[LM24] Le Mans - Viewing spots (merged thread)

[Banks]

Mal.
Most of the organised tours to Le Mans arrange for a minibus to take people to other areas of the circuit. There is a rather tortuous track that takes you through the roads inside the circuit and even across a golf course ( involves dodging police roadblocks as well - a bit like tombraider without the bullets! ) -it's a case of knowing the right people with the right local knowledge and how well they get on with the police.

[egor]

As everyone has said, there is a lot of good viewing points around the circuit. The esses is a (or was) good place, standing on the bank on the outside of the last kink.
The Porsche curves is good on saturday evening for a visit, but top tip if the weather is nice go for a Chinese(they have the windows open), the restaurant on the Mulsanne down from Terte Rouge is brilliant on one of the qualifying nights.
You can't see much but the sound of racing cars at full tilt a few feet away is.......

[mudshark]

To repeat the comments of others, I also agree that there are indeed many good places to view the race. I have a routine that I watch the start of the race at the Esses and stay for about 2 hours thereafter. I try and to get to as many of the other viewing points as possible during the 24 hours. The last hour of the race is always at the Porsche Curves, since they are in the backyard, so to say, of the Maison Blanche camping site where I usually stay. Invaluable to me in my travels,is my bicycle. A bit more strenuous then driving the car but much easier to park.

[Quattro]

I started a similar thread not so long ago (Le Mans - Viewing Spots) and received some really helpful tips and advice on places to go and watch the race from.....

You might find it worth while running a searh for the thread

[Aysedasi]

Yes, I remember that Quattro. I'll look it out and merge the threads for you.

[Bluebottle]

We first went in 1998 with all our gear loaded in and around our Hurricane kit-car and no pre-booked campsite. We had been given directions to the field by the Chinese on the Mulsanne and arrived just in time for a drink at the bar during night qualifying- awsome! Shame you can't camp there anymore as we found out in 1999 when we were told 'parking only, no camping' so three of us spent the Thursday night sleeping in the car (a Granada this time, thankfully!) before finding a campsite in the morning.
The best place to see the cars at speed is on the straight between Mulsanne corner and Indianapolis- the walk from the Mulsanne Corner car park to the coner itself takes you past the viewing area for this straight and it was fairly empty at 4:30am! a great place to watch dawn break.