Le Mans - you in??

[docwra]

Got ours booked up yesterday - two pitches on Karting Nord, where we styayed last year :D

Planning on going down on the Wednesday, and hopefully getting some mates to fly in on Thursday and Friday. Will be doing the same as last year - full cooking range, fridge, big ole marquee thing and we're looking into a bit of Sky telly as well :D

Who else is in?? Anyone taking a 200 I can drift round the roundabout in Arnage?? ;) :D

[Ari Vatanen]

Tickets aren't on sale yet are they? :confused:

You're talking about the pitches I assume?? :confused:

pitch talk I think :nod:

Ive been 2000 - 2006 and the earliest we ever got tickets was early January through the ACO Club :)

[Jeffers_S13]

oh didnt realise you had to book so far in advance. im going next year with a few m coupes.

hope to see a few people off here :sxoc:

We left it quite late sorting ourselves out for 2006, we bought ferry tickets in January, still very cheap @ £38 return and then bought a camping ticket off ebay about a week before we left for £30 (ish). We got there on the Wednesday and Karting Nord was ~50% full. Still some reasonable places to be had though. On beermountain people talk of booking their camping tickets for the next year before they leave that years race ! this must be at sites outside town I reckon ?

[Cloudy]

Tickets aren't on sale yet are they? :confused:

You're talking about the pitches I assume?? :confused:

Ideally you should have put an order in by now for a camping ticket (one per car). The best sites are usually booked up well in advance as Le Mans seems to get more and more popular each year. You can wait until nearer the time as there are always tickets up for sale on Pistonheads or Ebay. Some people though will charge far more than face value.

Dan - Alan may not be coming this year, if he is he'll be jumping in one of the cars.

[Firefoot]

We'll be at Le Mans again this year, staying at Beausajour for 3rd year running, complete with stickered up cars, costumes, fireworks, pool (if we are allowed to fill it up this year), and beer :thumbs:

We travel quite light and buy a lot of the stuff out there, either at Carrefour or a store close to Beausajour called GiFi. Stuff is very cheap and saves weight in the car for the spirited drive down & back.

Going on Wed and coming back Monday. Can't wait :)

[skid solo]

Hi all, going down again for 07. Getting the LD Lines Pompey ~ Le Harve Tues night crossing coming back on the Mon aft. Staying at Spay (3km from Arnarge) at a 'posh' campsite.

Convoy so far includes 3 Elises, my 14a and a support wagon as I didn't want mine to be loaded up like a pack horse!!!!

Starting to think of the sticker designs now :)



Going for the whole experience this year. All booked up for the test weekend 2 weeks before the race. £80 return Portsmouth ~ Le Harve with LD Lines.

Finish work on the Fri at 1.30 then a mad dash to Pompey in the SX and my friend in his Elise. Overnight crossing, hoon to LM, crack open the beers and wander about the pit and paddock, watch testing on the Sunday (plus some more beer), then hoon back to blighty on the Mon ready for work on the Tuesday.

[Cloudy]

Cool, who ever it is their more than welcome to come along with us if they want:thumbs:

[skid solo]

Cor, that was a cheap comment at my expense while I was away!

Glad to here you're coming JC/Matty.
Feel free to come over to the cheap seats in the Annexe! [bring beer though]

You may be the best person to ask about walkie talkies, think we will need a few, and need some recommendations.....?


These work well. I went in convoy to Brands at the weekend and they worked really well and were nice and clear.
http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/Phones+&+Faxes/Two-Way+Radios/BINATONE/TERRAIN+550/300718

These are going to be in use for our convoy for LM this year.

[DanS14]

Thanks Dave,

But bought some Mototola T5022's this afternoon :)

http://www.twoway-radio.co.uk/trolleyed/27/index.htm

[liquidsmoke]

lol. If I bring a load of stella, can i share your fridge space? :D

[andyfield]

Don't take beer with you, supermarche all the way!! You'll have far more important stuff to bring with you such as petrol generator, tent, dvd player, etc :)

Docwra: What van are you taking along, reckon there will be any space in it? Have you taken hosing and plumbing attachments to tap into the water supply there? Also Dan was curious as to what TV frequency etc they use over there, can we run a normal TV with Genny and a smallish aerial?

Dan: I reckon we get ones from the USA, from what I understand they are a lot more powerful over there. To quote the site you ordered from they are "highly illegal" which means very powerful I'm guessing! I'm sure I've seen them over there with 10 mile range quoted (spotter car anyone ;) )

I think we ought to start a thread in members section for organising toys and associated items.

