Le Mans '88" Mulsanne

Even with millions of dollars of high definition cameras, televisions and equipment at their disposal, broadcasts of any race generally fail to capture the essence of being at the actual motor race. They present it like football or baseball, or some other less visceral experience. Auto racing is nothing like those. It is full on sensory overload, with not only the visual element of speed, but the force of cars pushing a wall of air, like a wave slamming into you as they scream past. The auditory experience is also extremely important...no matter how many times you watch footage of a car moving down the Mulsanne at over 200mph, if you're watching on TV, chances are you're hearing the announcer more than the sound of the engines.

This video does away with all that. It's just a camera on the side of the world's most famous straight away, the Mulsanne. In 1988 the Mulsanne was a 3.7 mile journey at full throttle, before they installed the chicanes. This video is low tech and fairly low quality, but it captures the essence of sports car racing, the essence of actually being there. The Group C cars (Porsches, Mazdas, etc) are in top gear, probably north of 200mph as they go past, which is impressive in and of itself, but the sound! Listening to the engine note rumbling throughout the country side, long after the car is out of visual range, you can still hear it. Once you can no longer detect a note, the car is over two miles away, and close to 240mph. But then another comes along and the symphony begins again...



_WRS