Was LM16 Quiet?
Discussion
Just wondered what other attendees from this year's LM thought about how busy it was. Seemed much quieter to me and my mates.
Far fewer British cars around than we'd normally expect, and the bars in Arnage and Mulsanne were practically empty.
Admittedly we never ventured up to the top end of the circuit (Yeah we're filthy casuals I know) and we only bought tickets for the Arnage and Mulsanne corners, but we've seen it way busier than it was this year. Maybe the weather forecast put a lot of people off?
Far fewer British cars around than we'd normally expect, and the bars in Arnage and Mulsanne were practically empty.
Admittedly we never ventured up to the top end of the circuit (Yeah we're filthy casuals I know) and we only bought tickets for the Arnage and Mulsanne corners, but we've seen it way busier than it was this year. Maybe the weather forecast put a lot of people off?
I agree it felt quiet. Our campsite (north end) wasn't as packed in as previous years; town on friday didn't seem too frenzied; driving around during the race we experienced no queues of any significance.
Stated attendance is 263,000 which I think the ACO are claiming is a record. Strange.
Stated attendance is 263,000 which I think the ACO are claiming is a record. Strange.
Arnage was pretty chaotic around midnight on Saturday, it seemed as though that was where everyone wanted to be, be it via bus or via car. The cars were stopping all of the buses, it tooks us hours to get back from Arnage to Porsche Curves
To me it seemed about the same as last year in general based on the crowds around main part of the circuit. However I was surprised at the lack of mad friday antics at night at Beausejoir roundabout, that seemed unusually quiet and there was no cops around that I could see. I saw a Sagaris with a stoved in front dumped at the side of the road on Friday afternoon down there, maybe that had something to do with it all.
Mulsanne corner is always quiet, mostly because its boring. If you want a quiet place trackside without much human foot traffic around it that is the place to go. Not too bad a place to camp really I suppose.
To me it seemed about the same as last year in general based on the crowds around main part of the circuit. However I was surprised at the lack of mad friday antics at night at Beausejoir roundabout, that seemed unusually quiet and there was no cops around that I could see. I saw a Sagaris with a stoved in front dumped at the side of the road on Friday afternoon down there, maybe that had something to do with it all.
Mulsanne corner is always quiet, mostly because its boring. If you want a quiet place trackside without much human foot traffic around it that is the place to go. Not too bad a place to camp really I suppose.
Edited by captainsl0w on Tuesday 21st June 14:07
Large amount of empty space on the Epinette campsite. Not been in there before so don't know if that is usual.
There seemed to be several new campsites in various fields around the football stadium/Tertre Rouge area, some seemed to have official Security/marshals working so perhaps they moved people around due to the bad weather.
I suspect the bad forecasts prompted many locals to come for a shorter time.
There seemed to be several new campsites in various fields around the football stadium/Tertre Rouge area, some seemed to have official Security/marshals working so perhaps they moved people around due to the bad weather.
I suspect the bad forecasts prompted many locals to come for a shorter time.
I think it was the weather. The numbers probably were up a little on last year but people spent a lot more time hiding in tents rather than going out and about to Arnage, etc as they normally would.
On the plus side we got the best seats in the Champagne tent on Thursday as we were the only ones in there
On the plus side we got the best seats in the Champagne tent on Thursday as we were the only ones in there
The stationary traffic queues through Le Mans (from just north of Arnage) on Thursday night suggested it was anything but quiet. We hit Le Mans at 6ish and arrived at Blue Nord at 11ish. Chaos, no idea whether it was sheer volume or whether there was a problem, but there certainly didn't seem to be any traffic management from the gendarmes. Traffic seemed to move about 10 metres, then standstill for 15 minutes (and repeat for 5 hours).
Other than that, I thought inside the circuit it was just as busy as normal.
Other than that, I thought inside the circuit it was just as busy as normal.
Definitely quieter. I thought there was over 300k last year?
Last year at midnight the roads around circuit were chaos. This year, empty.
Camp sites were quieter. Loads of space around us.
I'm assuming it's a combination of the French preferring euro 2016 and last year was a peak due to the return of Porsche and Webber.
Last year at midnight the roads around circuit were chaos. This year, empty.
Camp sites were quieter. Loads of space around us.
