Racing a D-Type Jaguar at Le Mans has been a dream, oh, since I was a little boy in the Fifties. That dream may exist because it was my ol' Dad's dream as well and, coincidentally, he also was a little boy in the Fifties.
How about a lap with Mike Hawthorne at race speed.
The Mulsanne Corner is shown better in this video than I have ever seen it before. Part of the intrigue of Le Mans the main straight, Mulsanne, may be the longest in the world and, by itself, that's nice but the corker is the Mulsanne Corner at the end of it which Hawthorne advises is a first-gear turn to reverse direction.
Straight-line speed is loud and it's flashy but at Le Mans Hawthorne would hit 180 mph on the Mulsanne Straight, go down to first gear on the Mulsanne Corner, and then go back up to top speed. Then repeat that every lap for the twenty-four hours. Any car which can survive at Le Mans is an Ironman in automobile racing and the D-Type Jag didn't just survive but won it three times.
I did get to Le Mans and I didn't get close enough to the Dunlop Bridge to walk underneath it for that minimal taste of the track but it was still a splendid moment just to be there.
My simple presence at Le Mans was a partial fulfillment of a lifetime dream and it was made all the more sublime by the fact I got there on a 170 cc SVM motor scooter. I could only look humbly to the sky to say, "I hope you saw this one, Kurt."
Watson: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr?
There is no other.
Watson: Kurt Busch, Kurt Waldheim, Kurt ...
Shut up, Watson.
How about a lap with Mike Hawthorne at race speed.
The Mulsanne Corner is shown better in this video than I have ever seen it before. Part of the intrigue of Le Mans the main straight, Mulsanne, may be the longest in the world and, by itself, that's nice but the corker is the Mulsanne Corner at the end of it which Hawthorne advises is a first-gear turn to reverse direction.
Straight-line speed is loud and it's flashy but at Le Mans Hawthorne would hit 180 mph on the Mulsanne Straight, go down to first gear on the Mulsanne Corner, and then go back up to top speed. Then repeat that every lap for the twenty-four hours. Any car which can survive at Le Mans is an Ironman in automobile racing and the D-Type Jag didn't just survive but won it three times.
I did get to Le Mans and I didn't get close enough to the Dunlop Bridge to walk underneath it for that minimal taste of the track but it was still a splendid moment just to be there.
My simple presence at Le Mans was a partial fulfillment of a lifetime dream and it was made all the more sublime by the fact I got there on a 170 cc SVM motor scooter. I could only look humbly to the sky to say, "I hope you saw this one, Kurt."
Watson: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr?
There is no other.
Watson: Kurt Busch, Kurt Waldheim, Kurt ...
Shut up, Watson.
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