All,
Here is an sccounting of Claude Dubois' adventures in the Le Mans "Mule" of
new owner Chris Gruys last weekend at the second running of the Le Mans
Classic. If you recall Claude drove the #8 Le Mans Tiger in '64 and has a
fascinating history himself in motorsports.
AND ( !!! ) unlike two years ago at the inaugural LMC event, all Sunbeams
finished the event! (...the LM Tiger "mule", the #8 LM Tiger and the Le Mans
Alpine of Keith Hampson.)
Enjoy the read !
Darrell
LE MANS CLASSIC REPORT. (Chris Gruys and Claude Dubois LMC venture with the
1964 racing Sunbeam Tiger). July 23/25th,2004.
Back in Provence after a very good week end at Le Mans , I send a quick report
to my
friends.
The LMC is a huge organisation, over 350 period race cars are participating
and about
800 licensed pilots had to be checked by the organizers...it must be quite a
task to set up
such a big event, in fact it is certainly more complicated than organizing the
real 24 hours,where only 50 or 60 cars are involved.
The organisation in itself was extremely good. Only some details could be
corrected(for me it was a mistake on my name, and I was called Rosemary Smith
during the first twenty hours of the race.).
The event itself took 24 hours, but involve 18 races of 45 minutes : 3 races
per "plateau",and there is 6 "plateau" : 1. Cars from 1923 to 1939 2.1949 to
1956 3.1957 to 1961
4.1962 to 1965 5.1966 to 1971 and 6.1972 to 1978.
This to avoid, naturally , a BNC of 1929 with a 1.O91 cc engine and a top
speed of probably
70 ph (112 km/h) to run in the same race as a Porsche 936 that goes probably
well over
200 mph(320 km/h)...
The drivers are very mixed-up and one can find great experienced period
drivers like Patrick Tambay or Bob Bondurant ,some very good professional
current young drivers like Chris Beighton(on my Le Mans 1964 works Sunbeam
Tiger),some rather fast gentlemen drivers like Hans Hugenoltz on his GT40, but
also many unexperienced amateurs.
This was a concern for me , because the owner of the Sunbeam Tiger(the Le Mans
1964 reserve and qualifying car) I have been very kindly offered to drive,
requested me to do the night race, and, at night , you don't know if it is
Patrick Tambay that will overtake you at
200 mph on his GT40 , or an average driver owning a fast car, and more prone
to commit a mistake..no way to know who is approaching in the rear view
mirror.
I was supposed to drive two cars at the LMC : 1.The Lister Sunbeam Tiger that
was the "mule"(the reserve and April qualifications car in 1964,when I drove
for Rootes) and 2. 5R539, my 1967 Mustang Shelby GT350 R that I drove for Ford
Belgium and the Team Claude Dubois in 1967.
Unluckily, 5R539 obviously ended in the hands of the wrong owner , because
this gentlemen
already asked my help and my name in order to obtain an entry at the 2002 Le
Mans Classic, and the car did not show up because it was not prepared in due
time , and then he asked me to get an entry again this year, 2004 , and, again
, that car was not ready , nor track tested, nor set up in due time.
So, the Shelby showed up a day too late, having got its race engine bench
tested two days before , and with instructions "to run it in slowly because it
was too tight"(!) ,the rest of the car was also far from ready , with a driver
seat that was too far back for my size,and not even adjustable.
It was a miserable show , and I was very sad to see my nice last Le Mans car
so badly
prepared in spite of the fact that its owner had TWO years to build it , and
my free of charge assistance and advices (that were not listened to).
But , lets forget this ridiculous attempt. Perhaps it is better that the car's
owner did not try
to drive on the track , because having never raced , nor even listened to my
strong recommendation to take a racing driving training before the LMC , he
would probably have been a very dangerous moving hazard on the Le Mans circuit
for the other drivers!
I don't understand why Racing driving Licences are issued so easely to
incompetent people,after only two or three laps at 45 mph in a touring car
either : that's bloody dangerous.
The Sunbeam Tiger was a very different story : owned by an experienced driver
, Chris Gruys (his other cars are : The ex Alan Frazer Team famous "Monster
Tiger", another racing Tiger (that Lorraine Gruys race regularly in the USA),
a Porsche 917 (ex Vasek Polak) and also a Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione,like
the one I drove at Le Mans in 66 with Pierre Noblet ; the Tiger was
beautifully restored and just like in 1964.
