- 1,515
- BenSpecialized
So how did I find myself at Le Mans......? Well it actually started around January this year when myself and a fishing buddy decided to go to a fishing show. Were fairly keen anglers but by no means take it as seriously as some and we went along mainly because they had big fishing names giving talks on how to improve your catch ratio etc. It wasn’t until a couple of days after the visit to the show that I was flicking through one of the many leaflets/booklets you get handed when I saw a advert for what looked like a great fishing venue, best of all it was cheap at the tidy sum of £895 for 4 anglers, a few phone calls later and I had a couple if interested mates eager to find out more details. Now this is where things got a bit chaotic, I was at work a day or two later and I received a excited phone call from one of my mates telling me to look on a map at how close the venue is from Le Mans. Realising it was less than an hour’s drive I suggested seeing if that date was available and then we could have a chat about it all...........the date was clear and strangely the only date they had left in the calendar for fishing! Within an hour we ordered camping (£40), Le Mans tickets (£150ish for 3 tickets), Ferry crossing (£15 each way) and then booked the time off work.
Fast forward 6 months and at around 4pm GMT we were around my mate’s house packing the last of our stuff into our noble steed for the journey Mk4 VW golf PD150 (that’s a diesel which does about 50mpg)
At this point I should mention that there may be continuity errors with photos in the time line, the above photo was taken at lemans as I forgot to take a photo of the car before we left!
So with 3 men’s Fishing gear consisting of no less than
- 6 Fishing Rods
- 6 Fishing Reels
- 3 Miles of fishing line (seriously!)
- 6 Bite alarms
- 3 Chairs
- 3 Bivvys (green tents basically)
- 3 Beds
- Tackle Boxes, Bags and all other junk that goes with it
Along with a tent for lemans, cooking equipment 9 days of clothing for 3 people and leaving enough space for 3 people in the car we set about getting to Dover for our 6pm crossing. Heading for the motorway we met up with some more friends of ours who were travelling to lemans, there was in total 12 of us all going to lemans but we were travelling down separately. In true British weather style when we got to Dover it poured with rain! However we were treated to a few audio delights when a Lambo Gallardo came into the now wet car park and light up all 4 tyres and its engine screaming towards its red line.
The lambo stopped a few cars ahead of us and Craig from Big Brother and Bo Selecta fame gets out although he wasn’t driving (bloody shelf maker). Well this became a bit of a joke between us all as he was obviously looking for people to notice him and the fact we were all shouting "you will never guess who I saw on the ferry" in a joking manner didn’t really help matters..........I guess you had to be there
So we boarded the ferry, watched 100 cars park in a space designed for about 50 then retired to the bar for a cheeky beer on departure of our epic journey across the English Channel to Bolounge. Now I’ve never been on a seacat before, just the boring ferry and rather noisy hovercraft so it was a bit of an experience and seeing the size of the wake the boats make was quite something. We tried to capture this in a photo but it’s not quite as impressive, the water being throughout the back must be a good 15ft high.
Then came the first group photo opportunity
On the left we have Colin, Chris (one of the guys going fishing after Le Mans and owner of our noble steed) myself and last but not least Nathan the Driver of the other car.
So we reach Blamonge or whatever it was called and headed south towards Le Mans noting these two following us off the seacat
According to TOM TOM we would get the Le Mans at 1.10am which seemed a little optimistic especially with the Gendarmerie lurking everywhere and the 110kph speed limit on the roads when wet.
That’s the view from the car just before the street lights stopped. Note the lack of white lines on the road on a motorway and also the lack of cats eyes Coupled with very poor visibility and wipers which couldn’t clear the rain off the windscreen quick enough made for some interesting driving. Our options didn’t look much better either, we could pull over on the side of the road and risk being crashed into or continue driving at a sensible speed and keep our fingers crossed that we would make it through the weather. After many butt clenching aquaplaning moments the weather died off and after being robbed a handful of Euros in exchange for using the motorways we were closer than expected. Signs for Le Mans were popping up and I thought it would be nice to take a few pics.
So I learnt my lesson and left the camera alone until we got to the track which was only a few moments and I produced this gem!
Moving Car + Beer = Crap Photo! Although it does look kind of cool but it’s not what I intended to get a pic of. Rather than take many more rubbish far away shots I thought I would make sure my next pic was a definite winner.....
We had arrived!
