but I will go check.

 

[l00p]

This is really cool stuff, thanks again! Real racing.

 

[mandingo]

Patrick Dempsey...lucky mfer.

LeMans, like Sebring, but esp LeMans, is so cool to watch because of all the technical, logistical, emotional, physical and other challenges presented by racing for 24 hours through the night, through whatever weather, and so on. Incredibly interesting. I've been watching for hours, and don't plan to stop any time soon.

This stuff is riveting.

 

[l00p]

yup, me too. What are those things called where they go left, then right, then left again?

 

[mandingo]

Chicanes?

 

[l00p]

What about 'em? You don't agree with them?

I cannot stop watching. I pressed record in case I fall asleep watching. This may be my favorite televised race. If they actually had Rally on that would maybe change but this is such an awesome spectacle.

So much can and does go wrong.

 

[mandingo]

No. I thought you were asking...

 

[l00p]

Ha, now I get it. No, I was referring to turns in general. As in, not just left turns!

 

[mandingo]

Yeah, these cars & their drivers are ambidextrous.

More than twice the fun!

 

[mandingo]

BTW, I dvr'd the last 9 hrs, & I'm still watching..............................................................................>>>>>>>>>

 

[mandingo]

Man, when they play the video of that Mercedes going airborne in 99, that's just unreal.. Lucky he didn't hit a tree or pole, or land on his top.

 

[mandingo]

Oh, and re: rally, I miss WRC on SPEED.

They show it on ESPN Int'l. I saw it in '08 in Mexico. Same coverage we used to get on SPEED.

 

[accuratehorn]

The Mulsanne straightaway is three miles long. That's brutal on an engine, yet they know how to make almost all of them survive for 24 hours, which is amazing to me. That is one of the premiere auto races in the world for me.
Can you imagine racing through the long night, coming up on slower class cars hundreds or thousands of times, seeing that big ferris wheel in the infield lap after lap, trying to stay focused for that long a period of time. Then there's the logistics of preparing to keep the cars running-all the spare parts, and designing components so they can be repaired in a reasonble amount of time during the race.