Le Mans substitute?

[superhans88]

Just discovered we can't do Le Mans this year as my mate can't get the time off. We still want to do a European road trip of some sort and it would make sense to combine it with an international motor-race, so is Spa 24 worth a punt? Anyone done it before? Any suggestions or opinions would be great, both for a Euro trip and for Spa.

Cheers.

[DJFish]

Circuit de Ramparts?

Or staying in the Uk there's GFoS , Revival or LMS & Britcar 24 at Silverstone.

[Tyre Smoke]

The simple answer is there isn't one.

[GrahamG]

There's the Le Mans Classic - Spa 24 can be a good race but atmosphere is nowhere close to LM - Both Goodwood events are excellent but a very different vibe to LM - The closest I've seen to LM is the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring but we've just had the 2012 race so that's no use to you.

[The Angry Gopher]

I'm substituting LM this year with a cocktail of the Silverstone Classic, LMS Donington, Brighton Speed Trials and a brace of car shows. The sum of the parts don't quite add up though

[davros94]

Zolder 24 hour in Belgium is an option too - much smaller scale than Le Mans, but also a lot less commercialised.

[Mark B]

There's no substitute for the main event. Having grown a little tired of the main event though, I have done the following:

Nurburg 24hr, great event, circuit is awesome, camping is a bizarre world experience but not a patch on LM as the track is too big.
Classic Spa - Great racing, but the event lacks the atmosphere amongst spectators.
Classic LM - Very good event, getting huge now though, loosing some of the atmosphere I liked, but wow, it has to be the biggest collection of classic cars worldwide..

This year, CLM and Classic Silverstone and maybe F1 at Spa... Next year, my son will be 10 and I am taking him to LM 24hr...

[Bobo W]

What makes LM so special for me is a combination of Journey / Atmosphere / Quality of racing in more or less equal measures.

The alternatives available in Europe will probably tick off a couple of those boxes but not all three in the same way.

Unfortunately you have now missed the N24 and as a slight left field suggestion also the IOM TT which I believe is this weekend.

If it's more modern racing you're after then consider any of the European based F1 races especially those in Germany and Italy as the atmosphere is really special. Spa's great but purely IMHO these 2 are better for the fun and games beforehand. DTM is an option as the Germans go mad for it, again stay the weekend and don you lederhosen and drinking goggles.

If you like the old stuff then unfortunately you've missed Monaco Historics but LM Classic is excellent and I've always fancied going to Circuit des Remparts.

Alternatively save your money and aim to do it properly next year by going to Daytona or Sebring or Indianapolis or Bathurst.