Thanks from the Classic British Welcome - St Sat. - Le Mans

[nigelonich]

Seemed ok for the Panda 🐼 cars.

http://www.ouest-france.fr/british-welcome-des-voi...

[griffman]

First time and certainly not the last for me....Got parked up and enjoyed the whole experience...Thanks guys it was great...

[Superhoop]

rwstokes said:

Lots of pictures from me

Classic British Welcome by Robert Stokes, on Flickr

Love this one.... But then I would, it was mine

[daveinlemans]

Wow, some great feedback and ALL of it is appreciated . . the good and the bad.
We have a debriefing meeting this week and I will take all the points to be addressed.
Our restriction is road access (entry and leaving) and we also can only work with authorisation from the good old Gendarmerie (hmmm) . .. which is not easy.
We have around 140 volunteers on site for the Friday and all of them give their time free on the day and many to set up on Thursday and remove everything on Friday evening . . regardless of the weather.

We will never get everything 100% right but we will try to do the best we can every year and make the event better (not necessarily bigger!) every year.

I can empathise with any traffic issues . .. it took me 2 hours to do the last mile to get into the circuit on Saturday morning . .. and the ACO pay their traffic chaps and have large carparks and the full support for the Gendarmerie .. . the excuse I heard was the arrival of the President . . not sure anyone would believe that.

Always willing to listen to an idea or an opinion . . the CBW is an event for you and the local community and will remain FREE. We sincerely hope PH will hold their Friday service with us in 2016.

Regards
Dave Williams
Classic British Welcome
Vice President

[Corbeliere]

For me and the missus it was our first visit.
We were asked upon arriving, much to our amazement, if we would enter our Bentley GT in the cavalcade later in the day.
We did just that and had a great time.
Thank you.

[DS240]

daveinlemans said:

Wow, some great feedback and ALL of it is appreciated . . the good and the bad.
We have a debriefing meeting this week and I will take all the points to be addressed.
Our restriction is road access (entry and leaving) and we also can only work with authorisation from the good old Gendarmerie (hmmm) . .. which is not easy.
We have around 140 volunteers on site for the Friday and all of them give their time free on the day and many to set up on Thursday and remove everything on Friday evening . . regardless of the weather.

We will never get everything 100% right but we will try to do the best we can every year and make the event better (not necessarily bigger!) every year.

I can empathise with any traffic issues . .. it took me 2 hours to do the last mile to get into the circuit on Saturday morning . .. and the ACO pay their traffic chaps and have large carparks and the full support for the Gendarmerie .. . the excuse I heard was the arrival of the President . . not sure anyone would believe that.

Always willing to listen to an idea or an opinion . . the CBW is an event for you and the local community and will remain FREE. We sincerely hope PH will hold their Friday service with us in 2016.

Regards
Dave Williams
Classic British Welcome
Vice President

It is a great event for Le Man fans and a fantastic effort by those organising and helping on the day/s.

However it's going to get busier and busier probably with each year so the site is going to feel the strain at some point. Managing traffic issues is always going to be difficult. The sudden exodus with the rain didn't help this year. Maybe local police help to get traffic moving out the junction.

If I had to throw ideas into the pot I would suggest;
- Traffic entering the 'arena' continues straight on where the cavalcade usually parks and gets split at the next 'junction', either left, middle car park or up to the top field. Have that barriered to help cars in easily in but it also would draw people over to right and form a viewing avenue as people come in. It would help free up the area where cars normally drive through.
- The car entry selecting is about right.
- Widen the track up to the top field to allow entering and exiting at the same time.
- New steps to the top field from the middle car park to draw people away from the road up to the top field to ease traffic.
- Food and drink options on the top field or middle car park to ease the crowds at the current food areas.
- More entertainment like music going on to add to the event thoughtout the day. Local musicians /artists/ groups.
- Open the toilets on the middle field again. Think they were shut this year or looked shut.
- Local produce/craft stalls to help local economy and get something out the event.

That's about it for now. Some would obviously cost money, but the event looks like a permanent Le mans weekend fixture now and sets it up to handle growth. If I think of any more I'll edit this.

[TvR Driver]

Cant add much other than we had three cars attend this year and two of us were in the pistonheads field and one ( dutch light blue TR6 ) got picked to go in the entry semi circle ( boy did he live off that all weekend !! )

We got there early and left before the masses and had no traffic issues and thoroughly enjoyed the event

Thanks from us all and the food was good to

Ty

[likesachange]

First one I attended and thought although weather was poor was a great selection of cars and if sun was out am sure atmosphere would be superb.

I think my wife needs some credit for enduring the trip in the atom !!

[daveinlemans]

All good ideas DS240. Thanks for taking the time to give it some thought and make some notes.
We invited caterers to provide more further up towards the top but running power was an issue to them.
However we met with the main caterer last week and it looks like they will provide something further up next year.
I have suggested bacon baguettes in the morning!
We have to pay for any assistance from the police . .. not easy to get them to commit to any help, so that is not easy.
Regarding music, I changed the band this year and have been looking for others to contribute, but there are some strict rules about musicians performing here in France and they all want paying and are not cheap . .. we don't have the budget for much more. I tried to get UK visitors to perhaps join in last year but no takers . . offer is still there!
Regarding stalls, we invite all local businesses (most are local) to take advantage of the number of visitors. ... it's the Brits that spend money and not the French (don't tell them I said that!!).
The site is not ours, so we can't make any physical changes, but we will always try to make the best of what we have.
I will stick my nose into this whole subject next year and hope we can improve things and listen to all the suggestions.
Thanks
Dave W

[Greensleeves]

Corbeliere said:

For me and the missus it was our first visit.
We were asked upon arriving, much to our amazement, if we would enter our Bentley GT in the cavalcade later in the day.
We did just that and had a great time.
Thank you.

You must have been behind Fatha and me in the yellow Ferrari on the parade then. I have some pictures.

[Greensleeves]

We love the CBW. I've attended it every time I've been to Le Mans which is not as many as most have. I will be back next time too.
Many thanks for putting it on. And thanks for infiting us to join the cavalcade in our "pretty car"