ALL ABOUT THE EVE

The day before the Le Mans 24 Hours, the race hits the city centre for a huge petrolhead party. MATT SAUNDERS joins the parade in a Ferrari

- MATT SAUNDERS

It's the Friday afternoon of race week in Le Mans.

The town centre municipal car park is filling up with vehicles you won't see here every day. Prewar Citroëns, postwar American land yachts, one-off concept cars, chrome-covered road-hog motorcycles, supercars, movie tribute cars and more. It's a joyously assorted mix.

Then there are the pickup trucks - lots of pickup trucks, actually - necessary for reasons that will soon become apparent. Something is about to happen that, every year, fuels the fevered race fan's enthusiasm for this famous, century-old endurance epic: La Grande Parade des Pilotes des 24 Heures du Mans.

And this year, I will be taking part. I'm among a bunch of British motoring journalists who've driven to La Sarthe in a cavalcade of Ferrari supercars. We've been invited to join the parade to add the colour and excitement of these cars to the sum total of the occasion's drama. How could we say no? Nobody will have a clue who the drivers are, of course, but as long as we look like we're enjoying ourselves, perhaps that won't matter too much.

So here we are, waiting as the start-line car park slowly fills. I must admit that when they asked if we'd drive in the Le Mans parade, I assumed it would be on the race circuit. But here, they bring the race to the town.

The motorsport celebrities and grandees are arriving and the race drivers are filtering in after their various briefings and meetings have been completed at the circuit a few miles away. Jacky Ickx's sunglasses are proving about as effective a disguise as they normally are and he can't move for the queue of fans wanting his signature at every turn. He might be the only person in the world who is less recognisable when he's not wearing his aviators.