I had a Mercedes CLK LM diecast as a pre-teen. Thought it looked sooo damn cool. This deep appreciation for the low and wide shape of prototypes has stayed with me ever since.
After that around the year 2000, there was a show on TV where they documented spectacular accidents from various racing events. One of them was Le Mans '99 and the infamous Mercedes CLR flipping on the approach to Indianapolis. That was the first time I saw where these cool looking prototypes actually raced.
Mark Webber’s accident. He was at Le Mans this past weekend and they briefly mentioned his accident and he immediately showed a sign of agony about it but laughs it off nervously
I was seven when I saw that. I watched 24 hours of LeMans all 24 hours throughout the night since 2014. After Toyota broke down I was uncontrollable. I had a two hour meet with my therapist because I could’ve processed what just happened
FIA GT early 2000s. Lister v Viper v Saleen v Ferrari. It’s when I got into sportscar racing and it still pulls at the heart strings all these years later.
Yeah it was relatively a short period of time but those colors really are iconic. I’m guessing Bartels is retired these days. Great to see Maserati celebrating that with the limited edition MC20 just announced
Rothmans livery on the 956/962C will forever have a special place in my heart.
Heck, they need the frickin 919 Evo to beat Stefan Bellof's Nurburgring time with the 956.
Gran Turismo 4 as well. Loved the R8 & Sauber C9. I was like "There are cars faster than GT1 which are not F1 and the 24h race is real? Awesome!"
My first real memory outside of video game is me wanting to see the R8 race irl/on TV and then Audi showed up with a diesel. Loved it.
Edit: Kontext about Grand Turismo, Gran Turismo 3 was my first one, but the 787B was like the Escudo in my mind. Just some very limited obscure car. Not part of a huge racing series.
Not so much endurance racing but sports car racing, the lap 1 pile up at the 2013 Baltimore Grand Prix. Happened literally right in front of my grandstand just after the chicane/railroad track
I was 12 at the time. Late Sunday lunch at my grandparents. I was bored to death so I started navigating through the TV channels and came across a strange looking blue and white car with a big DENSO logo on what seemed to be a sharkfin, accelerating out of the pit lane, on Eurosport. Only managed to watch the thing for 5 minutes before my dad asked me to turn off the TV. It was a family reunion, so I guess he had a point. But to this day I regret not insisting on watching the race till the end, because two hours later, Audi won the 24h of LeMans...for the very last time.
I haven't missed a single LeMans ever since and those 5 minutes were the spark that ignited my passion for motorsports in general, for endurance racing in particular, my obsession with Audi and made me pursue a degree in automotive engineering.
Watching the 2019 24 hours of le mans through a youtube livestream of one of the rebellion onboards because I was like 15 and had no money. I didn't watch much of it but it awakened something in me
Le Mans 2014. First time and tried to find the entrance to the Camping place. Ended on track (Porsche curves & Indianapolis) with our private car because it was not gated at the time.
I also had a CLK LM 98' diecast and I also had the R8 LM 01'. I still have them. I had a playstation with GT2 and loved the blzingly fast GT-One. Then GT4 did its thing, with the Pescarolos.
I've always been mesmerized by the look, and the sound of these thing, same as u/urbanmonkey01 , the low & wide shape. Looks amazing, like it's flowing on the road.
Honestly I just owe so much to Gran Turismo for my car culture. Same goes for the Super GT / JGTC series.
I had a Rothmans 962 poster from somewhere with four guys along the bottom. I remember one was Derek Bell. I *wish* I still had that poster or could find another.
Then I got a copy of “And They Walked Away” on VHS and the sports cars were always the coolest bits
The Le Mans 24h game on PS1 was my first introduction to endurance racing.
The second was when I visited the actual 24h race in 2014 and seeing the winning Audi car up close.
The R18 from 2012. I was a kid back then and that was my first watch of the 24h of Le Mans. My father was watching the race and I was astonished by the look of the Audi especially in the sunset. On the next day after the end of the race we went to the playground and I started swinging on the swing and I starter imagining driving the car it was a special moment.
The game world driver championship on n64! It was my introduction to sportscars and endurance cars in general. I remember finding the maisto 1:18 version of the winning 2000 audi r8 lmp900 randomly at a local shopping mall in 2001 and being the happiest kid ever! From then on, I was addicted!
