First trip to LM - 2009 - Honest opinions/advice
Discussion
Right
I am very keen on the idea of having my first Le Mans experience this time next year, but obviously, having read a lot of the reports from the weekend, their seems to be a pretty mixed bag!
So far Ive heard of excellent s
tters and showers, overpriced food, theiving french pikey wrs being headbutted and beaten after stealing stuff, stters and showers being unbearable, spectator access being utterly shazbat and the arnage wrs being...well...wrs
Now if I do go, and I must stress that I DO WANT TO GO! I would like to know your advice, guidelines and information on how to make it a highly enjoyable experience?
Please bare in mind a few things:
1. I love photography and would love nothing more than to get a good vantage point of the cars..none of this highly elevated 2 mile away bks
2. I dont mind military tactics through woodland to get the vantage points
3. I will be taking the usual compliment of camera gear and money and dont fancy losing any of it to theiving pikey wrs, so whats the best way to have a stress free, non victimised time without sitting in my tent, guarding things the whole time?
4. Whats the best place to camp (not too bothered about distance as long as it aint an hour walk to anywhere
) ie: best facilities, most sociable, possibley quietest?
5. Is anyone up for writing a definitive LM survivors and good time guide??
Ta muchly in advance
I am very keen on the idea of having my first Le Mans experience this time next year, but obviously, having read a lot of the reports from the weekend, their seems to be a pretty mixed bag!
So far Ive heard of excellent s
tters and showers, overpriced food, theiving french pikey wrs being headbutted and beaten after stealing stuff, stters and showers being unbearable, spectator access being utterly shazbat and the arnage wrs being...well...wrsNow if I do go, and I must stress that I DO WANT TO GO! I would like to know your advice, guidelines and information on how to make it a highly enjoyable experience?
Please bare in mind a few things:
1. I love photography and would love nothing more than to get a good vantage point of the cars..none of this highly elevated 2 mile away b
ks2. I dont mind military tactics through woodland to get the vantage points
3. I will be taking the usual compliment of camera gear and money and dont fancy losing any of it to theiving pikey w
rs, so whats the best way to have a stress free, non victimised time without sitting in my tent, guarding things the whole time?4. Whats the best place to camp (not too bothered about distance as long as it aint an hour walk to anywhere
) ie: best facilities, most sociable, possibley quietest?5. Is anyone up for writing a definitive LM survivors and good time guide??
Ta muchly in advance
1. Go with Team Langoustine.
2. You're always going to get more people posting/moaning more about bad experiences than you are good ones. More people have a good time than a bad time at Le Mans, it is just a case of using common sense and staying away from the trouble spots.
2. You're always going to get more people posting/moaning more about bad experiences than you are good ones. More people have a good time than a bad time at Le Mans, it is just a case of using common sense and staying away from the trouble spots.
Edited by Boris. on Tuesday 17th June 23:30
Edited by Boris. on Tuesday 17th June 23:31
First of all I would just ignore the negative comments on here. Some of it is true but to be honest if you want to have a good weekend you will. Just be smart with your kit. Keep your high value stuff locked in your car and have fun.
Over the 24 hours we moved around the whole track to experience every vantage point. My personal fav is the night racing at arnarge.
Find a friend or someone to go with who also loves motorsport. If you want to make it easy book with white rabit racing or another club that will take care of everything for you.
Go with an open mind. There are some bad points about Le Mans and certain people (what do you expect with 260,000 people) but just make the weekend about the motorsport and you wont be disapointed! The cars are amazing and the atmosphere is great
Over the 24 hours we moved around the whole track to experience every vantage point. My personal fav is the night racing at arnarge.
Find a friend or someone to go with who also loves motorsport. If you want to make it easy book with white rabit racing or another club that will take care of everything for you.
Go with an open mind. There are some bad points about Le Mans and certain people (what do you expect with 260,000 people) but just make the weekend about the motorsport and you wont be disapointed! The cars are amazing and the atmosphere is great
I will be going with a group of people, probably 4 or more other people coming with, all motorsport enthusiasts and two other keen photographers
Where are the trouble spots and at the risk of sounding like an old fart, where are the quitest spots to camp for when I finally feel the need to close my eyes
Where are the trouble spots and at the risk of sounding like an old fart, where are the quitest spots to camp for when I finally feel the need to close my eyes
The safest place to leave cameras and other expensive kit is the most obvious. In your car.
With a little work and a little good advice there are plenty of places where you can get good shots without the fences in the way. I watched the start of the race from the inside of Tertre Rouge for example - the banking on the inside is so high you shoot straight over the fence to the apex.
With a little work and a little good advice there are plenty of places where you can get good shots without the fences in the way. I watched the start of the race from the inside of Tertre Rouge for example - the banking on the inside is so high you shoot straight over the fence to the apex.
Gizmo! said:
The safest place to leave cameras and other expensive kit is the most obvious. In your car.
