The Classic Road to Le Mans - Automobile
Tim and I are headed to Le Mans Classic, the great race for classic sports cars that takes place a couple weeks after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and we’ve brought the 1934 Riley Ulster Imp across the English Channel on a ferry. We’re driving south on the precise route this car took to compete in the race in 1934. We’d hoped that the old N158 route through France to Le Mans would be more like, well, an old road to Le Mans. Real racers don’t carry cars on trailers All this happened last year, because Le Mans Classic only takes place in even-numbered years, yet even now I think that maybe I shouldn’t have talked Tim out of trailering his car. For a dedicated Riley man like my friend Tim Ely, the forthcoming 2014 Le Mans Classic for vintage race cars would be pretty special, and surely, I figured, we should do it up proper. It would be the 80th anniversary of the Riley marque’s proudest moment, when it won the Team Award at the 1934 24 Hours of Le Mans. “C’mon, let’s drive it down to Le Mans,” I told him. “It’ll be just like the factory did in 1934. ” Actually it would be just like British race entrants for Le Mans did for ages following that distant year, as the customary way to get a racing sports car to the track was simply to drive there. Source: www.automobilemag.com