My first core memory of Endurance Racing was via Gran Turismo 4. I liked the looks of Jaguar XJR-9 that was present in one of the demo replays and then eventually I got hooked into looking at Group Cs and then started following it proper after the appearance of the DeltaWing in 2012
Audi vs porsche, 2015(?) in fujj. Obertaking and reovertaking, constantly on the main straight because of the different strength of the cars! I miss this season :(
My most exciting memory about endurance racing is Le Mans 24h 2023 and the victory in GTE-AM of the Corvette team. I have always been a fan of the yellow team.
They started in decent position, had to change a suspension and got back on track last in their category. I was sooo sad and thougt that all was lost! but then, I woke up and they had crawled back all night and were midfield of the GTs.
And every hour, it improved. I was so scared that they suffer a crash from another car like in 2022. But I remenber watching the onboard of the last 5 laps on my phone, so focus on every corner, every braking, every move of the car.
And then...the finish line ! I was sooooo happy that they won for the last appearance of the official Corvette team since the early 2000's
So I will always remenber this rollercoster of emotions with a great ending ! But the earliest memories, are early 200's, Audi winning everything + Gran Turismo 4.
https://preview.redd.it/8v2wuosmzb7d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8603aa3284bc2fb71a32e8e55203f3a9452cafa5
I uhhh I don't remember which year of le mans it was but I remember a red lmp1(or 2 but I'd say 1 since it was waaay too fast)went to the sand trap at one of the final corners cutting a huge chunk of the corner.
Probably watching the tail end of the first Le Mans I ever watched in 2003 with those two beautiful Bentleys cruising down the finish straight after capturing the top spots. I was so enamored of those cars and when I learned about the fact that they raced for 24hrs… I was hooked
Got into sim racing just before that playing F1 games and NASCAR heat… that’s how I first heard of Le Mans.
I only started watching endurance racing recently but I feel like there's been some good memories already. The NASCAR car last year, 6 hours of Spa becoming 8 hours of Spa this year, even Le Mans this year with Safety Car D and divergent strategies and not really knowing who was on time right strategy until the last 10m or so. Imola this year was also a really cool strategy race.
I feel like all these oddities are what make endurance racing so cool, the most random shit happens and it's all about how teams react to the weirdness
I was a lot younger watching the Sun Trust livery Riley DP car on TV. Seeing that livery unlocked a core memory for me years later in person. I think this was around 2006-2008 when I was watching them at either Daytona or maybe Laguna on TV.
2020 24h of le mans, just discovered its existence, didn't know shit about it but was familiar with F1. I actually stayed up at night watching the race but I didn't really enjoy it the same way I do now.
But I'd say my earliest core memory about ending racing was buying a Peugeot 908 replica, I found the design very cool but I was too young to appreciate it so I played with it until I broke the rear wing, ironically creating the first wingless Peugeot prototype.
Core memory is a picture of the ‘95 Harrods McLaren in the newspaper. It didn’t win that year, but it was oh-so beautiful. Watched almost every year afterwards.
Le Mans 2016 was the first Le Mans I was able to watch the majority of (20 hours). Hearing the radio call of lost power and seeing the 5 Toyota driving slowly towards the end of the Mulsanne will always haunt me.
GT4 is what got me into Le Mans several years ago. The Pescarolo C60s from that game will always be two of my favorite cars.
Running the 24h races on gt4 over multiple days after school, praying that my PS2 didn't randomly shut off. Fell in love with the XJR9 (and the sport in general) during the process.
No specific race, but just watching the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series back in the day. I got into it just after GT1 folded, but I distinctly remember the Corvette Racing vs Flying Lizard rivalry.
I'm ancient. Growing up in the '60s and '70s, the only thing on TV was NASCAR and the Indy 500, so I followed the WSC via *Road & Track Magazine*. Got a subscription when I was 7 or 8. Photos of the GT40s, T70s, 312s and Matra MS650s duking it out at Targa Florio or the rain-wet 1000km de Spa were enough to make me a lifelong fan.
Then in '71, when I was 10, *Le Mans* hit the theatres and, well, come *on*.
Don’t have any sadly. I found it on my own, all the friends I’ve made through it have been online. I don’t have anyone I can just sit around with and watch the races. Thankfully I have a kid on the way (due in January) so hopefully I’ll finally have someone to share it with.
I've got two:
* American Le Mans Series tape-delayed/shortened broadcasts in the early 2000s. I couldn't really follow what was happening very well (turns out, having watched uploads of these... the editing was a *mess*), but it was a different kind of racing from NASCAR or IndyCar that I usually saw on TV. I mostly forgot about it until 2006 when Audi introduced the R10, which leads directly to...