We set about finding a place to camp in our site and after watching Nathan get his Nissan stuck we decided it was best to stick near the hard mud and not go too far off the beaten track. We parked the cars and pitched our tents up, had a few beers and a chat and went to sleep at a rather later than expected 4am. Well done Tom Tom!
About 9am the same day we all awoke and headed for the local supermarket to stock up on supplies. These mainly consisted of Beer, Beer, Beer, Bacon, Sausages Bread and a little more beer just in case we didn’t have enough. What we hadn’t counted on was the queue of traffic trying to get into the camp site on the way back! After 2 hours in traffic we finally got back to our humble abode and eat sausage and bacon sandwiches washed down with a tasty beer!
Pics of a couple of cars we saw in the traffic, I was too slow getting the camera for allot of the cars that drove past.
After we stuffed our faces we set about getting to the track and having a look around. Armed with some pimping sunglasses, digital camera, a straw hat and a rucksack full of beer the adventure began.
Me as described above
Stu (left) and Chris (right) my travelling companions tried to pull off the same suave look as me but failed miserably
Now I knew Le Mans was big but Jesus Christ it’s BIG! It literally took an hour to walk to the track from our campsite and we were based in the centre of the track! Our first point of duty was to A) crack open a beer then B) go to the Le Mans village where most of the stands are.
So after a short walk we found ourselves in the Le Mans village and then promptly walked out the main gate just to get a shot of the entrance and a pesceleleleroloerolo
We ventured back into the track and walked around taking pics of all the happenings around us. The village was quite crowded so walking about was tiresome not to mention to rain spells.
We then thought the pits would be a great place to check out so promptly cracked open more beer and tried to find the entrance
I must admit I was quite taken aback when I saw just how many people were in the pits and how much wider the pit lane is when you’re in it.
I got a little camera happy in the pits so I have tried to show some of the decent pics along with 2 pics I managed to get of the start finish straight after an amusing French security guard meets English tourist type conversation. Strictly speaking we were not allowed to stand on the walls but I did as I assumed I was allowed judging by the smiles and nods and also ran across to the pit wall and took a couple of snaps.
The closest I think I’ll ever get to being on the track (mulsanne straight not included)
Pit Lane Photos
I took liberties with this one and just walked halfway into a team’s garage so I could take this pic. They were very friendly about it and just smiled, probably thinking "bloody English"
And that was the pits. I quite enjoyed seeing mechanics attack very expensive Carbon Kevlar body panels with dremel looking devices and hearing cars testing their engines. Unfortunately the Murcielago garage (a privateer) was closed so they were either very confident or something bad happened.
It later emerged from my eavesdropping on another English Le Mans go'er that they wrecked the car in qualifying and it was frantically being rebuilt. However they were unsure as to how legal this was as they didn’t have many spares and the car had to use the original chassis. Speculation of them buying a lambo from somebody at lemans seemed like nonsense but I heard a few people talking about this at different times through the day. Chinese Whispers on a major scale I think!
By this time it was around about 7pm so after dodging rain storms here and there we made our way back to our camp with an almost empty rucksack and the want for food! However we encountered what was dubbed as "Mad Friday" a certain stretch of road where people basically zoom off in their cars and act foolish. I’m not saying what the people were doing was clever but I let it slide this time seeing as I was on holiday and at Le Mans
<- Video does work, but not showing image for some reason
We just got all our food on the go when I spied something coming down the track. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing so took a few snaps and then got asked by one of the guys inside "Scuse me mate, how the fook do we get out of this camp?"
Ferrari 330 P4
I’ve been told that if this car was a genuine model it would be worth around £1.5 million and if it was a replica it would still be over £250k worth of car
After this we sat about and drank beer and talked while all the crazy goings on of lemans happened around us. We saw Transvestites, the Blues Brothers and a robin reliant with a toilet on the back that then came round again with somebody on the bog! It’s quite a place Le Mans.
So at some stupid time in the morning we all decide sleep is a good option especially as we need to make another trip to the supermarket as we have drunk all the beer for the weekend in one day!
Race Day!
We were rudely awoken by the sounds of historic cars racing around the track. We had some more bacon and sausage baguettes for breakfast, refilled the rucksack with beer and ventured off to Porsche curves for the start of the race.
Predictably Porsche curves were pretty full however we managed to get a good spot and drank more beers until we saw something a little more entertaining than an Audi TT drive past. We didn’t have to wait long, the air started to crackle and you could hear the air being forced out of the way of the vehicle coming towards us. The sound of a Lola being driven hard erupted around as the car came into sight and was then popping and flaming as it went out of sight. This was followed by many more cars of all classes and it was incredible viewing. The gentleman in the blue Lola obviously didn’t think the same way of the other drivers as he gave the car everything it had while others were gently warming up their cars.
