There will be THREE Matra's at Le Mans

[Anders Dinsen]

There will be THREE Matra's at Le Mans this year, according to this at LeMans.org:
http://www.lemans.org/en/news/matra-victories-celebrated-at-le-mans_6234.html

2012 is - if you missed it! - the 40'th anniversary for Matra's first win at Le Mans with Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill (Matra won 3 times: '72, '73, and '74). Henri is Mr Le Mans. Oh, no, that's Tom K. But Henri is the grandfather of Le Mans: He barely survived the '69 crash of the Matra 640 prototype during testing, and has raced more on Le Mans than anyone else. He still runs his Pescarolo racing team - this year with two cars: A new car built over the chassis of the horrible Aston Martin AMR-One (that was apparantly the only good part of that car, oh the gearbox was ok too) and a Japanese Dome racer out to show that it it's faster than Toyota in qualifying (there's an internal Japanese battle over pride going on there!).

And Pesca will apparantly play a significant part in this.

The french fans will miss Peugeot for the 2012 Le Mans. They will be crying! We will too: Audi is running 4 cars against newcomer Toyota: It will only be a question about how many Audis will survive collisions with Ferraris and whether the hybrid systems on two of the cars will work all 24 hours. Technically interesting, but...

But then we will have those 3 Matras with their V12. I can't wait!

[Jon Weywadt]

Hej Anders.
Det lyder spændende. Jeg vil se om det er muligt for mig at tage med til Le Mans i år.
I øvrigt fandt jeg mit gamle Tamaya Matra MS11 byggesæt oppe på loftet hos min far. Det er næsten bygget færdigt, men trænger til lidt restaurering. En skam at Murenaen ikke findes i den skala.
Mvh. Jon.

[Anders Dinsen]

Hej Jon, det lyder super, hvis du vil med. Ring når du ved om du kan!

/Anders

[Anders Dinsen]

Seeing and hearing the Matras was fantastic! Two of them first rolled out on the track on Thursday evening. We were bbq'ing, but heard something that didn't sound like anything we had heard before! I rushed to the track and caught the two cars lapping the second time on video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9-e3EeCCww

The big run was on Saturday. Here's a flickr album with a few photos from that and from the cars on display in the Le Mans village:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62832941@N05/sets/72157630211736424/with/7409659950/

This Youtube video was recorded in the Esses on Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Trg_WlW9M
 

[Jon Weywadt]

Seeing and hearing the Matras was fantastic! Two of them first rolled out on the track on Thursday evening. We were bbq'ing, but heard something that didn't sound like anything we had heard before! I rushed to the track and caught the two cars lapping the second time on video:
v=m2Trg_WlW9M
 

Hi Anders. It gives me chills to see and HEAR those Matras again.
If I didn't believe I was actually there, you have provided proof. I am wearing my NASA cap and sound protectors in the video. 

[Anders Dinsen]

Oh yes, both you and Hans were there

Here, admiring the wonderful Bagheera U8 at the Museum in Romoratin!

[klumzer]

Nice. It could be a good weekend.

One of my plans for the future is to visit the museum in Romoratin. Maybe next summer...

[Anders Dinsen]

There has just been an onboard video posted with Henri Pescarolo from Le Mans:

http://www.lemans.org/en/races/24h/update/video-henri-pescarolo-rediscovers-matra_8154.html