Hello and welcome to another edition of That is Neat Patrick. There are a few things that I have found neat for the calendar week of June 10, 2024. Please enjoy.
Le Mans
Le Mans is pretty neat. National Geographic once ranked it the greatest sporting event in the world, ahead of the Olympics, Super Bowl, and World Cup. They said:
Skill, speed, and stamina are the three s’s that mark the world’s best automobile race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race, organized by Automobile Club de L’Ouest, bridges past and present on the automotive circuit.The competition is set on a non-permanent track at Circuit de la Sarthe near the city of Le Mans on the Sarthe River. Roughly 46 cars start the race, in a series of classes that include prototype high-performance vehicles, dedicated race cars, and street cars. The diversity of autos gives the race a mix of old-fashioned and modern competitors. The winner is the car, driven by a team of three drivers, that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours.The first Le Mans contest took place in May 1923; today it is held every June. The race begins at 4 p.m., and for 24 hours the sound of roaring engines fills 8 miles (13 kilometers) of French countryside.
It is hard to find a race more confusing to the novice fan than Le Mans. This is because a 24 motor race is an insane concept, and the regulations keep changing. There are three classes of car, all racing at the same time, but for position within their respective class. Hypercar (formerly LMP1/LMGT1) is the top class, with manufacturers designing bespoke race cars, followed by LMP2, which is a spec class with teams picking from a choice of chassis and engines, and LMGT3 (formerly GT3/GT3Pro/GTS), consisting of race cars based on road cars. The drivers do not go for 24 hours straight, with each car being driven by three drivers. A single stint is close to the same length as a single F1 race, meaning the drivers will still drive the equivalent of multiple Grands Prix this weekend.
Racing at night is one of the coolest things about Le Mans, despite the fact that the track is not fully lit so you better get used to watching headlights go by. It is also a great race to watch for Ferrari fans as it seems the Italian marque has transfered all it’s competence from it’s F1 team to it’s endurance team.
Le Mans is responsible for many innovations that we take for granted in our vehicles now. Things such as disc brakes, windshield wipers, windshields, and the idea of aerodynamics to make you go faster all came from Le Mans. Until the 1970s, drivers would start the race outside the cars on the other side of the pit lane. When the start flag waived, the drivers would run to their cars, start the engine, and race away. This practice was stopped when too many drivers were killed either trying to put their safety belts on while racing or didn’t put them on at all, to save time.
The World Endurance Championship and the North American equivalent, IMSA, recently standardized regulations to improve competitiveness and cut costs. The result has been big names returning to racing. This year’s top class includes Toyota, Cadillac, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, Porsche, Issota Franschini, Peugeot, and Alpine. Rules allow for customer teams to purchase a car from a manufacturer and be just as competitive as the OEMs. In the last WEC race the Porsche factory team was beaten by a customer team racing the same car but for some reason are sponsored by Palantir and Tom Brady.
This year’s Le Mans should be exciting. I plan on having enough beers on Friday that I have no choice Saturday but to sit on the couch for 24 straight hours watching racing. Feeling good enough to enjoy Le Mans, but not good enough to harbour any guilt about being so sedintary.
Neat Video
Last year’s race to get you in the mood for this year.
Hawaiian Shirts
I work in the type of office that thinks a pizza lunch is going to raise morale after a series of lay offs. As such, we obviously have fun shirt friday. With summer humidity in full swing already, I am breaking out the Hawaiian shirts.
There is no definitive history of the Hawaiian shirt. Captain cook stumbled across Hawaii in 1778, bringing the first bit of Western influence to the islands, and with it the concept of a button up shirt. Long before Cook’s arrival, native Hawaiians would stain their garments with kukui nut tree juice to create clothing with similar bright colours now seen on the modern Hawaiian shirt. Some influence may have also come from Tahiti, where images of hibiscus and other tropical fauna traditionally printed on cloth. We do know the term “Hawaiian Shirt” was coined in the mid 1920s, around the time someone by the name of Gordon Young made the news by wearing one to the University of Washington campus. I similarly cause a stir when I wear as loud of a shirt as possible to work on Fridays.
Etc.
It is also the start of the European Championship this weekend.
I cannot overstate how big of a weekend this is for my couch. I will be unreachable after noon on Friday. I think the Germans are going to go on a run this year, and that England will be very dissapointed. These are incredibly safe bets.