Le Mans has some of the most pimptacular pit areas of any race on the planet, and newcomer Nissan’s hospitality and work space is no exception. In addition to an extremely organized garage, there’s a full suite with a DJ, a smoothie bar and a slide. That’s right: a giant red tube slide.
Duuuuuuude. If I had a garage even half this organized, Porschelump’s lap times would drop two seconds on principle. There’s space for everyone in there, even their social media guy and other guests. It feels huge, but then again, they brought three cars to get the maximum amount of test time in for the completely new GT-R LM Nismo LMP1 racer.
The paddock slide is definitely my favorite way to injure yourself in a hilariously awkward way at Le Mans. People who’ve had much faster runs than me say that wearing slipperier pants and foregoing shoes is the trick to speed. Shoes tend to grab the plastic and hold you up as the slide curves around. One guy even showed up in corduroy pants today to try getting a faster time.
I tried working around the shoe issue by trying to curl into a cannonball mid-way down this run, and it didn’t work. FiveFingers are as grippy as they are silly. I’ve got some sweet slide burn on my arm now. Worth it?
Worth it.
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.