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Irish
Original Poster
3,717 posts
108 months
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Really good trip this year. Notwithstanding the weather - I seemed to be in restaurants for every downpour!
ACO club a great respite.
Thumbs up to the seemingly hundreds of Morgan owners who made the trip.
I missed it but heard a TVR tail ended an Aston on the club track laps?
Crowds seemed less than 2012 - not necessarily a bad thing. Lovely atmosphere - afternoon champers the way to go.
Off to buy an e-type now. Smitten.
Finally, everyone very friendly on the way down - lots of waves and no sillyness. Roll on 2014 (need to find a hotel / Chateau.
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theoden
38 posts
62 months
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Very good trip for me as well. 3 other party members enjoyed it, two of these have done the 24 Hours race, and decided the Classic is now the only way to go! I can't see me going back to the 24 Hour either.
Saw the crash, a Sag rear ended the Aston. Not aware of track etiqutte, of who should have been doing what, but faster Sag caught up with other cars near the Aston, and not enough space left to avoid a crash whichever way the Sag went I think. Big impact on pit straight, Sag hit and badly damaged back of Aston. Sag went into left hand wall, Aston ended up over next to pit lane wall. Hopefully no one badly hurt.
Good friendly atmosphere,but the only loud music campers not far from me, but finished about 12-1am, so better than last time I went.
All in all highly recommended.
T
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Crook
3,511 posts
93 months
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To everybody that drove in something without a roof I can only applaud your fortitude because when it rained it really rained!
Great weekend but I think I'll be on the lookout for a hotel next time...
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t1grm
4,072 posts
153 months
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Not a bad weekend but I think I’ll stick to the 24 in future. I think it’s more of a car show than a race. With the possible exception of the plateau 5 & 6 cars I found the on track action distinctly underwhelming. Also it’s near impossible to follow what’s going on without RLM.
Wandering round the paddock at night was great though and the turnout from the car clubs was very impressive – something for everyone. The Ferrari 512M’s were my favourites. Some of the stalls in the village were great as well. I never found the paddock for plateaus 2 & 3 and consequently went the whole weekend without seeing a 250 GTO despite the fact there was supposed to be 23 of them there! Where were they?
The other problem was the lack of a decent restaurant. I was expecting the one next to the Guinness tent at the 24 to still be there but it had gone. It wasn’t the Ritz but at least it was somewhere you could sit down for an hour or so and get a decent hot meal with table service. The queues for the fast food kiosks were horrendous. The only other option was some a la carte place changing 100 EUR per head. I ended up getting the tram to McDonalds for Saturday lunch!
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Truckosaurus
3,528 posts
153 months
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t1grm said: The other problem was the lack of a decent restaurant. There was also a lack of the usual beer/snack kiosks. There were a few retro styled food stalls where the Guinness tent normally is, but they were selling burger and chips for €15. Like you we took the tram into town and had lunch at the Legends Cafe.
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struttob
90 posts
18 months
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Bit of a punch up in the ACO grandstand between a brit and a Frenchman on Sunday afternoon !
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struttob
90 posts
18 months
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Also got breathalised in Mulsanne on Saturday night, well just into Sunday morning actually, routine stop just outside the L'Eclerc, fortunately had not had a drink so all OK but just goes to show how careful you have to be these days !
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TimJM
639 posts
79 months
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I heard the Aston was a DB4! Ouch!
Somebody's pocket will be hurting.
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Zender156
15 posts
12 months
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Sounds like you guys had a great time.... maybe next year
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Crook
3,511 posts
93 months
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Truckosaurus said: t1grm said: The other problem was the lack of a decent restaurant. There was also a lack of the usual beer/snack kiosks. There were a few retro styled food stalls where the Guinness tent normally is, but they were selling burger and chips for €15. Like you we took the tram into town and had lunch at the Legends Cafe. Tram + Flunch No Croque monsieur stall either. It was a bit much that in Le Point it bangs on about a great selection of places to eat and yet it was worse than the 24!
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lowdrag
5,548 posts
82 months
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If someone thinks that it was only the later cars that were really going for it, this might change their mind 
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eastlmark
975 posts
76 months
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allways a shortage of food at Le mans events, (excepting the 24h) Le mans classic is really bad given the length of the meeting. Did a WSbR event there once and there were just 2 baguette stalls, one each side of the track with queues snaking around in a big loop. Dont know why, maybe the ACO want too much in return for a pitch?
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rjpartri
8 posts
23 months
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Sagaris came round the corner, lost the rear end on the damp track and while correcting the rear end clipped the back of the Aston with his front right fender. Aston went off then into the pit wall. I watched through my camera and it took me a second to realise what was going on, so only caught a pic in full swing on full zoom!  The Sagaris:  The Aston:  Looked like the Sagaris just over-egged it and the damp track wasn't forgiving.
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mudy
410 posts
41 months
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Once the oil went down at the start of the start/finish straight it all got very interesting!
I feel for that poor Maserati 3000 owner that front ended the wall - he'd only had it two weeks nd it cost him £3,000,000!!!!
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Redwing
834 posts
95 months
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Did anyone see e guy waving his prosthetic leg at the Bentley for which he was the pit crew instead of using a pit board? You just couldn't make it up!
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jtremlett
281 posts
91 months
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t1grm said: ...I never found the paddock for plateaus 2 & 3 and consequently went the whole weekend without seeing a 250 GTO despite the fact there was supposed to be 23 of them there! Where were they?... The 250 GTOs were only there on Friday and left shortly after their track parade laps. Paddocks for plateaus 2 and 3 were behind the other paddocks (i.e. further away from the pitlane). Jonathan
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Irish
Original Poster
3,717 posts
108 months
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t1grm said: The other problem was the lack of a decent restaurant. I was expecting the one next to the Guinness tent at the 24 to still be there but it had gone. It wasn’t the Ritz but at least it was somewhere you could sit down for an hour or so and get a decent hot meal with table service. The queues for the fast food kiosks were horrendous. The only other option was some a la carte place changing 100 EUR per head. I ended up getting the tram to McDonalds for Saturday lunch! ACO club members area by the Dunlop Bridge - nice sit down area with 3 course menu and wine available.
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ridds
6,535 posts
113 months
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Amazing weekend until my clutch failed. My car is now in the same garage as that Aston (I think, same colour) and it is well and truly f  ked. There is a load of damage to the front as well and the boot is half the size it was!
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cobylu
154 posts
72 months
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Epic weekend. Just landed back in Portsmouth after being with speedchills in blue Sud for the past 4 days.
Done the 24 before but never the classic. Roll on 2014.
Amazing amount of cars both on and off track with loads to see and do. Amazed at how hard the guys were trying in the races considering the value of them.
The rain wasn't as bad as the 24 in previous years, heavy at times but very rare.
Just need to get a car that's accepted on the track laps and go again in 2 years.
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Gazzab
15,112 posts
151 months
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jtremlett said: t1grm said: ...I never found the paddock for plateaus 2 & 3 and consequently went the whole weekend without seeing a 250 GTO despite the fact there was supposed to be 23 of them there! Where were they?... The 250 GTOs were only there on Friday and left shortly after their track parade laps. Paddocks for plateaus 2 and 3 were behind the other paddocks (i.e. further away from the pitlane). Jonathan Hello trembo!
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