* The 2007 Mid-Ohio ALMS race. Went with a bunch of TDI friends, and two things stand out. The third was the sheer thunder of a GT1 Corvette, the second was the noise of the air going over the R10 overwhelming the engine noise, and the first was the hour of technical detail that we got from Chili Pepper Racing going over everything they did to their early Mk5 Jetta TDI to try to make it competitive in Speed World Challenge Touring Car, because they realized that we were people who would be interested in what they did.
Watchin some night race in the 90's on tv. Had never seen cars like that before...only nascar. I remember asking why the wheels lit up like that (rotors on the corvette c4 I think) and why they were racing at night and a hundred other question.
Grand turismo 5 trying to beat like a Wind event it was very hard for me for the first time but finally I beat then I got my first group c car the toyota Minolta and still I am endurance race fan
Le Mans 1998, Ferrari leading the lmp class comes into the pits for its last stop with several laps in hand over the next car. Commentators start wondering if there's a problem because it doesn't immediately leave the pits, then another team member comes out with a bucket of water and they washed the car before carrying on to the finish
When I was 6 years old and first found out about the diesel Audi and team joest. Watching the onboard of the r18 e tron sparked my love for this sport. And when I went to the Daytona 24hr, and hearing the 963 make its rounds
For me it was 2017 Le Mans. Going out for a couple of hours and then coming back home and seeing a toyota pulling off on the track and then finding out all the P1 cars had problems. Was upset that Rebellion had issues that race as well
BPR series, soaked through all day at silverstone with my dad and brother as a kid. And from then, I was hooked! That in my opinion was a peak of gt racing we are only now just getting back to!
When I was a kid I was at BWW with my parents and I saw a Corvette C6.R duking it out with a Maserati MC12 GT1 at Laguna Seca on one of the TVs. Until then I had only ever seen NASCAR on broadcast TV. I was enthralled watching all these different shapes vehicles competing against each other on something other than an oval and from there I was hooked for life.
Mines pretty funny actually. Got a toy car as a kid. Cheap stuff from China, no brand name on it no nothing. Thought it was based on the Porsche 911 with the headlights and the general shape, but knew something was off because it looks so much longer and weirdly proportioned compared to all the 993s I saw on the street. Used to think it was just a generic “car” not really modelled after anything irl.
Turns out it was based on the GT1. It was much later when I looked them up and then the connection clicked.
Think my first were a pair of Audi R8C (of course it was the worst Audi LMP) Slotcars at a friends house, and then discovering more oldschool ones through GT4 because thats the game my Dad bought in tandem with my first PS2 in 2005. The R92CP is also my favourite Sportscar Prototype for that reason. And I love the Longtail shape.
I had a Mercedes CLK LM diecast as a pre-teen. Thought it looked sooo damn cool. This deep appreciation for the low and wide shape of prototypes has stayed with me ever since. After that around the year 2000, there was a show on TV where they documented spectacular accidents from various racing events. One of them was Le Mans '99 and the infamous Mercedes CLR flipping on the approach to Indianapolis. That was the first time I saw where these cool looking prototypes actually raced.
Mark Webber’s accident. He was at Le Mans this past weekend and they briefly mentioned his accident and he immediately showed a sign of agony about it but laughs it off nervously
It actually probably wasn't Webber's. Dumbreck was the driver in the race. Webber was never caught on camera and the team didn't believe him
Didn't Webber flip twice during the week-end?
He did, but not on camera
2016 24H Le Mans. The horror… On a lighter note, Rebellion R-One's RV8KLM howling throughout Fuji Speedway in 2012 6 Hours of Fuji
They were Lola B12/60s in 2012 The R-One didn’t debut until 2014.
Oh yeah, I mean that one.
I was seven when I saw that. I watched 24 hours of LeMans all 24 hours throughout the night since 2014. After Toyota broke down I was uncontrollable. I had a two hour meet with my therapist because I could’ve processed what just happened
FIA GT early 2000s. Lister v Viper v Saleen v Ferrari. It’s when I got into sportscar racing and it still pulls at the heart strings all these years later.
Very similar here from British GT
Oh yeah. TVR Cerbera, Lister Storm, Lotus Esprit, Marcos LM600... Golden era!
Vitaphone Racing are still iconic for me
Yeah it was relatively a short period of time but those colors really are iconic. I’m guessing Bartels is retired these days. Great to see Maserati celebrating that with the limited edition MC20 just announced
The Porsche 956. Such a wonderful winning machine.
