No one is too small (at Le Mans) to be a great!
07/13/2016
The Rolex clock reads 3 p.m., the heat is bearing down on the Sarthe and nerves are on edge - not so much for the drivers, but much more for the fathers. The children are having fun and finally want to drive.
If everything fits and hopefully the car will run, the fathers will take care of every little detail and sweat a lot more in their T-shirts than their overalls-clad offspring. That too is Le Mans, at least the little Le Mans.
The cars come in a wide variety of shapes, but are always clearly recognizable, powered by a small kart engine and lined up in style for the Le Mans start.
Once again, the father makes sure that the car is positioned at the right angle.
Then the son is properly dressed and finally a fist bump according to the motto: "Knock yourself out!"
It's about nothing, nothing at all, except a great show for the well over 100,000 spectators in the grandstands. Of course, the race does not cover the 13.6 km, but only just up to the Dunlop arch. With a reduced speed of perhaps 25 km/h, even the kids would probably fall asleep on the Hunaudières straight.
To impress and really show off the speed, all the mounted GoPro onboard cameras were probably switched to time-lapse.
There were no seat tests and not every car fits the driver. If some are still too small, others are already too big. While the little Jochen Rindt in the 250 LM still looks through the steering wheel at the road, the 911 driver can no longer get his legs into the cockpit.
Around 80 of these beautifully crafted cars were on the starting line at the Le Mans Classic 2016 and just looking at them made you want to drive them yourself.
The wonderful pictures can of course also be found in large format in our photo archive .