With a little work and a little good advice there are plenty of places where you can get good shots without the fences in the way. I watched the start of the race from the inside of Tertre Rouge for example - the banking on the inside is so high you shoot straight over the fence to the apex.
HmmmWith a little work and a little good advice there are plenty of places where you can get good shots without the fences in the way. I watched the start of the race from the inside of Tertre Rouge for example - the banking on the inside is so high you shoot straight over the fence to the apex.
The camera would undoubtedly be spending most of its time around my neck
Would you send me a few low res samples to see how far up it is? The one thing that bugs me at circuits, is the way we end up taking shots from just below the stratosphere and from a mile away from the action....would really love some good, low down, head on shots
Mattt said:
Point 4 - if you don't like to walk don't stay at BSJ. Took me an hour from the Dunlop chicane back to camp on race day.
The 2.5 mile walk is ok at first, but does become tiresome after a week of doing so. IMO that is.
The 2.5 mile walk is ok at first, but does become tiresome after a week of doing so. IMO that is.
- Note to self - Buy a shed of a scooter and sticker it up for the event*
Mattt said:
Point 4 - if you don't like to walk don't stay at BSJ. Took me an hour from the Dunlop chicane back to camp on race day.
The 2.5 mile walk is ok at first, but does become tiresome after a week of doing so. IMO that is.
I must walk four times faster than anyone else in the world I think. Or were you going the long way? From Dunlop bridge to BSJ I'd say 45 mins tops - out the Karting Nord/Technopark side and straight down the road, not via Porsche Exterieur...The 2.5 mile walk is ok at first, but does become tiresome after a week of doing so. IMO that is.
It was my first trip this year, but can honestly say I experienced none of your worries. I stayed with the langoustine boys, we had a gated campsite inside tertre rouge, clean toilets and showers, marquee with a bar and eurosport on the flatscreen, great people. I didnt lock my car all weekend. Great place, great people, great trip.
It was my first year this year.
I stayed with friends in a locals house. (they rent out rooms for the event)
I had no problems at all, the mulsanne straight was great fun on friday. If a little dangerous though.
I only encountered 1 problem drunk who tried to stop my car but i just kept my speed up and swerved round him.
A VIP pass might be good as it seems there are some good spots to be had that way. Everyone else was really friendly without exception!
Depending on dates (does anyone know the dates of next years 24hrs?) i will be going next year but will be trying my hardest to sort out some passes.
Jon
I stayed with friends in a locals house. (they rent out rooms for the event)
I had no problems at all, the mulsanne straight was great fun on friday. If a little dangerous though.
I only encountered 1 problem drunk who tried to stop my car but i just kept my speed up and swerved round him.
A VIP pass might be good as it seems there are some good spots to be had that way. Everyone else was really friendly without exception!
Depending on dates (does anyone know the dates of next years 24hrs?) i will be going next year but will be trying my hardest to sort out some passes.
Jon
Edited by Supra_Pig on Wednesday 18th June 08:42
Scott - read the thread on Team Langoustine.
That will tell you all you need to know and on that basis alone I would recommend trying them. Yes, you pay a slight premium but not too bad, but you seem to be well catered for, well positioned, and well looked after.
For photography advise, I would suggest sending an email to Low Drag ONCE YOU ARE CONFIRMED AS GOING (simply so as not to take his time up unnecessarily).
He is a local and a does a lot of marshalling and photography. Explain that you are the Yorkshire forums resident snapper and he may be able to give you some straight forward advice based on experience.
See you at the next pub meet.
That will tell you all you need to know and on that basis alone I would recommend trying them. Yes, you pay a slight premium but not too bad, but you seem to be well catered for, well positioned, and well looked after.
For photography advise, I would suggest sending an email to Low Drag ONCE YOU ARE CONFIRMED AS GOING (simply so as not to take his time up unnecessarily).
He is a local and a does a lot of marshalling and photography. Explain that you are the Yorkshire forums resident snapper and he may be able to give you some straight forward advice based on experience.
See you at the next pub meet.
Will be my second time next year as went last year and really enjoyed it and managed to avoid all the problems aswell.
we had a hotel a few miles outside the track as dad and uncle have back troubles so cannot camp and we found it great! it was booked as a package so was all done for us. Although we did miss out imo of the campsite fun it rained a LOT!!! so we where glad we had the hotel tbh.
We had problems as we didn't know our way around very well so didn't get to find many good spots without fences and thanks to one of the main roads been closed we couldn't find our way around very well, however arnarge was good whilst there and the exit of the porsche curves we found in the evening was fantastic to sit and watch. we got into the stands before the end of the race and had a cracking view of the big screen, pits and the presentations after the race.