[docwra]

Docwra: What van are you taking along, reckon there will be any space in it? Have you taken hosing and plumbing attachments to tap into the water supply there? Also Dan was curious as to what TV frequency etc they use over there, can we run a normal TV with Genny and a smallish aerial?


Dont knwo what we will be using but Im sure there will be a bit of space left mate. We are actually thinking of ferrying over then jumping on one of those car train things to Le Mans rather than drive all the way, but we will see :)

On the telly front, Im tempted to try and take a satellite dish and do the Sky thing - http://www.frenchentree.com/france-satellite-tv-internet-pcs-telecoms/ gives details :thumbs:

Oh, and a tap?? :ghey: I drink beer at Le Mans, not water mate ;)

[Cloudy]

Dont knwo what we will be using but Im sure there will be a bit of space left mate. We are actually thinking of ferrying over then jumping on one of those car train things to Le Mans rather than drive all the way, but we will see :)

On the telly front, Im tempted to try and take a satellite dish and do the Sky thing - http://www.frenchentree.com/france-satellite-tv-internet-pcs-telecoms/ gives details :thumbs:

Oh, and a tap?? :ghey: I drink beer at Le Mans, not water mate ;)

Driving down is half the fun!

Oh and by tap etc he means for the pool although they weren't allowed last year because of the drought:cry:

[DanS14]

By the looks of it there will be a massive queue to the strip shows in the evening with you lot there!:wack: :nod: :D


There hasn't been a strip show within the compound at Le Mans for the last two years, but there are a few adult themed bars around the town....err allegedly:wack:

[andyfield]

not sure i'm liking this idea of my car being moved by a bunch of drunks :whack:

bentaylor, good to hear you and colwell are coming. looks like you'll be testing out 5th gear of his new box!

looking like we have a very good lineup for this year. chaps shall we setup another thread for organising toys, necessary equipment such as generators, walky talkies, fridge / freezers, tv's, stereo, fireworks, petrol toys such as mini quads / mini motos, paddling pool etc

anyone got a link to the headphones all the locals / veterans had. huge cans with a radio built in too. would be very nice if we could get them with built in walky talkies.

[DanS14]

Let's go to the Arnage corner meet at 11am on the Friday:thumbs:

Perhaps if there's a decent music concert, we could catch up then too. We'll just have to sort tel. no's nearer the time:)

As for radios, thinking of taking some ear defenders from the rolling road, and putting normal headphones underneath

[Cloudy]

Check Pistonheads for people selling theirs. They usually sell for face value rather than ebay:rolleyes:

Also check Team Langoustine (on Pistonheads) they should still have some. Just Tickets is also another company to try... can't think of any more atm. :)

[Damo]

i normaly just use Team Langoustine thats why i have a hardcore prown sticker on my s13 but this year we are just getting the tickets at the gate....

last year me and my dad saw lots of people just buying there camp site tickets at the camp site entrance

damo

[docwra]

Do you know if the Murcielagos are being entered at Le Mans this year?

Best sounding car for me last year :eek: :notworthy

Will check that we can use logo but Im sure there wont be any probs :thumbs:

[DanS14]

That was the reason I asked! lol!

They really did sound like the old F1 V12s. They seemed to just rev higher and higher!
It reminded me of being at school years ago, near Silverstone. While sitting in class, you could hear the F1 cars testing around the track:)

[Vez]

Right the correct circuit this time :rolleyes:

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44990&stc=1&d=1177342047

[TomM]

Some possibilities, using Circuit de la Sarthe :)

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44991&stc=1&d=1177342083

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44992&stc=1&d=1177342083

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44993&stc=1&d=1177342083

Or with borders:
http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44994&stc=1&d=1177342083

My favourite - less is more:
http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44995&stc=1&d=1177342083

[TomM]

Right the correct circuit this time :rolleyes:

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44990&stc=1&d=1177342047

Nice, but get rid of that :hurl: font... ;)

[Vez]

Or...

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44996&stc=1&d=1177344238

or

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44997&stc=1&d=1177344238

[skid solo]

I am liking the stickers :)

Anyone given an idea of size? This sort of decal looks good on the door, but it has to be fairly large otherwise it can look a bit out of place on the large slab of metal.

I usually sticker-up before LM and have got some to get cut soon. I was looking at a circuit map, that I shamelessly nicked the dimensions from it, and they worked out at 740mm x 295mm.

[Damo]

Or...