I met Chris and Lorraine at the nice estate where I am used to go when in Le
Mans ,in a
beautiful and quiet park, about 20 miles South of the circuit (no, I don't
give the datas of that
accommodation.!) and very soon three British gentlemen, members of the STOC
(Sunbeam Tiger Owner's Club, UK) joined us in a "civilian"Tiger , and a BMW
with the trailer and our race car: Gordon England , Luke, his son, and Graham
Wardall pulling the trailer.
They had a full assistance equipment with them and proved to be well organized
, very efficient and very friendly. No stress,no panic (what a difference with
the Shelby.).
The next day -Thursday 22nd- we all moved to the circuit in order to go
through the boring
administrative paperwork : licence and driver's equipment control, passes and
credentials,
then moving to our pit in the "plateau 4" paddock, etc. etc. We managed to get
the car through scrutineering without too many problems : only remarks were to
be ordered to blank the safety harness slits in the panel behind the seats in
order to better isolate the fuel tank compartment from the driver's cockpit
and to fit the compulsory rear towing hook that was not there.
I called my friend and mechanic in Belgium , Frederic Martin , who had planned
to come in Le Mans for the week end , gave him the measurements he needed to
fabricate a hook and a bracket that could be bolted to the rear springs
shackle (no strong attachment points on the light aluminium rear body shell of
the Lister Tigers ..) and after having worked some late hours the evening
before , Frederic showed up in the Friday morning , bolted that hook bracket
on the shackle in a minute , and the scrutineers gave us happily the tag
allowing to
participate to the race and practice. The harness slits problem had been taken
care of very
professionally by Gordon and Graham.
Chris had asked me to take the night drives , because he don't like to drive
in the dark ,so the plan was to have Chris driving the daylight training
session on Saturday morning , and I would drive the night session very early ,
at 04.40 AM , before dawn, same day.
Those training sessions presented a big problem for me : they were way too
short to be able to
learn the circuit. Having raced 8 times Le Mans, I knew of course very well
the original 1957/67 circuit , but now, for the usual safety reasons , there
are new slower sections.
The old and famous "Hunaudihres straight" - over 6 kilometers long - is now
cut in three pieces by two chicanes ; those are very easy to see, to learn and
to negotiate.
Mulsanne is now slightly different , having a very fast right hand bend in the
braking area,right before turing 900 to the right as before : not a big deal
either.
The nice section between Mulsanne and Arnage is -luckily - about the same as
in "my"
years, with still the two flat-out right hand bends before "Indianapolis",,
and after exiting Arnage (in first gear if in a hurry with the Tiger) the road
is unchanged for about a mile, then begins the new section which is quite
tricky to learn , with a nasty , incorrectly-inclined left hand curve preceded
by a funny very long right hand bend where nobody seems to know exactly where
the "trajectory"must be.
After that there is the Ford curve, and a sort of chicane before the pits and
tribunes area.The splendid flat out "Dunlop bridge" curve , after the
pits(that separated the men from the boys in the 6O ies) is now interrupted by
a slowing large chicane before the Esses of the Tertre Rouge.
Luckily my friend Hervi Regout ( a bloody good younger Belgian driver who
finished LM
third overall a few years ago) came with me in my Triumph TR3, and we walked
through the Arnage-Ford curve section, and he showed me how to negotiate that
very technical part of the track.
It is quite impossible to learn well that section in only three practice laps
, specially at night and this is really a problem that the ACO and Peter Auto
should take care of for the next edition.
I tried to go back to the new section with Chris, in order to show him ,
between other ,this nasty left hand bend, but some excited "little chiefs" of
the ACO, rushed toward us and
said that it was "forbidden" to go there(rather stupid to prevent a pilot to
examine the track,walking,when there are only three laps of training.).
In the Sixties,the sides of the track were very clearly indicated by small
twin reflectors called "cat's eyes", and it was very easy to see the road :
now those "cats eyes"s have
disappeared (probably too good to be legal !) and it is sometime hard to see
where the road turns , like after the slight brow in the middle of the Dunlop
bridge "slowing curve", before the Esses.
So,I did my first laps on this new Le Mans circuit ,in the night,very early on
Saturday morning, still ignoring really where were the right braking points
and apexes.
Anyway , I was trying my best on the track , while exiting Mulsanne, a faster
accelerating red
Cobra overtook me ,and I followed him , but was very surprised when the pilot
suddenly jumped on its brakes before the first flat out right hand curve (a
curve that Bernard de Dryver-second at Le Mans on a Porsche- told me was flat
out even at about 250 mph, on the rain ..), and then braked -again- for the
second flat out bend !
There are really very unexperienced guys on the track at the LMC..but having
money,they own very fast cars.
