Question about the mulsanne straight?

[Bryan Blanton]

Hi i have a question about the mulsanne straight? I've asked this on a couple of other message boards.

I was just curious what everyone thought about the mulsanne straight before they put in the chicanes?

Did people like the mulsanne without the chicanes or do people like the current version of the mulsanne with chicanes?

I heard the reason they put in the chicanes was too slow down the cars cause they the people who run the race felt like the cars were running too fast at the end of the straightaway.

I heard the fastest ever time set at the end of the straightaway was 254 mph and i think this was in 1988 or 89 by a peugeot although i heard derek daly i thought daly said when he ran the jaguar they either ran over 250 mph and that they may have hit 254 mph.

If they the people who run the race the organizers had not put in the chicanes is it possible the cars could have gotten to 260 mph or more.

And could any of the cars from 1994 to 1998 have run 250 mph or got up to 260 and could the current cars run 250 mph or above if there were no chicanes at lemans?

[IMSAFAN1]

I've been to every Le Mans since 1988 and I love sitting at the cafe beside Mulsanne and having the cars blow by you. I've talked to Andy Wallace about the changes made and he said they needed to change Mulsanne because of the speeds that the cars can reach. The cars are running with such low downforce setups that they reach very high speeds. I loved the old Mulsanne straight, watching the cars wiggle as they brake hard over the kink. I still go to LeMans every year because it's more than a race it's an event.

[Funks]

I like it as it is now. It's still plenty long enough to see and hear the cars at an almost unbelievable speed.