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So here we are at Le Mans testing and it is day two. The sun is still burning bright and no sign of rain yet. No sign of much happening either! There is rain on the horizon for Sunday. We have to concede that things have yet to reach a fever pitch of activity and tension, far from it! There was a flurry of excitement at about 10:00hrs when we heard an engine start... it was a Nissan we believe.. then at around 10:25hrs we heard, maybe the same engine, rev up to what we guess was perhaps a staggering 1,500 rpm.. Wow!
Another major media event is the revealing of the ‘new’ Audi colour scheme. This really is exciting ( ahem!) because we wonder if they re-sprayed the cars overnight and if they will look dramatically different or are they same colours we saw when the cars were unloaded.. our team of happy snappers are poised to pounce. (we also have a Dulux pantone chart handy to check this out.) OK .. they are back.. looking at the car sideways on #3 Audi America car is silver on top and black underneath, #1 and #2 are the factory cars are the other way round with black on top and silver underneath , a bit like the original 1999 coupé.
Even better news is that the coffee machine is working to day and the fluid that emerges is at least making a nodding acquaintance with maybe as many as one coffee bean.. so things are progressing.
Watching scrutineering .. bearing in mind some people have paid €10 ( about 2.5 pints or local beer) to watch the ‘drama unfold’ they could have made it a bit more thrilling. Maybe set it to music.. on ice ...with Torville and Dean assisted by Jack Dee telling jokes?
About the only car that is missing is the #49 LMP2 Oak Racing Pescarolo Judd , we assume this was the car that spontaneously combusted in Oak's Technoparc workshops. We wish the unlucky mechanic who got 2nd degree burns a speedy recovery. The #75 Porsche was never going to be here . It will need to be rebuilt or completely replaced after the Le Castellet start line chaos. About all that survived was an ash tray and a couple of wheel nuts. It seems that Porsche was the only car written off in the accident.
Up until last week it was rumoured that the Peugeot Hybrid might have put in an appearance.. it hasn’t. So being a wee bit cynical we do wonder if this was a PR driven gesture to the green lobby or maybe a chance to see how other Hybrids are performing before their own car breaks cover.
The build-up goes on with various rather contrived photo opportunities up and down the pit lane as the teams gather their publicity shots ..
So we need to sign off now,, we have discovered that all the bars in Arnage seem to grind to an unseemly halt rather earlier than back home in ‘Blighty’ ... so if you will excuse us we are off !!
JS