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44996&stc=1&d=1177344238

or

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=44997&stc=1&d=1177344238

i will go for the second one will get tony2sx to do me one or 2 :nod:

damo

[Damo]

have a look here bud



http://ticket.lemans.org/vente2/visu_article_mini.php?id_univers=1&id_ev=17&id_boutique=33&id_rubrique=33

[Ari Vatanen]

Anyone, Karting Nord? Chances of getting tickets??

I think it might be too late TBH :(

the camp sites tend to get booked up very quickly, you should'nt have any problems getting tickets into the circuit because you can buy then at the circuit on the day

just looked on the official Le Mans site and all campsites are sold out except becausjour :(

http://ticket.lemans.org/vente2/visu_article_mini.php?id_univers=1&id_ev=17&id_boutique=33&id_rubrique=33

have a look on pistonheads.com, ebay.co.uk, beermountain.com & keep your eyes peeled on here to see if anybody sells any tickets for Karting Nord :thumbs:

EDIT: just checked ebay and 21 tickets up for grabs but none in Karting Nord but keep checking :nod:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&satitle=le+mans+2007&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D3&sadis=200&fpos=BD17+7LX&ga10244=10425&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

[Ari Vatanen]

I must admit, I'm not 100% on where all these places are.

you are now ;) :D

http://www.tvr-car-club.co.uk/images/events/lemans_2005/lemans_plan.jpg

[skid solo]

I have heard that the tickets are the ones that hang of the mirror. Seems strange to me that for years they have made them super sticky so you can't transfer them from car to car (unless you put selotape on the majority of the sticky and leave the corners free:) ). There was a rumour there is going to be some sort of bar code and the security staff have scanners to detect fake ones. Doesn't stop peope transfering them but fakes are a big concern for the ACO.

[Pete H]

I do seem to remember trying to get the glue off the inside of the window a couple years back using petrol and all sorts of stuff.

[skid solo]

More info on the camping ticket saga from someone on PH:-

I did post about the passes earlier but to recap I was in a bar with the man who prints all the tickets for the ACO. They are determined to stamp out pass abuse and last years tickets had a bar code on them but it was a false one as they were in the process of setting up the system. A while back I went to the ACO and asked if the system was going to be in place this year and they assured me that it would. They were just finishing the final testing of the system. It works on the simple system of recognising the bar code and thereby showing that there is already a car in the site. When you go out it resets to zero. Duplicate the pass and try and get in at your peril. The system will show a car is already in the site and you will be refused entry.

Just remember to keep the ticket safely tucked away when not going in and out of the campsite as I imagine there are pikey gits ready for the picking :mad:

[Cloudy]

one of the lads from work is going to lend me his. he says it needs 2 people to lift it so should have a good kick!

just need to get a cheap fridge freezer now (worthwhile lads, some on PH say they get too hot as soon as you open them...)

I need to get my noise cancelling headphones with radio built in, sort some walky talkies and get a tent sorted (anyone got one spare). also need to sort industrial strength tent pegs, mate had an idea of drilling into the ground!!

I get broadband on thurs and will then draw up a full list based on beermountains lists combined...

need tickets for 2 people for houx annexe if anyone has any?

That geni sounds way too big and what car are you going to put it in? I bought mine from screwfix for £50 and its more than capable of running my fridge, lights, stereo and mobile phone charger. Plus it doesn't weight very much and takes up little room in the car.

[DaveP]

To answer someone earlier in the thread, fridge/freezers are available from all of the local hypermarches. My lot will be doing this and hooking it up to out generator to keep our food cold. Beer on the other hand will be cooled by an ingenious contraption made using expanding foam...

Travelling down on Weds morning, camping in Beausjour, taking my S13 (pending a rebuild), see you on the N138!

[docwra]

Anyone doing the tunnel?? Its only £100 if you know the moves ;)

[JC]

All the cars in the convoy I am in are getting vinyls made up to go with the usual Pistonheads,Team langoustine stickers etc... so I decided to pay a visit to the Gumball 3000 HQ today (as its in my work area) to see if I could blag a few stickers for the cars :)
Had a right result,met Max Millions himself & had a little chat with him & asked if he could spare a few stickers,no problems he said,2 minutes later he was back with not just a load of stickers but 10 T Shirts & 12 Baseball caps :notworthy :D :D :D :D

3 cheers for Maximillion Cooper :nod: :thumbs: :D


http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=45619&stc=1&d=1179426253

ps - you won't be able to miss us now! :D

pps - just had a look at the prices on Gumball website £22.50 per T shirt,£16 per cap,£10 per large sticker and £6 for 5 small stickers! - that means I blagged over £550 worth! :D :notworthy

[Ari Vatanen]

Friday night - where will you be???

we have been at the Arnage village roundabout for the last couple of years and it gets worse year by year :(

more and more police are there weilding battons and guns :eek: to keep the drunken crounds back :wack:

The year Bentley won (2003 I think) we camped in 'Camping Bleu' and the road outside our campsite on the Friday night was excellent :nod:

Loads of burnouts including David Brabham doing a rolling burnout in a Bentley :cool: :notworthy

Where will you be going this year???

