Le Mans

Le Mans (pronounced: [lə mɑ̃]) is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.

Its inhabitants are called Manceaux and Mancelles. Since 1923, the city has hosted the internationally famous 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance sports car race.

History

First mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy, the Roman city Vindinium was the capital of the Aulerci, a sub tribe of the Aedui. Le Mans is also known as Civitas Cenomanorum (City of the Cenomani), or Cenomanus. Their city, seized by the Romans in 47 BC, was within the ancient Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. A 3rd-century amphitheatre is still visible. The thermae were demolished during the crisis of the third century when workers were mobilized to build the city's defensive walls. The ancient wall around Le Mans is one of the most complete circuits of Gallo-Roman city walls to survive.

2007 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 75th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France from 16–17 June 2007. Four classes of cars raced together, with each class having honors for its highest finishers. The faster LMP1 and LMP2 classes were for custom-built Le Mans Prototypes (LMP), and the slower GT1 and GT2 classes were for modified grand tourer (GT) road cars.

The LMP1 class saw the first competition between the new diesel engined Peugeot 908 HDi FAP prototype and the diesel Audi R10 TDI, the 2006 Le Mans winner; the Audi once again achieved an overall victory. There was heavy attrition in the LMP2 class, in which only two competitors finished the race. In the GT1 class, Aston Martin achieved its first win over the Corvette since returning to the event in 2005. The GT2 class was a battle between Ferrari and Porsche, won by Porsche. The race was attended by over 250,000 spectators.

Track changes

Between the 2006 and 2007 races, the Circuit de la Sarthe was upgraded, most obviously by the reprofiling of the Tertre Rouge corner. The new corner was moved inward, to create a long flowing curve instead of the single point apex it had been previously, shortening the lap distance by 21 meters to a revised 13.629 km. A new pedestrian tunnel – below the Mulsanne Straight, immediately after Tertre Rouge – was also built. The work had been planned to be carried out before the 2006 event, but it was delayed because of budgetary concerns.

Le Mans (disambiguation)

Le Mans is a city in France.

Le Mans may also refer to:

Le Mans (band)

Le Mans was a Spanish indie rock band in existence between 1993 and 1998. Having previously toured and released records under the name Aventuras de Kirlian, the group took a new direction as they hired a new member, Gorka Ochoa, to play the drums.

Line-up

Discography

Albums

Le Mans (film)

Le Mans is a 1971 action film directed by Lee H. Katzin, starring Steve McQueen. It features footage from the actual 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race in June 1970.

Released in June 1971 and given a G rating, the film is still popular today among race fans, as it is a relatively accurate depiction of the era. It features lots of racing but very little dialogue (there is brief dialogue approximately 6 minutes into the film, then the PA announcer at 11 minutes, more PA announcements at 14 minutes, with McQueen's first dialogue at 36 minutes into the film). Due to this, and to the American market's obliviousness towards the Le Mans 24-hour race and foreign auto racing in general, it was a flop at the box office in the United States. It followed in the wake of the similar but much more successful 1966 film Grand Prix (for which McQueen had turned down the starring role, given afterwards to James Garner).

Story

Michael Delaney (McQueen) spots racing rival Belgetti's widow Lisa (Elga Andersen) buying flowers; he then drives his 1970 Porsche 911S to the scene of the accident which killed her husband. He has a flashback of Belgetti losing control of his Ferrari just in front of Delaney, who also crashes.