On the road with Mike Hawthorne in the Jaguar D-Type at Le Mans
06/07/2017
We love these old films and one particularly interesting movie recently caught our eye. And with the 24 Hours of Le Mans starting again in around 10 days' time, now is the perfect opportunity to draw attention to this cinematic gem.
The film shows racing driver Mike Hawthorne in a Jaguar D-Type in 1956. However, we are not following the race here, but training drives and, as is well known, the Le Mans circuit is not closed, but is used as a normal country road.
Nevertheless, Hawthorne sits in the racing car, which is equipped with huge cameras.
Mike gets a no less impressive microphone strapped to his chest. In the age of fingerberry-sized onboard cameras, we can only smile.
And then he drives off, weaving between bicycles, scooters and the rest of the traffic, showing us a lap of Le Mans when there was still a really long Hunaudiéres straight and the combinations of bends before the finish were laid out differently to today.
But that's enough advance praise, why don't you take a look at the short film yourself?
So, have we promised too much?