I'm assuming it's a combination of the French preferring euro 2016 and last year was a peak due to the return of Porsche and Webber.
Truckosaurus said:
Large amount of empty space on the Epinette campsite. Not been in there before so don't know if that is usual.
My first time in Epinettes as well, I agree it wasn't exactly full. We got there Wednesday afternoon and it maybe only doubled in numbers up to Saturday. I think that there were one or two emergency sites opened to cope with the waterlogged pitches on other sites, they bodged one up right by the BSJ roundabout on Thursday - I know this as I watched a tractor doing its thing in the field whilst waiting for what felt like hours to get from Arnage back to Epinette. The traffic was so slow that I turned the engine off and just pushed the car whenever the traffic moved - if you saw a stickered up Titanium Storm Elise being pushed along it was me Edited by CardShark on Tuesday 21st June 15:57
Press release says 263,000 this year, but with the weather I would expect many to have taken refuge in bars/restaurants. I completely forgot mad Friday but only got stuck for 30 minutes at Porsche Curves on my way from Arnage to the Hunaudières. Far less people than I thought there would be.
Truckosaurus said:
Are there fewer Danes attending since TK retired? Plenty of Danish drivers but none with a chance of an overall victory which might keep them away.
If anything more Danes rather than fewer. The Danish tour company seemed to have taken over even more space than previous years. Had most of Karting for years but saw they had a corner of Beausjour/field between Beausjour and the bridge and also spotted their fencing somewhere else.DTB77 said:
The stationary traffic queues through Le Mans (from just north of Arnage) on Thursday night suggested it was anything but quiet. We hit Le Mans at 6ish and arrived at Blue Nord at 11ish.
We caught a bit of this on Wednesday afternoon and a lot of it was down to flooding in Parking Bleu. Basically one of the biggest car parks was out of action but people only found that out after queueing down to it, stopping and blocking traffic before being sent somewhere else. And Wed/Thurs PM you've got qualifying so loads of people trying to get in to their pre-booked space in Parking Bleu.NickNJ said:
Definitely quieter. I thought there was over 300k last year?
Last year at midnight the roads around circuit were chaos. This year, empty.
Camp sites were quieter. Loads of space around us.
I'm assuming it's a combination of the French preferring euro 2016 and last year was a peak due to the return of Porsche and Webber.
Porsche returned in 2014 though.Last year at midnight the roads around circuit were chaos. This year, empty.
Camp sites were quieter. Loads of space around us.
I'm assuming it's a combination of the French preferring euro 2016 and last year was a peak due to the return of Porsche and Webber.
Jesus, you mean it's been busier than that b4? I last went in 2009 & it was MUCH quieter then.
This time, Thursday night traffic through Arnage village was stationary, took us over an hour to move about 1/2 a mile (sitting in an open topped car with a brolly up - great!) & as soon as we got to the junction past the railway lines the road out to Arnage corner was completely clear, the queue caused by something to do with 2 way traffic on what used to be a one way road I think. The queues for Bleu carpark & the main entrance on raceday stretched for miles back up the motorway - fortunately we were going to rouge & found some empty backstreets to go down that came out 200yards from rouge entrance - result!
Raceday inside the circuit was ridiculous, we got in on the start/finish straight fairly early on, which was fine, but seemed pointless staying there after it started under safety car, so decided to move up to the outside of Chappelle, which I'd found to be a good viewing spot previously - fat chance - it was absolutely chocca & heaving with people, as was everywhere else, no room anywhere, watched from the inside of Tertre Rouge for a while (not a very good spot) & then after crowds had finally thinned a bit were able to get in on the inside of Chappelle which is pretty good as you get to see them come under Dunlop bridge thro' the corners & out towards Tertre Rouge, but it appeared to me that there are simply not sufficient decent viewing spots for that volume of people, if it is actually busier than that usually then it puts me right off going again ..............
Maybe a grandstand seat next time?
This time, Thursday night traffic through Arnage village was stationary, took us over an hour to move about 1/2 a mile (sitting in an open topped car with a brolly up - great!) & as soon as we got to the junction past the railway lines the road out to Arnage corner was completely clear, the queue caused by something to do with 2 way traffic on what used to be a one way road I think. The queues for Bleu carpark & the main entrance on raceday stretched for miles back up the motorway - fortunately we were going to rouge & found some empty backstreets to go down that came out 200yards from rouge entrance - result!