We got there on the Friday afternoon and didn't know about MAD Friday thing (slap on the wrist for that i think) so somehow managed to avoid it all and watched a bit of the practice and then went back to hotel for beer and food. this year where looking at either the Thursday or Wednesday so we can get to see more and explore a bit 1st.
ill be spending a lot of time on here before next year speaking to people and reading up on LeMans to find the good places to go and see, and arranging to meet up with some people out there for a few drinks and a bit of a guided tour.
we had a hotel a few miles outside the track as dad and uncle have back troubles so cannot camp and we found it great! it was booked as a package so was all done for us. Although we did miss out imo of the campsite fun it rained a LOT!!! so we where glad we had the hotel tbh.
We had problems as we didn't know our way around very well so didn't get to find many good spots without fences and thanks to one of the main roads been closed we couldn't find our way around very well, however arnarge was good whilst there and the exit of the porsche curves we found in the evening was fantastic to sit and watch. we got into the stands before the end of the race and had a cracking view of the big screen, pits and the presentations after the race.
We got there on the Friday afternoon and didn't know about MAD Friday thing (slap on the wrist for that i think) so somehow managed to avoid it all and watched a bit of the practice and then went back to hotel for beer and food. this year where looking at either the Thursday or Wednesday so we can get to see more and explore a bit 1st.
ill be spending a lot of time on here before next year speaking to people and reading up on LeMans to find the good places to go and see, and arranging to meet up with some people out there for a few drinks and a bit of a guided tour.
Thanks everyone for the replies, seems there isnt so much to worry about afterall and just seems a case of common sense!
Catch ya at the next meet bud
burriana said:
Scott - read the thread on Team Langoustine.
That will tell you all you need to know and on that basis alone I would recommend trying them. Yes, you pay a slight premium but not too bad, but you seem to be well catered for, well positioned, and well looked after.
For photography advise, I would suggest sending an email to Low Drag ONCE YOU ARE CONFIRMED AS GOING (simply so as not to take his time up unnecessarily).
He is a local and a does a lot of marshalling and photography. Explain that you are the Yorkshire forums resident snapper and he may be able to give you some straight forward advice based on experience.
See you at the next pub meet.
Cheers Al, will have a look at team Langoustine and see whats what. I dont mind paying a slight premium if the package is right and with it being my first LM trip, it would be nice for everything to well organised...maybe I could learn exactly what goes into organising something like the packages that WRR and TL offer, always valuableThat will tell you all you need to know and on that basis alone I would recommend trying them. Yes, you pay a slight premium but not too bad, but you seem to be well catered for, well positioned, and well looked after.
For photography advise, I would suggest sending an email to Low Drag ONCE YOU ARE CONFIRMED AS GOING (simply so as not to take his time up unnecessarily).
He is a local and a does a lot of marshalling and photography. Explain that you are the Yorkshire forums resident snapper and he may be able to give you some straight forward advice based on experience.
See you at the next pub meet.
Catch ya at the next meet bud
Supra_Pig said:
It was my first year this year.
I stayed with friends in a locals house. (they rent out rooms for the event)
I had no problems at all, the mulsanne straight was great fun on friday. If a little dangerous though.
I only encountered 1 problem drunk who tried to stop my car but i just kept my speed up and swerved round him.
O/T but did your supra have an anti-lag kit on it?I stayed with friends in a locals house. (they rent out rooms for the event)
I had no problems at all, the mulsanne straight was great fun on friday. If a little dangerous though.
I only encountered 1 problem drunk who tried to stop my car but i just kept my speed up and swerved round him.
We went for the first time last year and had a great time (couldn't make it this year due to getting married in August 
). I'm a control freak so spent months reading on here to make sure we missed as little as possible when there.
We stayed in Houx Annexe (will try and get Houx next year) which was easy walking distance to the track. Got there Thursday and got settled in. Friday we had a drive round the bits of the track that were open, went to Arnage for lunch to watch the world go by, LM town for the drivers parade and some tea, then HA roundabout Friday night.
We watched the race from loads of diferent spots - Tetre Rouge, Dunlop, pit straight, Esses (?, between dunlop and TR), and got the free bus down to arnage and mulsanne in the evening.
It was a quality weekend and like everything really, the more effort you put in the more you'll enjoy it!
Can't wait for next year!
). I'm a control freak so spent months reading on here to make sure we missed as little as possible when there.We stayed in Houx Annexe (will try and get Houx next year) which was easy walking distance to the track. Got there Thursday and got settled in. Friday we had a drive round the bits of the track that were open, went to Arnage for lunch to watch the world go by, LM town for the drivers parade and some tea, then HA roundabout Friday night.
We watched the race from loads of diferent spots - Tetre Rouge, Dunlop, pit straight, Esses (?, between dunlop and TR), and got the free bus down to arnage and mulsanne in the evening.
It was a quality weekend and like everything really, the more effort you put in the more you'll enjoy it!
Can't wait for next year!
Edited by dienamic on Wednesday 18th June 11:10
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