[Firefoot]

We've never actually been to the roundabout due to the bad things we have heard about it (especially after the tear gas incident), but some different friends are coming with us this year who are quite keen to have a looksie, so will be going to the drivers parade and then heading to the roundabout.

[Cloudy]

I was thinking, subtle approach, but obviously visiable. :D (Re: the possible police attention)

One for the rear bumper O/S (Silver or white).

One on each rear quarter window (from the inside?) again silver or white is good.

:thumbs: :sxoc:

What police attention, the only attention you'll get is if you race down to Le Mans and back:)

[Yakko]

First ones do it for me (i.e. the Non "Roast Beef" ones)

:thumbs:

[Pete H]

Friday night I went out in LeMans town centre. It was awesome once most of the English people had gone home :)

[GTSX]

May be of interest to those with younger brothers, sisters etc. the last few times I have been there under 16's get in free :) so may be taking my son along this year

Try that at Silverstone

[Firefoot]

I've been a few times now but not yet made it to the drivers parade. How do you get into town, and if you take the car where do you park it, and what is the parade route ??

:)

Have a look here for the parade route. http://www.clubarnage.com/caguide/caguide2007/c06-driversparade.pdf

Club Arnage do a great guide to Le Mans and their site is well worth checking out. http://www.clubarnage.com/caguide/

We were thinking of getting a taxi into the centre quite early and then getting the bus back. Taking the car is probably too difficult as it will be very busy.

[smarty]

im going again taking my 14a if i can sort the few little problems im having argh lol


going with www.that-way.co.uk

[Ari Vatanen]

just checked the weather and it looks dry & hot with no rain :cool:

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/europe_forecast_14days.asp?locationID=1758

its worth checking before setting off :thumbs:

[TomM]

I CAN'T WAIT! :D :D :D

although I'll probably change my tune after 6 hours in a f*cking Elise packed full of camping sh*te :wack: Why couldn't I have bought an M5?


And, so I don't have to re-read everything, is there a plan for people to meet up? I'm aiming to be at the PistonHeads meet on Friday morning (Indy Arnarge Corner, 10am onwards) if anyone's interested. And this is why :D (http://www.alexgoss.com/Le%20Mans/Le%20Mans%202005/Mad%20Friday/Mulsanne%20Meet/index.html)

[Moby-Dick]

Usefull guide to Le Mans for noobs such as myself :)

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=400314

[docwra]

We kinda watched him burnout into the front of a lorry on Friday :D Incredibly that was the only car that got damaged out of loads, particularly as fairly few of the drivers had any burnout skillage at all :rolleyes:

Cheers to all, gutted I didnt find you moby or Tomm but was actually busy the whole weekend. Have reproduced a few stories from the other thread below - keep doing this for another few years I reckon I could write a book :D

Meet 2 middle aged rather well known ex rally drivers, then proceed to a Danish only disco that consisted solely of sweaty blonde men dancing to a bloke who wouldnt have been out of place in The Wedding Singer. We then climb onto the tables to dance, all the while passing round a huge bottle of vodka.

Spend ages wandering around in the dark trying to find the Mulsanne straight. All you actually acheive is to lose your shoes in the mud and get busted by security. Repeatedly.

Stand along with about 1000 others out the back of my tent, making EVERY car that comes past do a burnout. Including a Rolls Royce Silver Spur and a 12 Tonne Lorry.

Despite being up till 5am the night before, manage not to get back to your tent until 0630 the next morning, mainly becuase you passed out, trackside, with a joint still in your mouth.

As my brother managed through excessive drinking, go to a 24 hour long, 5,500 km race and not see a single car driven in anger.

But the best had to be on Friday in Arnage, where all the nice cars go pose in the afternoon. We are strolling down the main drag, and having just seen an F40, spot another and go over to have a closer look. Noticed immediately that this car is a bit different - the intercoolers, lights, exhaust and even the bodywork and colour are different. I confirm this with Yakko, then I notice a bloke wander over to it with the keys in his hand. Conversation goes like this:

Doc: "Alright mate, your car is it??"
Bloke: "Yeah it is, what do you reckon??"
D: "Well, its nice, but we noticed the lights, intercoolers and stuff are different from an F40. What is it - an MR2 conversion or something??"
B: "Errm, well its actually an F40LM special edition"

Yep, I had just accused the bloke with probably the best example of an F40 ANYWHERE* of having an MR2.
Fortunately he was a top feller - stood and spoke to us for about 3/4 hour about this and his other cars (he actually named his son after one of his Porsches) and then let said 8 year old jump in and fire the fezza up for us and the assembled crowd. Which was cool.

