Ongoing works at Le mans

[Ferrari Spider]

Also, some very good photgraphs of the development works here.  http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/dossiers/travaux/index.html

[Gilles]

Last week the ACO laid 1000 tons of tarmac for the new Dunlop chicane in Artic conditions.  They're still doing the tram tunnel.  They've dug up 60,000 cubic meters of muck, most of which has gone to the Red Hillock viewing area - any clues where that is?

Red Hillock Viewing Area... typical of automatic translation... it's just Tertre Rouge hill they set up for a better viewing, probably outside the corner, next the entrance, but havn't check yet...

[Lorry]

Spot on - "ŕ l'intérieur du virage du Tertre Rouge."
So there could be a decent viewing area there now (the ground was always a little low) or this is for the stadium. 

Is there still an underpass there?  I think there used to be a Dunlop bridge years ago.

I was thinking of the hill going up to the Dunlop grandstand, where the mud/dust is unbelievably red. 

[BigH]

Just browsing through the pix of the ongoing work at the circuit, it seems to me they'll be making a hell of a mess of the surface. Some of it will be just chewed up and need relaying, as well as a lot of new areas where the earths been moving.
I remember after the ACO butchered the Dunlop hill, nearly all of the drivers had a good old moan about the change of surface where the new track met the old. It seems to me it's going to be worse this time round, the teams will want to make sure they have a good dentist in the crew I reckon. I'm no driveway layer, but I would imagine that close to zero temperatures aren't exactly ideal for rolling hot ashphalt either.
It'll be another excuse for bits dropping off the zytek I suppose.
H

[Fax]

If you think the car guys will bitch about the surface changes, wait until the bikers come across it!  At Mid-Ohio they had to lay down cement patches at the apex of the corners where the CART Champ Cars buckled the tarmac, and every year the bikers go ape-sh*t about having to run over those.
Fax

[Ferrari Spider]

agreed, but surely it couldn't be any more difficult/worse than the public sections of the "track"  The Mulsanne straight (N138) has juggernauts trundling over it all day long and they do a good job of chewing it up, just a thought.

[Nordic]

I am guessing that the track work is complete?

There is a motorbike meeting there this week end so unless its motorX we should get to see how the revised/f**ked up track layout works.

[Robspot]

Now I'm no expert but racing on gravel seems a little dangerous to me.

[Bob U]

Bastards. That grandstand is now one hell of a distance from the track.  Another nail in the coffin of the paying fan 

[jpchenet]

I wonder if Dunlop will be sponsoring binoculars for the people in the Grandstand so they might be able to see the cars in the distance?

I'd be pretty hacked off if I'd paid €80 for a seat in there!

[rcutler]

The grandstand will face the cars coming round the chicane. I would guess that you would be as close as you normally were.

[Bob U]

They will be in view a lot longer too, given that their speed through the chicane wiil probably be 30% less than in previous years.

[Ferrari Spider]

The grandstand will face the cars coming round the chicane. I would guess that you would be as close as you normally were.

Rick, look at the ACO page here and you will see the amount the track has been moved away from the grandstand.

http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/dossiers/travaux/index_gb.html

and a couple of befre and afters.

[Brushy]

l hope the tractor isn't a part of a French farmers blockade

[jpchenet]

l hope the tractor isn't a part of a French farmers blockade

You've heard of Racing for Holland, and Drinking for Holland, well...the tractor is the Farming for Holland entry