Canter Bridge

Truth in 24, an NFL Films production of the 2008 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is an awesome piece of video.

Great camera work, superb narration by Jason Straham, a pumping soundtrack by Dave Robidoux, and the built-in drama of Audio’s long-in-the-tooth R10 diesel machine at a track they’d owned for the better part of a decade combine to make Team Audi seem like underdogs against the faster Peugot side at 2008’s running of the 24 Hours of Lemans.

There may be no better window than this erstwhile Audi puff piece to get one’s first look into the endurance test that is Le Mans. So many things have to go right on the French road course and for no little time. People over machines made the difference in 2008, as one of the winning trio of drivers puts it, particularly a late-race decision in favor of slower ‘intermediate’ tires with rain in the forecast. Yet the machines themselves are a roaring marvel (even if the diesel roar is markedly more mouse-like).

My guess is that both novices to endurance racing (like this reviewer) and Le Mans graybeards alike will feel regret when the 99 minutes of this film have run their course.

Superb.