* The car was an F40 LM, of which only 17 were made - see here for details. This particular one had just come back from a full mechanical overhaul at the factory, and must have been around the £500K mark. Definitely not an MR2.

Got some pics and stuff Ill stick up later, but cheers to the hoods mentioned above for the laughs, drinking partners and generally enabling us to all have a whale of a time. Same time next year?? :thumbs:

[Jon]

That was Sunday teatime. Our bit of Beausejour was on a slope, and the guys at the bottom were living in 4" of slime by then.

Better times :)
http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=46678&d=1182254179

[Egon]

We got there on tuesday morning (bit early, i know!) and set up camp, had a few jars and a bbq. The campsite was deserted bar a handful of die-hards...

We proceeded to get bladdered and my mate decided that he was going to cycle the track...so he got on his bike and did exactly that...:D

He cycled up the start finish straight, through the corners, round to the mulsainne, all 12 miles of track...security chased him a couple of times and he had to make a run for it, but the video is hysterical, cos he'd had half a bottle of scotch at this point!!

Wednesday morning, we cycled up the marshall area and all the way to the end of the pit exit (we werent going any further as the security bloke was a bit big!) under the track and up to the wall oppositte the pits...wasnt challenged once...:no: :thumbs:
I'll try and get my photos up (350 came back to life after a night in the airing cupboard, but the video camera is fubar...:()

[Jon]

Not every view was washed out tarmac :no:





http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/200sxjon/LeMans%202007/SS100219.jpg

[andyfield]

Got back about 11.30 last night. As Dan said we had a spirited drive to make the ferry (missed it by 10 mins due to Dan and Stidi helping out a Ford Escort RS who had a cracked pipe, so we got a later ferry).

Good to meet up with JC, Colwell, BenTaylor, TVR Rob and the rest of the lads we went down with.

Does anyone know where they're camping next year as Houx Annexe won't be around. Maybe have one SXOC area on a quiet site and one on a noisier one??

I'm glad I took my radio headphones and the walkie talkies, both proved very useful and entertaining, especially chatting to other convoys on the way there and back. Just fired it up here and it seems to be picking up a few things so should continue to provide entertainment.

I joined Dan down the Mulsanne on Saturday night, we ended up bumping into loads of English people on the way through. My legs were VERY torn up by brambles so I'd recommend long trousers to anyone that does it.

You know you picked the right camp site when Dan and I managed to track down another 2 crates of beer at 2am on a Sunday night for the lads that were enjoying our heater / bbq.

JC had a good result driving Ben's car, was there a Camcorder in there as it sounded like an interesting drive! ;)

Roll on 2008, might even do the Nurburgring on the way down next year if anyone else is game? I'll get my few pics and vids up ASAP.

The Blue SX's on Houx Annexe were mine (standard), DanS14's (Blue with Fire Exit above the exhaust, and Cloudy's (same stickers as Dan but with no fire exit sign).

Sounds like everyone had a wicked time! Docwra, Ben told us you had a very alcohol fuelled time!!!

Edit: Worth creating a Le Mans pictures and videos thread where we can post links to ours and others pics and vids??

[Egon]

Talking of pikeys, they didnt half swoop on houx annexe when everyone started leaving...:eek:
We hadnt packed up all our gear and they were rifiling through the beer mound (wasnt really a mountain-light drinkers!)..We left them a half bottle of "wash and go" scotch though....:D
Was it (one of) the lambo that was in annexe?
oh, and rob, that ferrari your mate had was sex on wheels...:nod:

[docwra]

Sorry guys, but has this suddenly become the "talk in riddles" thread or something?? What tent action, what lambo antics?? :confused:


Talking of pikeys, they didnt half swoop on houx annexe when everyone started leaving...:eek:


They do that every year mate - I came very, very close to dropping one last year (I had a pretty bad hangover) as he was rifling our stuff literally as we put it back in the car. His kids were watching so I settled for a slap round the head and a push, but I swear I would have gone mediaevel on his ass if hed got back up. :mad:

[docwra]

Phew. :rolleyes:

Right, I have been through this thread now and deleted all of the non useful info - its worth a quick troll through if you are planning on going to LM as there are some useful nuggets here :)