Raceday inside the circuit was ridiculous, we got in on the start/finish straight fairly early on, which was fine, but seemed pointless staying there after it started under safety car, so decided to move up to the outside of Chappelle, which I'd found to be a good viewing spot previously - fat chance - it was absolutely chocca & heaving with people, as was everywhere else, no room anywhere, watched from the inside of Tertre Rouge for a while (not a very good spot) & then after crowds had finally thinned a bit were able to get in on the inside of Chappelle which is pretty good as you get to see them come under Dunlop bridge thro' the corners & out towards Tertre Rouge, but it appeared to me that there are simply not sufficient decent viewing spots for that volume of people, if it is actually busier than that usually then it puts me right off going again ..............
Maybe a grandstand seat next time?My first time back since 2005 and I thought it was WAY busier. Arrived in Arnage on Thursday afternoon at 3pm but it took me 4.5 hours to get through to Beausejour through the biggest jam I have ever seen.
The site was so boggy that only 4x4's with proper tyres could leave the field we were in without getting stuck in the mud. The rest of us couldn't take our cars out until Sunday night when it had dried out a little.
Queued for half an hour to get the shuttle out to Arnage at midnight and queued for another half hour to get back at 3am. Never seen it that busy before. Also saw many dozens of Police on all the roundabouts all weekend
The site was so boggy that only 4x4's with proper tyres could leave the field we were in without getting stuck in the mud. The rest of us couldn't take our cars out until Sunday night when it had dried out a little.
Queued for half an hour to get the shuttle out to Arnage at midnight and queued for another half hour to get back at 3am. Never seen it that busy before. Also saw many dozens of Police on all the roundabouts all weekend
Wednesday practice and qualifying was very quiet Thursdays qualifying much busier, but I thought race day was chokka especially down by tetre rouge outside of circuit where we normally watch the start, we managed to get a half decent spot watching the big screen.
Did notice driving around was much better than usual, maybe like me people are not venturing out as much, we just went out twice once for shopping and once for saint saturnin.. and the road going by Houx was very quiet on mad Friday night, I haven't bothered going down to Houx roundabout to watch mad friday evening for the past 3 years. It used to be such a laugh, with pirate ship, judge dread, fancy dress etc etc, ( where have they all gone??) I suspect they have done what many others have done and just don't bother because of the hooligan element !!.
Its got to be similar numbers if not busier than last year inside the circuit
Did notice driving around was much better than usual, maybe like me people are not venturing out as much, we just went out twice once for shopping and once for saint saturnin.. and the road going by Houx was very quiet on mad Friday night, I haven't bothered going down to Houx roundabout to watch mad friday evening for the past 3 years. It used to be such a laugh, with pirate ship, judge dread, fancy dress etc etc, ( where have they all gone??) I suspect they have done what many others have done and just don't bother because of the hooligan element !!.
Its got to be similar numbers if not busier than last year inside the circuit
Very surprised by the quoted potential figures for attendance, thought it was really quiet, with a much more 'family' type of attendee.
But, what a great LM, once the heavens had shut for the weekend. The new viewing area at Indy/Arnage being the star of the show for us. Mind you the new bankings got a bit 'bouncy' during the weekend, could do with firming up a bit before the next LM, (bit like some of the post red sausage LM'ers
But, what a great LM, once the heavens had shut for the weekend. The new viewing area at Indy/Arnage being the star of the show for us. Mind you the new bankings got a bit 'bouncy' during the weekend, could do with firming up a bit before the next LM, (bit like some of the post red sausage LM'ers
Not been for few years but it definitely seemed busier than before IME. Arnage sat night certainly was. I had no problems with getting around though...took the bike. Its the way to do it! cycled past all the queues and saw a lot more of the race than previously.
Whats with comments on the weather anyway. I arrivedFriday eve at 9.00pm and the only rain I experienced was for the 30 mins at the start of the race.
Whats with comments on the weather anyway. I arrivedFriday eve at 9.00pm and the only rain I experienced was for the 30 mins at the start of the race.
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