Now we took allot of pics from Porsche Curves but there is only so many times you can see a pic of a car mid corner so I have a video of every single car running at lemans doing a pass of us. Much more interesting I think you will agree.
We stayed around the Porsche Curves for a couple of hours and were about to venture down to Arnarge. After walking back to the camp site (the way to Arnarge) we decided that we deserved a break so went back to the tent, sipped a couple of beers and had tea. Our logic was that if we ate not we could go out in the night and not have to return until we were too tired to do anything else. It seems as the others had the same idea as after we tucked into our 3rd or 4th beer they arrived. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with a Frisbee and drinking more beer. Many laughs were had especially when I managed to rip a pair of boxer shorts in half leaving my bottom exposed (I had to pull shorts down to show boxers). So the afternoon turned into quite the drinking session and what do we have to show for it? Well for once we actually do have something to show!
With the Pyramid of beers completed we decided to fill the ever useful rucksack up once again with beers and venture out into the night of lemans.
Our first stop was to be Porsche Curves again, it was the closest place too so had many things going for it in our now slightly drunken state. I should also say that videos recorded and pictures taken from here on in may suffer due to drunken operators!
We arrived at a somewhat busy Porsche Curves after a long walk having spotted a few funny/cool cars
Note the blatantly obvious comment from somebody behind us
We then hustled to the front to get a respectable view and take some pics.........
Ok so that didn’t work so here’s a little video to help
We drank more beer for an hour or 2 and then decided we should move on as was about 11.30pm by now. We took a slow walk as I don’t know how but I managed to hurt my leg and I could barely walk on it. The tendons in my knee were playing silly buggers however I tried to not let it stop my fun so I polished of another beer and we continued on our merry way.
So where to next well we went to the village again for a bit and saw an Audi R8 (road car) and also a ton of Astons on display. We walked around here for an hour or so and then decided that getting a Crepe was a great idea not least because we all wanted to be pervs and see the extremely hot chick making them. So a few Euros later a couple of smiles and a dangerously hot crepe with literally a quarter of a pot of nutella stuffed inside we headed for the grandstand. We had all lost track of time by now and none of us were wearing watches!! We knew it was getting late/early so headed for the grandstand for what was to be quite an experience.
The grandstand was pretty empty when we got there possibly because it was so god damn noisy! I being me was all eager to stand as close to the track so I could get a good view, moments later a Panoz flew by at what seemed like light speed literally 6 ft away from me. I was left slightly dazed and it physically took my breath away momentarily. The walls and ground were shaking as it went past and the echoes seemed to amplify what was already an unbelievably loud sound, it was only then I understood why pretty much everybody else had earplugs in. The atmosphere at this time of the night in incredible with all the pits lit up and the crews doing one thing or another and certainly something I will never forget. Knowing that pictures would never do this justice I recorded some videos but there is nothing like being there.
I do have many more but they are huge files and I don’t have the time at the moment. I will update this thread with any pics and vids I have left out at a later date.
We learned it was getting on for 3.30 in the morning so decided we should make a move and head back to the camp as we were leaving tomorrow for our fishing trip and wanted to leave just before the end of the race to avoid the hectic traffic jams.
There was one thing we had to do before we slept though and that was at least try and get to the mulsanne straight. Strictly speaking you’re not allowed due to high speed crashes being a possibility but hearing Le Mans cars thunder past at over 200mph was something worth trying to see. We headed in the right direction and got quite far until we found these new fences they have put in place to stop such antics. That and the fact there were allot of gendarmerie (french police) patrolling and they have guns put us off from going further besides we had enough fun already.
Sleeping was allot easier than I thought it would be especially when there are 40 odd cars racing around me however I woke up at about 10am and we proceeded to pack up our stuff ready for our departure. We went and saw a little bit more racing and then decided to beat the traffic and head to our next destination which was only 40 mins away.
That Ladies and Gentleman was my Le Mans. It was an experience I’ll never forget and we are booking up next year’s tickets at the end of next month
Thanks for reading and if for any reason you want a pic you have seen in here in full size then just PM me and I’ll send it on. I reduced the quality so that it was easier for people view as not all of us have super fast broadband.
Spec....
Thanks for the comments so far 👍
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