The Motorsport Museum has opened its doorways in Le Mans following a colossal development undertaking accomplished inside an astonishingly brief timeframe.
For slightly below a 12 months, the previous Le Mans 24 Hours Museum was closed. Throughout this time, partitions had been moved, 45,000m³ of earth was displaced, reveals had been reimagined and a uncommon assortment was introduced collectively.
On 28 Might, the M24 – Motorsport Museum opened to the general public, adjoining the gates of the Le Mans circuit.
When Motorsport.com met Pierre Fillon simply hours earlier than the inauguration, there was a tremor in his voice and all the joy of a “massive day”.
“It’s the fruits of a long-term undertaking,” recalled the president of the Vehicle Membership de l’Ouest, organiser of the Le Mans 24 Hours. “There may be monumental pleasure, above all within the work finished by the groups, as a result of this museum represented an actual problem. We’ve been engaged on it for a very long time, however finishing it in 9 months was a day-to-day problem.
“All of the groups, at each degree, and everybody concerned, labored in the direction of one single goal. I instructed them: the Le Mans 24 Hours begins at 4pm on Saturday, and the museum needed to open on 28 Might at 10am.”
Past Endurance Racing
A magical place
Picture by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The primary transformation is within the title itself, and it says every thing in regards to the scale of the undertaking. Gone is the previous Le Mans 24 Hours Museum, changed by a broader setting encompassing the entire of motorsport. It’s a daring and open strategy, designed to supply most of the people an unprecedented expertise with the ambition of turning into “the world reference”, as Fabrice Bourrigaud defined.
“We really believed that Le Mans was the authentic place to create one thing that doesn’t exist at present: a motorsport museum, which means a museum able to telling the nice historical past of motorsport,” the museum director mentioned.
“We’re in Le Mans, identified for the Le Mans 24 Hours, on one of many three most well-known circuits on the planet alongside Indianapolis and Monaco. We’ve got organised nearly each type of motorsport right here, we conceived the primary trendy motor race in 1906, 120 years in the past, so Le Mans was really the best place to do it.”
Closed after the 2025 editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours and Le Mans Basic, the museum achieved the seemingly inconceivable feat of reopening earlier than the 2026 version.
“We’ve got one main flaw right here: we will’t stand not being open through the Le Mans 24 Hours!” smiled Fabrice Bourrigaud. “In eleven months, we needed to full a undertaking that might simply have taken two years. It’s a small feat, a bit like a racing group getting ready to contest the Le Mans 24 Hours.”
Twice the area, 130 causes to go to
Legendary, race-winning Le Mans equipment
Picture by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The museum’s floor space has doubled, growing from 5,000m² to 10,000m². This utterly redesigned area has allowed each facet of the customer expertise to be rethought, firmly bringing the venue into the trendy period.
From the joys of race begin to the magic of racing by means of the night time, which is especially immersive, guests fairly actually journey by means of the chronology of a Le Mans week whereas additionally travelling again by means of time. The expertise then opens as much as different premier disciplines: Formulation 1, IndyCar, rallying and even motorcycling.
“Beforehand, we barely had 100 vehicles, whereas now we’re at round 130 in complete, as a result of the purpose was to showcase them higher and inform tales,” defined Fabrice Bourrigaud. “A museum has to inform tales, so we’ve change into much more immersive. The concept was to make folks really feel feelings and sensations.
“We labored enormously with Raphael Daguet, our scenographer, whether or not on the units or the way in which every thing is offered. However the first factor of scenography is mild. As soon as once more, what we exhibit listed below are mechanical artworks, work on 4 wheels. They aren’t hanging on partitions, they’re positioned on the tarmac the place all of them achieved their exploits.”
Schumacher and Pescarolo below the identical roof
Fabrice Bourrigaud, M24 director, and a Group Penske Indy automotive
Picture by: Rainier Ehrhardt
There may be spectacular consideration to element, all the way down to the flooring, which is similar in each respect to the asphalt floor of Circuit des 24 Heures. The breadth and grandeur of the gathering, each in quantity and in historic relevance, supply guests an opportunity to raised perceive the fervour of motorsport. The total-scale dioramas that includes vehicles, group vans and full-sized silicone collectible figurines are of specific curiosity.
Due to Richard Mille’s funding within the undertaking – eager to share the best items from his assortment with the general public – mixed with the ACO’s archive of 1,000,000 pictures, and above all of the precedence given to authenticity, the undertaking is definitely a hit. The setting additionally homes “exceptional items”, exemplified by the Alley of Heroes, which honours two legends at both finish: Michael Schumacher and Henri Pescarolo.
“This Ferrari F2002 of Michael Schumacher is a automotive with which he completely dominated, and we’re proud to have it within the museum,” mentioned Fabrice Bourrigaud, although solely incapable of choosing only one automotive that makes him particularly proud: “To decide on is to provide one thing up! It’s troublesome… The successful Bentley from 1924, which is a very uncommon piece, is one thing really distinctive.
“As I really like human tales, and since that is all about journey, there’s the Rondeau, with the story of this baby of Le Mans who constructed his personal automotive to race within the Le Mans 24 Hours and managed to win the race by beating Porsche and Jacky Ickx: it’s the final word fantasy. On the Formulation 1 facet, Jacky Ickx’s Ferrari from 1970 offers me goosebumps, after which there’s Sebastien Loeb in rallying…
“The gathering we’re presenting illustrates this partnership between the ACO and Richard Mille. We’ve got the potential for 400 vehicles, so there’s a nice deal nonetheless in reserve! As a result of this museum has to remain alive, the everlasting collections should rotate. And there’s additionally an area devoted to momentary exhibitions, with main themes starting in 2027.”
The doorways are actually open, simply in time for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours, and will definitely change into one of many must-see stops for any racing fanatic, younger or outdated.
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