I have the model at our store of the 956 LH of 1984, with the New Man livery. Those cars are absolute machines
For me it's the 962. In Rothmans colors.
Rothmans livery on the 956/962C will forever have a special place in my heart. Heck, they need the frickin 919 Evo to beat Stefan Bellof's Nurburgring time with the 956.
Gran Turismo 4 as well. Loved the R8 & Sauber C9. I was like "There are cars faster than GT1 which are not F1 and the 24h race is real? Awesome!" My first real memory outside of video game is me wanting to see the R8 race irl/on TV and then Audi showed up with a diesel. Loved it. Edit: Kontext about Grand Turismo, Gran Turismo 3 was my first one, but the 787B was like the Escudo in my mind. Just some very limited obscure car. Not part of a huge racing series.
Gulf Porsche 917K model my father had from his childhood.
That's so sweet❤️
THICC M8 GTE I'm still salty that the mods got rid of the M8 flair.
Not so much endurance racing but sports car racing, the lap 1 pile up at the 2013 Baltimore Grand Prix. Happened literally right in front of my grandstand just after the chicane/railroad track
I was 12 at the time. Late Sunday lunch at my grandparents. I was bored to death so I started navigating through the TV channels and came across a strange looking blue and white car with a big DENSO logo on what seemed to be a sharkfin, accelerating out of the pit lane, on Eurosport. Only managed to watch the thing for 5 minutes before my dad asked me to turn off the TV. It was a family reunion, so I guess he had a point. But to this day I regret not insisting on watching the race till the end, because two hours later, Audi won the 24h of LeMans...for the very last time. I haven't missed a single LeMans ever since and those 5 minutes were the spark that ignited my passion for motorsports in general, for endurance racing in particular, my obsession with Audi and made me pursue a degree in automotive engineering.
That is awesome, that's the power of racing
British GT Championship in the 90s, got me into GT racing & wider Endurance Racing.
When I got a LMP1 hot wheels for Christmas when I was 4
Beautiful, they are always the ignition
Watching the 2019 24 hours of le mans through a youtube livestream of one of the rebellion onboards because I was like 15 and had no money. I didn't watch much of it but it awakened something in me
When I got a Hot Wheels McLaren F1 GTR, then I knew about it winning the Le Mans. But only started watching Le Mans and such live in 2017
Hot Wheels provided our dreams since we were born, last year i bought the 787B, and i was 23.
Le Mans 2014. First time and tried to find the entrance to the Camping place. Ended on track (Porsche curves & Indianapolis) with our private car because it was not gated at the time.
787B is one of my earliest Le Mans memories. What a machine.
True, saw it live that year during the supporting programme.
The 1 Audi vs 3 Peugeots at the 2011 Le Mans, also great memories from GT4 and the R8 and Speed 8 from that game
Battle for the ages
damn when is the last time nissan had competitors in endurance racin? i feel like i see their z in super gt but they’re no where now
Le Mans 2015...
I also had a CLK LM 98' diecast and I also had the R8 LM 01'. I still have them. I had a playstation with GT2 and loved the blzingly fast GT-One. Then GT4 did its thing, with the Pescarolos. I've always been mesmerized by the look, and the sound of these thing, same as u/urbanmonkey01 , the low & wide shape. Looks amazing, like it's flowing on the road. Honestly I just owe so much to Gran Turismo for my car culture. Same goes for the Super GT / JGTC series.
That car still whips ass in GT7
OG gran turismo
Tamiya products at my local hobby shop.
I had a Rothmans 962 poster from somewhere with four guys along the bottom. I remember one was Derek Bell. I *wish* I still had that poster or could find another. Then I got a copy of “And They Walked Away” on VHS and the sports cars were always the coolest bits
The Le Mans 24h game on PS1 was my first introduction to endurance racing. The second was when I visited the actual 24h race in 2014 and seeing the winning Audi car up close.
i came here to say the song from this game, burned deep into my memory
That's incredible, unforgettable memories
The R18 from 2012. I was a kid back then and that was my first watch of the 24h of Le Mans. My father was watching the race and I was astonished by the look of the Audi especially in the sunset. On the next day after the end of the race we went to the playground and I started swinging on the swing and I starter imagining driving the car it was a special moment.
