Le Mans 2006

[nickliv]

I know it's been mentioned in the 05 thread, but thought I'd kick off an 06 one.

We're going (3 up) in a silver fabia vrs, 0755 p and o on Thursday morning, staying in Houx Annexe, back on the 10.40 on Monday morning.

Tent is blue and silver, with a white and green gazebo, and we'll be flying the jolly roger, and a club arnage flag. If you hear someone being unwell, it's probably me.

[WrightyRS]

Am going aswell,

Leaving on the 7:58am tunnel crossing.

Have 12 of us our group in 6 cars,not taking the Octavia though.

Our group consists of

1x Lotus Elise 135R (Metallic Ice Blue)
1x Lotus Exige Series 1 (Dark Metallic Olive Green)
1x Porsche Boxster S (Arctic Silver,18" Carrera alloys)
1x Porsche 993 911 Carrera 2 (Not sure never seen it!!!!!)
1x BMW Z4 3.0i (Metallic Balck)
1x Ford Mustang(New Shape - Metallic Blue)

Some cars will have decals on and we are going with AirTrack this year so in the fenced in campsite with the dogs and security people.

See some of you at the tunnel,and we'll be going via Rouen and then using the N138 not the new Toll road.

see you there.

[Wayne Kerr]

Hang on lads!
This subject is all over the place on this site!
Can someone PLEASE put the bits together so as we're all talking in "sink"!

Suggestion; search for "Le Mans".

Got to get this sorted lads, time is tight!

[Azzouz]

You are a Pics of Le Mans with your Skoda ?

[nickliv]

A write up of last years entertainment.

I left Aberdeenshire on the Tuesday before the race, with camping gear for 3 filling the boot of the car. The drive to Cumbria helped run the car in a bit more, (It had done less than 450 miles) so Wednesday morning was spent sorting little bits out, and collecting my Dad and one of his mates. Things were T I G H T in the car. Cumbria - Dover was uneventful, apart from my dad on one of his stints, set the windscreen wipers off, and proceeded to try to drive into an overtaking car.
'What the F*** does that guy think he's playing at?' 'Did he not see my signal?'
When I told him that the overtaking guy maybe hadn't realised that Dad was signalling in code, using the wipers (He has a japanese car with the wipers and indicators on the other dise of the steering column) Dad did calm down, and thankfully I got to drive again.

The chavelodge at Dover had a car park full of all sorts of tasty motors, from fully stickered up TVRs (All of which started the following morning) to reserved but immaculate 911s, a couple of Ultimas, and a Ford GT. And my vrs.

We set out to find a restaurant in dover, but failed, so found a wetherspoons. The beer was cheap, so we didn't care about the grub.

Thursday morning dawned cool and grey, and we had a 7 AM boat to catch. We caught it (Good tip, if you've got the option of lining up at the kiosks behind 4 ultimas or 3 caravans, choose the caravans. The cars towing them are driven by caravanners, the most organised people known to man, they have all their documents ready, and also, you get 40 feet further forward when one goes through the kiosk, the guys in the ultimas couldn't reach the windows, so had to turn the car off, get out, go back for their passports, get back in, put on a 5 point harness, start a heavily tuned V8, ease the clutch up and bunnyhop away. 4 times. (Well, 3. one was pushed))

Priority boarding. Recommended. Getting out of the car on the ferry to find that your wallet isn't in your pocket anymore. Not recommended. Finding the wallet under the drivers seat, priceless.

Off the ferry at the other end, (1st off, proprity boarding meant we were at the front of the boat) onto the autoroute and into a french motion lotion supplier. £.50p later, the tank was full, and off we went. Police speed traps everywhere, so I was glad of the cruise control.

A bloke in an M3 probably should have used his.

Non stop to Le Mans, through Rouen, the tunnel was heaven, all sorts of noisy exotica came hammering past, we dawdled with the windows down. Once through the tunnel Rouen lived up to its reputaion, we got lost (Another tip, if you think you''re on the right road, and am following 4 911s, and 3 of them turn off, stick to your guns, don't follow them like I did. You'll be exchanging quizzical looks with brits at roundabouts for half an hour.)

Back on the autoroute, Dad in the passenger seat, and his mate behind him had fallen asleep with their heads on the windows I spied a xenon dot in my rear view mirror. Bloody hell, that thing's shifting I thought, then a murcielago and an RS4 with drainpipe exhausts shot past flat out (Well, the Audi was) I don't think Dad and Tony have ever woken up in quite the same way since.

Thursday afternoon and we arrived at Houx Annexe, and found a spot, next to an original shelby cobra and a viper. And a VW minibus, a few transit vans, a motorised sofa, and a massive flagpole. Got the tent up in ooh, about 3 hours, then we went out to find a supermarket.

If you're picking up a case of wine, don't drop it. Trolley boys will come with mops and gallc poor humour.

