Guy Wyles recalls family pilgrimages to the famous 24-hour race
I think most of us have an acute fear of forgetting our passport and finding out when it’s too late. Some of us bright young things realise this terror and it’s awful. Mine occurred, aged 22, on the M20 headed for the Dover ferry with my best friend in our MGB Roadsters at 6.00am, en route to Le Mans. ‘Tail-End Charlie’ recalls seeing my hands manically striking my forehead before dashing off at the next exit while he gently continued towards the port.
Our ferry was at 8.00am and there was absolutely no way – even at ‘immediately lose your licence’ speeds (quite tense in an MGB) – I was going to make it.
But I did. Traffic was kind, the ghastly M25 cameras weren’t yet in the way, and I knew precisely where I had left my passport. I screeched through Dover’s miles of empty tarmac to arrive as the ferry was pulling up the drawbridge. A high-vis took pity on me; he liked his cars and could smell the hot MGB’s ordeal and so discreetly let me on with a benevolent smile.
The pilgrimage to Le Mans was dramatically introduced to our family in 1994 when my father was charged with selling a Bentley Speed Six – known as ‘Old No. 1’ – which had won Le Mans twice, in 1929 and 1930. It is the first car to have achieved this feat and in the late Eighties, was one of the most celebrated and valuable cars in the world.
To publicise it, my father invited HRH Prince Michael of Kent to drive ‘Old No. 1’ to Le Mans and then to have several pre-race laps on the main circuit. In subsequent trips my father enjoyed the same opportunity and recalls it fondly.
With no power steering, these ‘locomotives’ required huge strength to wrestle them around the roads, and after two laps he yearned to come in for a glass of something cold and crisp, as was suggested. The French track marshals, however, had other ideas and waved him on and on. It remains one of my father’s most exciting and exhausting episodes and instilled a profound respect for the drivers of these early cars, racing on what were essentially public roads for 24 hours.
A little later on, in 1998, we were kindly allowed to display Aston Martin’s Le Mans-winning DBR1/2 for Chiltern Aston’s 30th anniversary and there is a photo somewhere of me sitting in it very carefully. Alas, this has disappeared, and the grainy photo above will have to do.
In the following years, I’ve been lucky enough to attend the most famous race in the world with my father, sister (driving her Mini Mayfair) plus several petrolhead friends. It’s a motoring festival where Brits in interesting cars take over huge swathes of the beautiful French motorway to get there.
And like music festivals people camp, and the sounds – while different – are also line-up dependent. The 2005 to 2011 period was a particularly memorable era for me. Britain had an achingly beautiful and extremely competitive Aston Martin DBR9, which has one of the best-sounding V12s of all time. This magnificent, sonorous commotion was complemented by the thundering V8 of the DBR9’s main competitor, the equally capable American Corvette C6.R.
Audi dutifully kept the top level dull by their dominance; the place to be was always the GT1 class and, satisfyingly, the Ferraris were wonderfully unimpressive. Instead, the real battle was between Brits vs Yanks, the DBR9 vs the Corvette and the V12 vs the V8.
During these years we’d stay in the beautiful village of Saint-Céneri, 45 minutes from the circuit, and stop by the Touring Hotel on the Saturday night, along with a few of the ‘Bentley Boys’ and assorted English old guard. I remember one such gentleman being greatly amused when I asked why he left the keys in his Le Mans-competing C-type – which was worth many millions. “Well, dear boy; who’s going to pinch it?”
The drive back towards England would be lined with French locals waving fondly at the eccentric Brits in their silly cars, always a few youths hiding among the bushes with their Super Soakers, desperately hoping for a convertible to come in range.
What wonderful days they were.
After growing up with these cars, Guy is now a director at established marque specialist, Chiltern Aston. Find out more at chilternaston.co.uk
