[LM24] Views about Le Mans (as an Experience....)

[tobyone]

does anyone have any feed back from there weekend/week spent at Le mans

let me know as it was my first time, ive spoken to various people and the comments range from great through to very poor in relation to the police, security, yobbish brits on the beer, poor spectating areas etc etc

let me know your opinions

mine: well as it was my first time it was everything that i expected, good racing, especially at night, the Mulsanne straight at 3am in the forest next to the armco barrier was just awesome, and standing next to the Marshals touching the tyre barriers at the second chicane at 3.30am was out of this world

the food was ok ish on circuit, if chips and bagettes were what you call food? and the beer was cold

the camping was packed, the bikers with their silencers off and fireworks and loud music were just about coped with (ear plugs a must have)

the soaking of open topped sportscars (we were one) on the trip back up the N138 to the ports was funny once but totally intimidating after the 4th or 5th time, and they sounded as though they were english in a few cases!!!!

if i go again it'll be via a saloon not an open topped sports car and in a hotel rather than the camp sites

from other peoples comments the thrill of Le Mans has been diminished and is being erroded away by the yobbish elements
who relish the beer more than the event of sportscar racing
(the central roundabouts were taken over by drunks egging on the cars and bikes to show off)
thats a shame as the racing and associated events were superb

regards tobyone

[Tim Northcutt]

For many years, we dealt with the same thing at Indy in the "Snake Pit" and the infield...clueless idiots who would show up to make trouble and hassle women to "Show Us Your Tits"...big banner signs...

but no fireworks...lots of police in the infield, but there was still chaos with 350,000-400,000 peopel in the facility and about 100,000 of those in the infiled area...

Now the infield is more confined and contained...they even designated "Family Areas" whee there is no drinking allowed (I drink before and at the race, but I watch and enjoy the racing....I can get smashed on my back deck of my house for free)

That type of containment would be next to impossible at a facility the size of Le Mans...

[kdr]

sometimes the idiots can be accidently funny. at the drivers parade one such drunken character was interspersing his "get your **** out for the lads" at the females on the old cars, with the classic football chant (to the tune of "whistle while you work")of "you're not very good, you're not very good, you're not very, you're not very, you're not very good"...too amongst other the scorp viper team and a bemused trio of taisan drivers..

[TimD]

Welcome to the forum! There are some interesting points you raise there. This is my sixth time at Le Mans, and I did think the moron element was much more in evidence this year. Not a nice trend at all. I must say, it was a good reason - if reason were needed, to head out into the wilds of the circuit and enjoy some serious motor racing, without the hooligan element who probably wouldn't be able to find their way to anywhere other than the bar and one of the more obvious campsites.

[high contrast]

'tobyone' if you were at Mulsanne 2nd hairpin at 3.30am...did you see Davidson's accident in the Prodrive Ferrari 550 at 4.20am?

[Nick M]

More importantly, how did you manage to blag your way to the second chicane !!! Good effort I have to say, especially since it was your first visit !!

[Fab]

Originally posted by high contrast
'tobyone' if you were at Mulsanne 2nd hairpin

I assume you're talking about the second 'chicane', I cannot see any 'hairpin' on the LM track...

BTW, a local said to me that it was harder each year to go to the wild parts of the track : so to Tobyone...

Be safe when you're very nearby the track : there was some fatalities in the past...

[Liz]

I was extremely busy the whole week, but have to say that I also noted more thugs and morons Saturday night than any other time. I would guess it was that concert that brought them out of their stupor long enough to come out and make themselves look stupid in front of the world. Our campsite could not be seen from the road, and when I walked back at night I was astonished at how many people did not know where the Karting track was (we were next to it) -- I got told everything from there's no karting track to it's on the other side of the race track! The French "controllers" were completely useless as all they did was pretend not to speak English or argue that anything I asked them was not their responsibility. Ditto the guys who were supposed to shuttle the media and instead packed their shuttles with non-media girlies who wanted transportation to Mulsanne and Indianapolis and Arnage and gave us arguments instead.

HOWEVER -- in our campsite although there were at least 1/3 more people this year there was no trouble of any kind worse than someone putting a tent stake right in the middle of the walking path behind our marquee without flagging it, causing a number of people to fall until someone finally pulled it up and threw it into the distance. There was a lot of noise, but of course one expects that.

I didn't eat on the circuit anywhere; we had our own food with us and I also got some at the media centre.

The absolutely only complaint I have is WHAT HAPPENED TO THE *&^&^ AIR CONDITIONING? Nobody, from the Audi R8 Racing Club to the poor blighters in the media centre, had even a FAN! I could have done a lot more work if I didn't have to work in a blast furnace. In all other respects the media centre was excellent and all the people were helpful including the France Telecom guy who was exceedingly prompt. Apparently a new group have taken over the admin at the ACO and they are much more efficient this year.

Wonderful week altogether and I will go back eager and ready to work next year -- with my own fan and a computer bag with wheels!

[TomS]

I thought that it was a fantastic weekend. The 1st time I have been but I'll definately be going back next year. Great atmostphere and great racing especially at night (I'm sure it looks like they are going faster????). It was fantastic to see Bentley winning.
How about Audi UK????? RUNNING OUT OF FUEL IN A 24 HOUR RACE!!!! Surely this is the most embarrasing way to retire.

The Highlight though must have been seeing the Bentley Boys on the podium and going up into the big building ontop of the pit garages and getting my cap signed by all of them. Gr

Overall great fun and great race.

[Cynic]

It's got to the stage where the "event" is more important to some people than the actual race IMO. I don't think the "yob" element was any bigger than usual this year, it just made its prescence felt more. The one thing that did disgust me was the fact that some people seemed to feel it necessary to overturn every rubbish bin they came across. I spent the night down by the Esses, and in the morning the entire stretch from the fair down to the start of Tetre Rouge looked like a landfill site. I was worried about sitting down there myself, I certainly wouldn't have let kids down there.