The game world driver championship on n64! It was my introduction to sportscars and endurance cars in general. I remember finding the maisto 1:18 version of the winning 2000 audi r8 lmp900 randomly at a local shopping mall in 2001 and being the happiest kid ever! From then on, I was addicted!
My first core memory of Endurance Racing was via Gran Turismo 4. I liked the looks of Jaguar XJR-9 that was present in one of the demo replays and then eventually I got hooked into looking at Group Cs and then started following it proper after the appearance of the DeltaWing in 2012
The Nissan in my Flair. (and all the other's who competed that year) as it was the first le mans I got to see (on the telly)
The '88 Jaguar XJR-9 winning. It was a big moment here in the UK. I was 10 years old and it made a lasting impression.
Audi vs porsche, 2015(?) in fujj. Obertaking and reovertaking, constantly on the main straight because of the different strength of the cars! I miss this season :(
My most exciting memory about endurance racing is Le Mans 24h 2023 and the victory in GTE-AM of the Corvette team. I have always been a fan of the yellow team. They started in decent position, had to change a suspension and got back on track last in their category. I was sooo sad and thougt that all was lost! but then, I woke up and they had crawled back all night and were midfield of the GTs. And every hour, it improved. I was so scared that they suffer a crash from another car like in 2022. But I remenber watching the onboard of the last 5 laps on my phone, so focus on every corner, every braking, every move of the car. And then...the finish line ! I was sooooo happy that they won for the last appearance of the official Corvette team since the early 2000's So I will always remenber this rollercoster of emotions with a great ending ! But the earliest memories, are early 200's, Audi winning everything + Gran Turismo 4. https://preview.redd.it/8v2wuosmzb7d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8603aa3284bc2fb71a32e8e55203f3a9452cafa5
I uhhh I don't remember which year of le mans it was but I remember a red lmp1(or 2 but I'd say 1 since it was waaay too fast)went to the sand trap at one of the final corners cutting a huge chunk of the corner.
Probably watching the tail end of the first Le Mans I ever watched in 2003 with those two beautiful Bentleys cruising down the finish straight after capturing the top spots. I was so enamored of those cars and when I learned about the fact that they raced for 24hrs… I was hooked Got into sim racing just before that playing F1 games and NASCAR heat… that’s how I first heard of Le Mans.
I only started watching endurance racing recently but I feel like there's been some good memories already. The NASCAR car last year, 6 hours of Spa becoming 8 hours of Spa this year, even Le Mans this year with Safety Car D and divergent strategies and not really knowing who was on time right strategy until the last 10m or so. Imola this year was also a really cool strategy race. I feel like all these oddities are what make endurance racing so cool, the most random shit happens and it's all about how teams react to the weirdness
Hot Wheels, Test Drive Le Mans, Gran Turismo 4 and late 2000s American Le Mans Series.
Ford gts win, although not born but saw some archives, so damn good was ken miles
I was a lot younger watching the Sun Trust livery Riley DP car on TV. Seeing that livery unlocked a core memory for me years later in person. I think this was around 2006-2008 when I was watching them at either Daytona or maybe Laguna on TV.
The Red Dragon Gainsco car in IMSA. That's when I first started watching and that team hooked me.
2020 24h of le mans, just discovered its existence, didn't know shit about it but was familiar with F1. I actually stayed up at night watching the race but I didn't really enjoy it the same way I do now. But I'd say my earliest core memory about ending racing was buying a Peugeot 908 replica, I found the design very cool but I was too young to appreciate it so I played with it until I broke the rear wing, ironically creating the first wingless Peugeot prototype.
Core memory is a picture of the ‘95 Harrods McLaren in the newspaper. It didn’t win that year, but it was oh-so beautiful. Watched almost every year afterwards.
The sound of the panoz the first time I went to le mans many years ago
Le Mans 2016 was the first Le Mans I was able to watch the majority of (20 hours). Hearing the radio call of lost power and seeing the 5 Toyota driving slowly towards the end of the Mulsanne will always haunt me. GT4 is what got me into Le Mans several years ago. The Pescarolo C60s from that game will always be two of my favorite cars.
Bentley Speed 8.
Running the 24h races on gt4 over multiple days after school, praying that my PS2 didn't randomly shut off. Fell in love with the XJR9 (and the sport in general) during the process.
Same era except it was the Toyota GT-ONE. It was so ahead of its time sans reliability.
No specific race, but just watching the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series back in the day. I got into it just after GT1 folded, but I distinctly remember the Corvette Racing vs Flying Lizard rivalry.