I could had overtaken him easely and be before him at Indianapolis and Arnage
, but decided to stay behind him , like a careful old grand father that I am ,
and perhaps I should better have passed him, because in the flat out left hand
that follows he spun his Cobra and I entered at full steam in a blind cloud of
dust , braking without seeing anything , and that was a good idea because the
Cobra,or another red car was standing still in the middle of the road in that
dust and I avoided
it with two wheels in the grass and gravel..I have seen many closer calls ,
but got an good adrenaline shot anyway, which is good , I understand , for the
health of old retired driver
After that I had no other incident than an excursion in the gravel in the
tribune chicane , because my gas pedal get stuck at full throttle when I was
expecting my engine to BRAKE
in second gear , instead of accelerating full steam.
A very annoying problem was that I was not able to heel and toe
("talon-pointe" in French)
properly because , when braking , the throttle pedal was about 2 inches higher
than my foot.
I tried to reach that pedal using that round bone everybody has on the right
side of the ankle , but that was not very comfortable, and sometime I just
missed my act.
Otherwise , excepted a bouncing needle on the rev-counter we had no problems
with the car; I found the so-called "weak" engine quite powerful, even without
exceeding 5.200/5.500 rpms as requested (and with a safety margin due to the
rev counter),and its oil pressure and water temperature were perfect.
Chris had told me that Lorraine would be the third driver, but finally
Lorraine decided not to drive , its perhaps better because a young lady that
does acrobatic flying with her 1400 HP
P51 Mustang WWII fighter plane is perhaps able to humiliate some old men like
me!
Who knows ?
So,after a good night rest at the mansion, I arrived back at the track to
watch Chris doing his daylight training laps : he did 6.08 , I did 6.O9 at
night, (or the other way, I don't know) so we were doing equal lap times,
nursing the car in order to reach the checkered flag, and everybody was having
fun and was happy.
Chris was due to do the start and the first 45 minutes race , but a serious
accident occurred in the race before ours, in the Hunaudihres, the guardrail
had to be replaced and the whole programm was late, so Chris was supposed to
drive at night too..he did not like it and told me to take over after a few
laps, when sunset was taking place which I did.
I went rather fast for my two first laps and had quite a moment : because of
that throttle pedal,that was now THREE inches lower , I missed more or less my
braking and downshifting when arriving flat out at the end
of the Hunaudihres released my clutch pedal without having been able to give
some throttle before ,and on a slightly oily surface , the Tiger went very
much sideways ,at probably about
120mph, I catch it ,(happy to notice that reflexes are still there.) but a
little too much and it went sideways on the other side.
This is normally an excellent way to execute some nice 360ies, but on my
second try , I got the Sunbeam back in line, just in time to brake again,
engage second gear and exit Mulsanne intact. Oops. Second adrenaline shot and
decision to take it a little more easy considering the pedal problem. After
all, it goes well also without heel and toe, its just slower.
The next lap, when exiting the second chicane in the Hunaudihres, all marshals
where agitating frenetically yellow, and yellow-red striped flags : oil on the
track,, and forbidden to overtake any other cars. Soon the sign indicating
that the safety car was on the track appeared too.
A Bizzarini driven by the Belgian d'Ansembourg had exploded its engine near
Mulsanne ,and the road was shiny and slick with oil for a mile ,up to the
Bizzarini parked on the grass after the second fast before Indianapolis.
So, I finished my six remaining laps under the yellow flag and brought the
Tiger safely to
the paddock. The brake pedal being now a little lower, the throttle problem
was even worse : Gordon and Graham promised to try to adjust the throttle
differently but without success. So, I
took my next turn , in the middle of the night like that, driving rather
slowly but safely.
The drive in the night, with Christiane(Chonchon) in the TR3B in the crisp
morning air, up to the mansion was delightful, we took some gasoline in a
deserted station with an army of wild rabbits around us.
After some rest and a shower, I left Chonchon at the mansion -she was rather
exhausted- and drove back to the circuit to watch the arrival of Chris's
daylight race which went perfectly.
We are 32 nd in our plateau , Chris and Lorraine were delighted as everybody
to finish this race, the event was absolutely wonderful, the food at the posh
Driver's Club was excellent ,the STOC is a great bunch of petrol heads and the
dinner offered by STOC on Sunday night was very nice and friendly.
Thanks, Chris , for allowing me to drive again after 40 years,this nicely
prepared Sunbeam.
The long drive back to Provence was delightful in my faithful TR3B , this time
without ant thunderstorms.
Thanks to everybody at STOC for the help and friendly reception. See you in
Spa, September 17th/19th,( with a good throttle pedal).
Claude and Chonchon Dubois
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