Le Mans sports cars an expensive cargo for Eurotunnel

The world’s most famous 24-hour car race brought some eyecatching cargo to Eurotunnel’s services in June.

The annual Le Mans endurance race is always a key calendar event for motorsport professionals and fans alike. And with thousands making the pilgrimage to France for the June 11-12 spectacle, Eurotunnel Le Shuttle received bookings for more than 1,400 supercar and elite sports car journeys around the Le Mans weekend.

These special vehicles require the trains’ wider single-deck carriages, which can accommodate 48 cars per shuttle. Given that many of the cars are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds (and some significantly more than that), they represent some of the most expensive cargo ever to travel through the Channel Tunnel.

More than 360 Ferrari trips were booked, including one for a hallowed ‘250’ model (another ‘250’ sold at auction for £38.4 million last year). Other examples of motor racing legends transported by Eurotunnel

included Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and McLarens.

More than 40 Rolls-Royce trips were also booked, including one Corniche and a handful of Cullinans, Dawns and Phantoms, while American classics were represented by Corvettes and Camaros.

A large number of electric vehicles also made the 35-minute crossChannel journey, with more than 1,500 Tesla movements booked during the period.

EUROTUNNEL LE SHUTTLE. Top left: More than 40 Bentley and Rolls-Royce vehicles were booked in over the Le Mans weekend.

EUROTUNNEL LE SHUTTLE. Left: Many of these special vehicles, including this McLaren, require the trains’ wider single-deck carriages which can accommodate 48 cars per shuttle.

DENNIS WATTS LRPS VIA EUROTUNNEL LE SHUTTLE. Eurotunnel Le Shuttle services perform the Channel Tunnel segment of their journeys in just 35 minutes.