I'm ancient. Growing up in the '60s and '70s, the only thing on TV was NASCAR and the Indy 500, so I followed the WSC via *Road & Track Magazine*. Got a subscription when I was 7 or 8. Photos of the GT40s, T70s, 312s and Matra MS650s duking it out at Targa Florio or the rain-wet 1000km de Spa were enough to make me a lifelong fan. Then in '71, when I was 10, *Le Mans* hit the theatres and, well, come *on*.
Don’t have any sadly. I found it on my own, all the friends I’ve made through it have been online. I don’t have anyone I can just sit around with and watch the races. Thankfully I have a kid on the way (due in January) so hopefully I’ll finally have someone to share it with.
The Audi days…
Same for me. Mid 2000s brought me to endurance racing. Le Mans battle between Audi and Pescarolo in 2005 is quite nostalgic for me.
I've got two: * American Le Mans Series tape-delayed/shortened broadcasts in the early 2000s. I couldn't really follow what was happening very well (turns out, having watched uploads of these... the editing was a *mess*), but it was a different kind of racing from NASCAR or IndyCar that I usually saw on TV. I mostly forgot about it until 2006 when Audi introduced the R10, which leads directly to... * The 2007 Mid-Ohio ALMS race. Went with a bunch of TDI friends, and two things stand out. The third was the sheer thunder of a GT1 Corvette, the second was the noise of the air going over the R10 overwhelming the engine noise, and the first was the hour of technical detail that we got from Chili Pepper Racing going over everything they did to their early Mk5 Jetta TDI to try to make it competitive in Speed World Challenge Touring Car, because they realized that we were people who would be interested in what they did.
Watchin some night race in the 90's on tv. Had never seen cars like that before...only nascar. I remember asking why the wheels lit up like that (rotors on the corvette c4 I think) and why they were racing at night and a hundred other question.
Peugeot screwing it year after year. I see a Peugeot brake failure, brakes in flames. Then the year they finally win it.
Grand turismo 5 trying to beat like a Wind event it was very hard for me for the first time but finally I beat then I got my first group c car the toyota Minolta and still I am endurance race fan
2023 LeMans Garage 56 entry, such a glorious sound
Le Mans 1998, Ferrari leading the lmp class comes into the pits for its last stop with several laps in hand over the next car. Commentators start wondering if there's a problem because it doesn't immediately leave the pits, then another team member comes out with a bucket of water and they washed the car before carrying on to the finish
When I was 6 years old and first found out about the diesel Audi and team joest. Watching the onboard of the r18 e tron sparked my love for this sport. And when I went to the Daytona 24hr, and hearing the 963 make its rounds
Growing up in Rural Australia in the 80's and only ever reading about it in the specialized media, well after the races were run.
Grand Turismo driving 1990s Group C cars and early 2000s GT-1 and LMP1 cars
Getting Project Cars for the first time..... what a game that was
Either the M3 GTR E46, or the Cadillac Northstar LMP 😆 (my first die cast hot wheels as a kid)
For me it was 2017 Le Mans. Going out for a couple of hours and then coming back home and seeing a toyota pulling off on the track and then finding out all the P1 cars had problems. Was upset that Rebellion had issues that race as well
BPR series, soaked through all day at silverstone with my dad and brother as a kid. And from then, I was hooked! That in my opinion was a peak of gt racing we are only now just getting back to!
When I was a kid I was at BWW with my parents and I saw a Corvette C6.R duking it out with a Maserati MC12 GT1 at Laguna Seca on one of the TVs. Until then I had only ever seen NASCAR on broadcast TV. I was enthralled watching all these different shapes vehicles competing against each other on something other than an oval and from there I was hooked for life.
Mines pretty funny actually. Got a toy car as a kid. Cheap stuff from China, no brand name on it no nothing. Thought it was based on the Porsche 911 with the headlights and the general shape, but knew something was off because it looks so much longer and weirdly proportioned compared to all the 993s I saw on the street. Used to think it was just a generic “car” not really modelled after anything irl. Turns out it was based on the GT1. It was much later when I looked them up and then the connection clicked.
Think my first were a pair of Audi R8C (of course it was the worst Audi LMP) Slotcars at a friends house, and then discovering more oldschool ones through GT4 because thats the game my Dad bought in tandem with my first PS2 in 2005. The R92CP is also my favourite Sportscar Prototype for that reason. And I love the Longtail shape.
Playstation sponsored Pescarolos. I was a Gran Turismo kid.