Le Mans 2010 info...

[Boomin33]

Maybe I'm useless, but can't seem to find any threads on this subject. I remember seeing one in the past.

Anyway, the wife and I are going to run down there this year, and rough it, in the NSX. :)

last time we went was '96!

Still the same deal? i.e. rock up with tent, beer, food etc and pick a good place to car camp?

Anyone else going?


thanks

[NSX 2000]

Maybe I'm useless, but can't seem to find any threads on this subject. I remember seeing one in the past.

Anyway, the wife and I are going to run down there this year, and rough it, in the NSX. :)

last time we went was '96!

Still the same deal? i.e. rock up with tent, beer, food etc and pick a good place to car camp?

Anyone else going?


thanks

Hi Rob

I'm going, but roughing it in Hotel :laugh:

Your best bet is to look here http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/forum.asp?h=0&f=25&mid=167055

A LOT has changed in the last 14 to 15 years, your best bet might be to do a package which will include entrance, parking, tent space and tent.

Paul.

[Boomin33]

Cool, and thanks.

We are hitting Paris on the way back... Wife has a thing for hotel Costes and wants to rock-up in the NSX.. so need to save my pennies at Le Mans ;)

plus it's pretty cool being in the mix...
or has that changed also? & could I lose my hubcaps! ;)

[markc]

Still the same deal? i.e. rock up with tent, beer, food etc and pick a good place to car camp?

Anyone else going?

Rob, as Paul says a LOT has changed since the good old days of the 90's. You will be amazed, and possibly disappointed, at the improvements at the circuit (some of the crap stuff is still the same) and the amount of corporate involvement.

Tickets for the race (day or weekend) are usually readily available on the door but if you plan to pitch a tent then you probably need to book into one of the many camp "sites". The official ACO sites at the circuit are highly likely to be booked out by now but there are lots of unofficial ones that aren't too far away. There's quite a good/close private site, well field, right by the Hunaudiere Restaurant on the outside of the circuit. Access is difficult because all the roads will be marked closed but if you ignore that and tell the plod at the barriers that you're going to the Hunaudiere Restaurant they'll let you pass. Some additional discussion and direction here... http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69361

If you've not been to this area before you have to do it as it's where the cars pass just a few meters away at 200mph+ :) The restaurant usually puts benches up so that you can see over the fencing but still not directly at the track. Do this in the early hours as well to get the full 24Hr du Mans effect!

If you're prepared to travel a bit further to the circuit from your pitch you might be able to get away with something impromptu but the Stewards and/or Gendarmes move on anyone who tries to pitch a tent close to the circuit.

Cheers

Mark

[Boomin33]

Thanks for all the good info guys!. I've done nothing with it yet, other than just now booking my Eurotunnel - leaving Friday noon and coming back Monday night.

Need to go and buy a tent now... and err find a place to stay? Very last minute.com on that one... but figure we will survive.

Worse case scenario, will just stay up all night Friday... kip in the car?, check out the race for Saturday... Get a chance to wear my US World Cup shirt!! and then if we don't meet some people who can hook us up.... just take off for a couple days in Paris.

Will definitely be checking out and trying the Hunaudiere Restuarant.

*if anyone is there, you might see a constantly wandering IOP targa

[Ewan]

Rob - you would do well to take a look at Team Langoustine... based in Wokingham, basically started as a bunch of guys organising their own trip to Le Mans and turned it into a business. They have camping tickets and supporting infrastructure that might make it a little less raw :)

Andy from TL is a really helpful chap - give him a shout and see what they've got ... they could even rent you the tent so you don't need to buy one and cart it over...

http://www.teamlangoustine.com/

For general LM info, you can't beat Club Arnage - www.clubarnage.com (http://www.clubarnage.com)

And the Bible of what to do/see, where to go etc is the annual CA guide - http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=10500.0

cheers - and good luck. I'm not going this year, for the first time in 12 :(

[kowalski]

I will be there from Wednesday with a lot of the Club Arnage guys on Bleu Nord, I can ask to see if theres any spare camping tickets left. Will pm you my number in case you want to get in touch when your there.