Barbecue, coolbox, general grub and booze in the car it was time to go back to the tent. 2 miles. 1 hour. (I got dropped off at Maison Blanche to collect a flag from someone I'd never met or even seen before) I got it. Cheers Paddy. The Thursday afternoon qualifying session had just begun. I Have Never Heard Anything Like It. Ever. Walking back to HA, about an hour later I saw a small silver car driving towards me at speed. 'Bloody hell there's a load of clag coming out of the back of that, oh it's mine'

A dinner of suspicious sausages and beer later, and it was time for thurdsay night qualifying. Muchos beer and the tetre rouge banking. Come Midnight it was all over, so off to bed we went. We did not sleep, the sofa was driving around until about 3 AM.

Woke up to a scorching morning, so we went for a walk to get our bearings. The new 'village' of shops etc. behind the pits were good to walk around, lots of promotional eye candy on offer, I mean lots. Really. Loads. Google Hawaiian Tropic. Go on, do it.

Managed to get into the pits for a walkabout, I didn't realise the cars were completely stripped before the race. I mean completely stripped. The Acemco Saleen was a chassis tub and general debris. Then it was a awlk over the dunlop bridge and round the outside of the circuit to tetre rouge, through the frankly lethal tunnel under the track, and then it was time for a visit to the Mad Friday roundabout.

Where my dad got ran over. No, really he did. Lots of donuts and powerslides, water pistols being fired through open windows , at the drivers of soft top cars, at cyclists, each other, and for wetting tyres for burnouts.

Dad getting ran over. OK then. There he was in the middle of the roundabout, resplendent in his panama hat when someone in a mazda MX5 tried to do a donut. He ran out of power halfway round and basically drove onto the roundabout. So he tried again. And the man from Del Monte' said 'Ouch my knee' and 'I've left a me shaped dent in his bonnet' and'Anyone got an aspirin?'

To be continued....

[nickliv]

Friday night continued.

Things got worse at the roundabout when I blew up some camping gaz cylinders on some waste ground by the roundabout, which went down well with the hooligan contingent. And everyone else. My imprompru fireworks were the precursor to a huge display later on in the evening.

Back at the tent, we could hear straining engines on rev limiters still on the roundabout. Then a huge pall of tyre smoke drifted over the (not so) tranquil french countyrside.

Lying in my sleeping bag that night i heard footsteps, then a voice cried out 'oh no! It's a skoda...... oh it's all right, it's a vrs'

Saturday dawned bright and warm, and it was time for the half to three quarters of an hour queue for the showers. I've never had such a welcome shower.

A short drive into Arnage village for breakfast. Toast? asked a sullen french waitress. Merci we replied.

We got burnt day old french bread that had been cut into slices. No butter, and a little bit of jam. But the coffee was superb.

A trip to a big supermarket later, and we were the proud owners of:

Beer
More beer
Some beer
Some more suspicious french sausage
A proper barbecue and charcoal
Random bits and pieces of grub
A pretty dress for my 18month old daughter (My god did I get laughed at by, ooh, nearly every hairy arsed british bloke in the place)
An ironing board, as it was cheaper than a plastic table, and we were going to leave it behind afterwards anyway.



We wandered over to the grandstands to watch the beginning of the pre race events, we saw a couple of great historic races, blower bentleys and the like being used properly.

Then a walk to the outside of the circuit and a sleep under some trees while we waited for the start, then we went onto the bank overlooking the esses before tetre rouge, the cars came round on their warm up lap, Everyone was on their feet, and I was glad that I'm 6 ft 3, I got a great view. THen the start came, and the cars came round absolutely flat out. I've never seen cars going so quickly, or making more noise (Apart from the eerily silent diesel Audis of course) THe 911s hurt your ears, the flat 6 wail penetrating my skull much more than the racing V8's and V10's from the prototypes, the V8 corvettes, or the V12 DBR9s. The best sounding car however, was the first lamborghini ever to start Le Mans, unbelievable.

4 or 5 laps later, we began to wind our way back to the campsite, through the lethal unlit tunnel, pitch dark even though it was about 6 PM and daylight outside. We decided to forgo the sausages again, and trundled off to arnage village for dinner. It was lovely, steack frites sometimes means horse, or so I'm told. If that's what I ate, then I'm a convert.

Driving through the dark towards Arnage corner we were confronted by drunk people in cars, drunk people on bikes, drunk people on foot, all over the road. We got to the parking for Arnage, and went into the spectator enclosure, up onto the bank and the glowing brake discs of a GT1 aston martin was the first thing I saw. We stayed at Arnage until well gone Midnight, watching the cars emerge from the forest round the very fast Indianapolis right hand corner is a sight I don't think I shall ever forget.

We got heroicaly lost on the way back to the campsite, but made it eventually. I didn't think it would be possible to sleep with the howling engines surrounding me, but I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow.

To be further continued.