Le Mans 2008

Introduction

Arguably the World's most prestigious endurance motorsport event, the Le Mans 24hr race takes place annually at the 8.5 mile Circuit de la Sarthe. The track is made up partly of roads that are open to the public most of the year and closed off for racing for one week in every 52, with the famous 3.7 mile Mulsanne Straight where cars reach over 200mph!

Organised and run by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the race began in 1923 and has gained a reputation as the ultimate test of car and driver. At the time, there were less restrictions on the time a driver could spend at the wheel and the number of drivers per car. The race traditionally began with the drivers sprinting to their cars when the flag was dropped, now replaced with an Indianapolis-style rolling start.

The last Le Mans DVD I watched was the overview of the 1988 race and much has changed in the intervening 20 years. The most noticeable differences are the 2 chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight, introduced as a safety precaution in 1990 to slow the cars down (from around 240mph to just over 200mph!), a more roomy pit lane and a revamp of the classes, with the top category now called LMP1. These are basically F1 cars with a bigger bodyshell and are capable of the highest speeds and best handling. The oother categories are LMP2 and the production-car based Grand Tourer GT1 and GT2.

Video

Presented by the ACO, this shows that the French haven't yet fully embraced widescreen as the footage is still fullscreen 4:3 but is excellent quality and a huge improvement over the DVDs of the races from the 1980s. There is much more coverage of the race through the evening and night and an increased number of cameras and viewpoints, with more in-car camera footage. The graphics are similar to those you'd find in a recent F1 broadcast and keep you informed of who is where, in what car and their relative position in the race.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack has a good, well delivered and informed commentary, obviously provided after the event rather than live but still full of useful information.

Extra Features

The Road to Le Mans is an expanded version of the introductory piece on the DVD with more interviews and pit lane footage.

There are onboard laps with a Peugeot, Corvette and Audi from different classes and of varying lengths (one is over 20 minutes long), showing you what the circuit looks like from inside a car at top speed and at various times of the day.

Conclusion

Since my first Le Mans DVD review, the coverage of the 24 Heures De Mans has improved year on year and this is by far the best DVD of the event yet. More time is devoted to footage of the race than ever before and the increased and better picture quality makes this a more rewarding watch. The race itself is eventful and shows why Le Mans is considered by many to be the greatest motorsport event on the calendar. I noticed that this year, in addition to Le Mans legends like Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, there were a number of former or current F1 drivers such as Jacques Villeneuve, Heinz-Harold Frentzen, Alex Wurz, Marc Gene, Jos Verstappen and Olivier Panis, with many drivers and team members giving interviews.

There is plenty of racing action from every class and the hefty running time (90 minutes on the race) and bonus material make this an attractive DVD for any motorsport fan.