Leigh

[Boomin33]

Andy from TL is a really helpful chap - give him a shout and see what they've got ... they could even rent you the tent so you don't need to buy one and cart it over...


just saw this.... could be really good. Wife is only taking high heels ;) and we had been talking about buying the cheapest tent possible and just leaving it behind...

all great laid plans until actually getting there and start living it??

had a couple offers to look at now. Thanks guys.!

[NSX 2000]

I will be there from Wednesday with a lot of the Club Arnage guys on Bleu Nord, I can ask to see if theres any spare camping tickets left. Will pm you my number in case you want to get in touch when your there.

Leigh

Blimey Leigh, where have you been :shocked: It would be good to see you, do you still have the same number?

[NSX 2000]

Are people who are going to Le Mans going to the Mulsanne meet on Friday afternoon?

[kowalski]

Hi Paul

Been a bit hectic with work, based in Liege for the last 6 months but travel with the Aircraft a fair bit. Still on the same number but have a new phone so if you could SMS me yours.

Hopefully will do the Mulsanne meet but depends on how the hangover feels on the day!

Be good to see you again

Leigh

[Boomin33]

any luck on camping tickets Leigh?

Rob

[markc]

Hopefully will do the Mulsanne meet but depends on how the hangover feels on the day!

Hi Leigh, what livery will the NSX be in this year? :)

Cheers

Mark

[kowalski]

Rob, Will only know for sure when I meet up with the Club Arnage gang tomorrow evening, if there are any tickets it will be amongst a large group of chaos! hope you dont mind!

The cars still in the same theme as last year, didn't have any time to come up with anything new, just a few minor differences.

[Boomin33]

Rob, Will only know for sure when I meet up with the Club Arnage gang tomorrow evening, if there are any tickets it will be amongst a large group of chaos! hope you dont mind!

The cars still in the same theme as last year, didn't have any time to come up with anything new, just a few minor differences.

amongst a large group of chaos will be better then parked on the side of the road 5 miles outside of town! pm you my mobile.

Rob

[kowalski]

OK cool, will send you a text when I get some news, should be OK.

Leigh

[markc]

I watched "Le Mans 24Mins" on Eurosport last night and could have sworn I noticed the previously legendary fairground was back? The bulk of the show was chatting with Nigel Mansell and sons but I saw what looked like the old haunted house and some rides in the background at one point.

Since the fairground moved from the outside of the Dunlop bridge it has been seriously rubbish. It used to be fab with seriously mental go-karts, big arcades for life or death Sega Rally and air hockey tournaments, the "Mexican hat" ride to encourage you to throw up excess beer consumed (1 in 10 rides contains a spewer), the crazy "Tagada" (hands in there air no holding allowed) and best of all the Wall of Death complete with the crappiest old Honda Superdreams and the coolest fag toting stunt rider in the world... ahh memories :)

The weather doesn't look great for the weekend but I soo wish I was going anyway, have fun :)

Cheers

Mark

[Boomin33]

I remember in '96...

the shooting stand consisted of 20 guage shotguns with clay pigeon targets on spinning wheels at about 12 paces away. hand over 5 francs, or whatever they were and they gave you 3 shotguns shells... was brilliant.

At about 2 a.m. we were completely off our heads doing bumper-carts when a group of Germans showed up.. pretty much overweight skin-heads who could barely fit 2 at a time into the carts. got a bit rowdy and then they stole my baseball cap. had to walk up afterwards and forcibly take it back. If they hadn't been so enamoured with my girlfriend (who was shouting at them in german) and obviously taken me to be an insane, deathwish American,, I truly think i would have become a statistic.

shame, as they say - you can't go home again, eh.


is this the one?? bad photo of a photo

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o136/boomin33/IMGP1112.jpg

[markc]

Yep, that's the old fairground location :)

I'd forgotten about the shooting galleries, hey the shotguns were chained to the stall and only firing salt pellets... would still leave a welt tho' as a few people found out when their "mates" shot them in the arse :)