[Kid Prozac]

My first trip to le mans, and i have to say i absolutely loved it! the atmosphere was amazing, realy good vibe about the whole place, everyone was well up for it, and the spectator banks were just the best atmosphere.

Also the reception we got for our party was brilliant, everyone loved the cars, two black limos, ours with a mahoosive tvr wing on the back (see picture), and the other with bison horns on the front, reckon we got more attention in dover than the row of 360 modenas!! no one could understand what we were all about! one of you lot must have seen us!

campsite was good as well, we struggled to find somewhere, arriving in blue sud at 8:30 friday evening might be the reason.... so we just kinda parked in the first big space we found, enough to accomodate two limos and a 16 person tent! not easy!

have to say, although everyone says the racing is well boring i completely disagree, standing on the inside of tertre rouge, wow! watching everything except the VAGs and prodrive ferraris squirming as they put the power down, awesome! also the atmosphere at the start of the race was electric, chills down the back of the spine almost, tingly!

now suffering from monster hangovers, about 40 crates of stella + spirits took its toll, although it seemd some people as mentioned already in this thread obviously thought that wasnt enough and got very rowdy, dont want all the beerboys invading le mans like they have magaluf etc...........

overall cant wait for next year, were planning already, were gonna struggle to get more attention than we did this year without spending lots more - the two cars cost £1000 combined and both did 1300 miles each with no breakdowns, how about that for cheap motring!


http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/foru...postid=1056712

[Fab]

I notice there's a lot of rookies here... good news for the future of sportscars, and welcome to the forum !

It's good to see that you enjoyed the race and the 'side things'... I taste the each time I come, at least on saturday evening (and we did again this year), it was not that bad, and, IMHO, afordable... concerning the 'beer' amateurs... ... let's say it's a part of the thing...

For the , having try the soaked 2001 race, I think I prefer even if we melt...

[Aysedasi]

Well, that was my 18th Le Mans, and, looking back, I think I have to say it was the best. From a very pleasant night's stay in Isigny-sur-Mer on Thursday, through to the pit walkabout on Friday (meeting up with Fab there) and on to Willie's victory in the Legends race on Saturday morning. Then there was meeting up with so many 10/10ths members in the rain on Saturday and enjoying the pre-race festivities and the start of the race with Fab up in the pits grandstand. (I never realised the view was sooooo good from there - no fencing!!!!). I had a splendid meal at Le Belinois on Friday evening, with a certain Paul Truswell from Radio Le Mans as my guest). We were looked after as well as always at Le Grand Luce and baked in the sunshine all weekend. The Bentley 1-2 was just the icing on the cake. Roll on 2004, it has to go some to beat 2003!

[Fab]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
Roll on 2004, it has to go some to beat 2003!

More battle for overall classification ?

[rdjones]

Right I have a few days to collect my thoughts now.

Le Mans 2003 was a fantastic experience. There was a wonderful atmostphere all round the track, in the village etc. It was really nice to meet a fair few 10/10ths members on both Saturday (sorry I was late) and on Sunday.

As for the race, it was not a classic, but we got the result that we wanted. The funnist bit of the weekend had to be when the Audi UK car ran out of fuel. It was a real shame that the TVR's didn't finish.

My only thing which, got my back up, even through not a major hasle was the distance from the MRI marquee to the coach's. The coach where parked in the Expo car park and the Marquee was by the Masion Blanche enterence, (last year we where in Parking Bleu) which was quite a trek and I couldn't be bother walking all the way back there to get a couple of hours sleep so I slept on the grass bank at the back of the marquee.

Which also meant that I missed the podium prestentions, due to the distance back to the coach.

Already looking forward to 2004

[Fab]

Originally posted by rdjones
I slept on the grass bank at the back of the marquee.

We saw that !

[rdjones]

Originally posted by Fab
We saw that !

How? Where and When?

[Aysedasi]

You slept then Rob.

I'm thoroughly ashamed of you.......

[Mal]

I think that was the best LeMans I have had. The weather, the atmosphere, the people. I saw no evidence of the moronic behaviour mentioned above, in fact I felt it was more controlled than usual. Our party had a great time and indeed we were so involved that I didnt make any of the 10-10th meetings which is my only regret.

After all these years I finally made it to Arnage at dawn which was great.

[rdjones]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
You slept then Rob.

I'm thoroughly ashamed of you.......

No I didn't sleep - I just rested my eyes for about 4 hours........

[PascaLM]

Rob, you are not the only one who slept.

I slept from 3h00 to 6h00. Shame on me.

I had never slept such a long time during The race...Usually it's maxi one hour.

I'm still wondering why...

[bernard b]

overall, I think it was a realy good year

the weather was almost perfect, the light rain din't waste the wine's taste
the race was not that bad, and thanks to Gunnar for making it more exciting at the end
the meetings with TT members : great moments, waiting for some more
bad things : the fun fair is getting poorer each year (there wasn't even the strippers!) and the village is going that way too (except a little tent called Automobile Historique )

and I also slept during the night (in the pits grandstand from 3:00 to 4:30). A Dome woke me up

[rdjones]

Originally posted by bernard b
the fun fair is getting poorer each year (there wasn't even the strippers!)

and where was the Wall of Death.........

[Fab]

Originally posted by rdjones
How? Where and When?

At the sunday meeting, you seemed quite 'fuzzy', or was it the heat ? Just teasing you, anyway...

[Fab]

Originally posted by Mal
I saw no evidence of the moronic behaviour mentioned above, in fact I felt it was more controlled than usual.

My opinion too... Did I stay too much in the grandstands ?