BRINGING THE OLD MAN TO LEMANS.( NOT THAT ONE )

[MCFADDEN]

As a relatively new TVR owner I am itching for my first trip to LeMans.

I foolishly mentioned it to Dad & he is all for it.
Must let the wife know she can't come this year.

Anyway, can you let me know what the whole LeMans experience entails, ie journey down, accomodation & typical time spent at the track.Travel time from Calais, etc.

From reading the threads I understand accomodation is a bit of a problem. Would ideally like to get B & B somewhere not to far away.

Would appreciate any advice & recommendations.

[Graham]

Blimey you've left it abit late, Id have thought the only way you'll get ferry and hotel/camping is to use one of the specialist travel companies.


I expect most hotels went about a year ago... and lots of camping sold out last year...


Motor racing international is one place, and look at the ads in autosport ect...


Dont worry about taking the old man mines been commin for about 5 years....

[johnny boy]

Anthony,

I'd forget the B&B as you miss out on one of the best parts of Le Mans - the camping.

OK, so you don't get a shower for a few days but you're among friends (60,000 Brits normally make the trip) who are all in the same position.

For the ferry crossing, check out www.ferryoffers.co.uk who represent all the major UK-France routes. I favour Dover-Calais on the Seacat which you can get for £119 at the moment.

There are several ways to get to Le Mans from Calais, either via Paris or Rouen, allow about 5-6 hours all in for stops / petrol etc.

Camping wise, keep an eye on the Club Arnage sell and swap Forum:

http://club-arnage.web-solutions.dk/forum/bbs.cgi

or check ebay nearer the time. There are always spare tickets available.

If you really want a B&B, try Hotels Villages:

www.villages-hotel.com/

or any other cheapo French hotel chain, but I expect that they are probably fully booked with the dire camping situation at the moment.

At the worst case, you could just turn up and head for Parking Bleu, pay your 15 ish quid and put your tent up - a lot of people do this and swear by it, but I reckon you'd need to get there by Thursday evening at the latest to get a decent spot.

Once you're there, what you do is up to you - spend as much or as little time at the track / bars as you want. General entry to the track is about £35 and you're free to come and go as you wish.

Hope this helps...

John

[ehasler]

I've just got some campsite pitches from airtrack (www.airtrack.co.uk) It's not cheap, but it's one of the only ways that you'll get anything now. I also booked a space on the Eurotunnel last week, so crossings should still be OK - at least for now.

[Graham]

Ed will you have the tugger by then and are you going to take it ?

[williamp]

My dads coming too (its his first time), my 4th.

Is there some sort of Creche for the old boys?? Somewhere where they can reminiss about how racing was in the good old days, where they can drink weaker beer
and moan about their young () scallywags??


(Sorry Dad. I didnt mean it)

[jvaughan]

Wierd .. This is my 4th time at LM too. its Dads first.. a present for his 60th Birthday. Were camping at Expo.

Will be taking the wedge, plus were going in convoy with M575, 360, 2x M5's Chimp plus my 400SE

[Graham]

another Expo camper huh,

what day you getting there we'll be there from thursday lunchtime

not sure on the full convoy (7 motors) as 2 of the guys have just bough mitsu L200 trucks, and they can take plenty of beer, so the cerb and the mr2 turbo may stay at home...

still leaves my chim, s type r, saab rag top, astra ?, porker 944

see you there..

hay with two of them that is enough to start a creche..

[ehasler]

Graham said: Ed will you have the tugger by then and are you going to take it ?

Oh yes!

[jvaughan]

Graham said: another Expo camper huh,

what day you getting there we'll be there from thursday lunchtime

I know what you mean. Last year we didched the TVR in favour of my V70 T5 .. Big enough to carry shed loads of booze (we went to Chateaux Neuf du pape to fill up after the race (only 800 miles each way !!) and fast enough to show a clean pair of heals to anything with Sub 200bhp.

Were on the overnight from Portsmouth to Cherbourg (Wed evening) so ETA Expo Just before Mid day Thursday.

drop me an email with a mobile contact number and if we get there first / whatever we can either reserve a patch or vice versa ...

[Graham]

jvaughan said:

I know what you mean. Last year we didched the TVR in favour of my V70 T5 .. Big enough to carry shed loads of booze

---

thats not big, last year we took 12 people and a twin rear axle double deck rock band tour bus ( as used by motorhead the week after!!!!)

we should also be getting there thursday lunch early eve.

with two groups we should be able to bag a complete run of sheds.

we normal park up in one of the sets nearest the car park i.e far left from the entrance.

G