About

Access denied. The “official photographer” is banned from the track. ‘classic bootleg’ then moves its lens from the race to what happens behind the scenes at the Le Mans Classic. Mechanics and commissaires without faces, yet indispensable for the show to continue. Combinaisons soiled with mud. Repetitive rituals. A photographic chronicle of the human infrastructure of speed.

Logo Le Mans Classic

Credits

TextsABDESSLAM OULAHBIB

PhotographiesLudovic Myers

ByRichard Mille

WebsiteMAGNETISM

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A photographic tale
a classic bootleg
at Le Mans Classic 2025
by Hereme Chronicles

the start

approach

As the start gets closer, the circuit's ecosystem is revealed in all its industrial complexity. Le Mans is a pop-up city that springs up in 48 hours and vanishes on Sunday evening, much the same as Burning Man. A 110-octane rock festival.

scene 01

Soft, medium and hard tyres stacked up like industrial totems, pyramids of rubber that smell of chemicals and speed from 500 metres away. Each tyre a hymn to programmed obsolescence: 185 miles at 155 mph, ending up as black smoke and particles of rubber.

scene 02

Racing cars, spare parts, specialist tools and telemetry equipment in every semi-trailer. Mercedes-Benz Actros transporters unloading their mechanical treasures, hydraulic cranes gently lifting millions of euros worth of carbon fibre and aluminium. These trucks come from all over Europe. It's a pilgrimage in reverse: the cathedrals travel to the faithful.

(05)
Behind the scenes

As for me, I hang around where no one ever goes: behind rubbish trucks, next to generators, under metal footbridges. In the blind spots of official history, where no one thinks to look but where everything plays out.