Mark

[duncan]

It wasn't only the booth with with the pump action shot guns;
the balloons tied up into the tree[s] on the skyline and .22s to shoot at them, whilst people could walk underneath;
the wall of death motor cycles;
bungey jumping from a telescopic crane;
the lady in the pit of snakes;
take your chance in the boxing ring with 'a very big bloke who doesn't know the meaning of pain';
the 'mystery of womanhood' all promoted with the use of a PA stack bigger than the 'traveller' with the microphone;
all of this subsumed by the toilet at Anarge..... a breeze block shell, the corrugated iron roof held up on the occasional brick to give [limited] light and ventilation, long drop stalls and....flushed by the attendant [and purveyor of paper] with a hand held hose pipe who sprayed after use by her clients;

[kowalski]

Back from another great Le Mans, only another 51 weeks to recover till the next one! Managed to get Rob and Minnie in with us and had a great time! Hope you both come next year!

I think we managed a record for an NSX meet at Le Mans as we met Paul too, so 3 NSX owners finnally meet at Le Mans!

All the old Farground antics are still there, just in Blue Nord campsite on a Friday night!!

Leigh

[AR]

I soooooo much hope I can make it there is always something in the way.

Glad you guys had a great time!

[markc]

Back from another great Le Mans, only another 51 weeks to recover till the next one! Managed to get Rob and Minnie in with us and had a great time! Hope you both come next year!

I think we managed a record for an NSX meet at Le Mans as we met Paul too, so 3 NSX owners finnally meet at Le Mans!

All the old Farground antics are still there, just in Blue Nord campsite on a Friday night!!

Leigh

Watched it extensively on telly as Eurosport covered every second of the race... in HD. Looked like the weather was pretty good after all, which is always a bonus when you're there :)

Great showing by the ARX-HPD (Acura chassis, running a Honda Performance Developments (HPD) engine) to win the LMP2 class. I had to correct my namesake Eurosport commentator (Mark Cole) via their message board when he stated that Honda had never enjoyed any success before at Le Mans. Err... GT2 class winners and 8th overall in 1995 with an NSX Mr Cole!

I will return when the rules properly stop favouring the evil diesels, hopefully next year :)

Cheers

Mark

[NSX 2000]

Watched it extensively on telly as Eurosport covered every second of the race... in HD. Looked like the weather was pretty good after all, which is always a bonus when you're there :)

Great showing by the ARX-HPD (Acura chassis, running a Honda Performance Developments (HPD) engine) to win the LMP2 class. I had to correct my namesake Eurosport commentator (Mark Cole) via their message board when he stated that Honda had never enjoyed any success before at Le Mans. Err... GT2 class winners and 8th overall in 1995 with an NSX Mr Cole!

I will return when the rules properly stop favouring the evil diesels, hopefully next year :)

Cheers

Mark

My understanding is there are big changes for 2011 and 2012, and these changes may not be for the best.

The ACO want to have hybrid/green cars but also want costs to come down, but these technologies cost more money in R & D so costs go up. So very much a cake and eat it scenario by the ACO :doh:

[Boomin33]

Took loads of pics... most crap - but here are a couple of the better ones that I downloaded this evening..

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o136/boomin33/NSXiop/PlaystationLights.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o136/boomin33/NSXiop/CorvetteLM.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o136/boomin33/NSXiop/porscheLM.jpg

[Boomin33]

Paul! I passed-out at halftime of the game and didn't wake back up for 4 hours... so sorry to ditch out on you and your friend.

woke up around 1 a.m. then went and took the pics above.

[NSX 2000]

Paul! I passed-out at halftime of the game and didn't wake back up for 4 hours... so sorry to ditch out on you and your friend.

woke up around 1 a.m. then went and took the pics above.

No poblem Rob, you did miss a very good burn out (yank style) and a not very good pole dance/strip :eek: and nice to meet your other half as well.

With regards to your photos I like the last one best, very arty.

Paul.

PS we didn't talk about golf.