Alcohol?

[scottmodha]

My last trip was 2016, and we had issues with campsite staff at Mulsanne saying alcohol was not allowed.

This inevitably led to smuggling in booze in spare wheel wells, under seats and the like....

Are we likely to see issues again in 2018? I can't find anything official anywhere regarding this...

Cheers

Scott

[Truckosaurus]

Yes/No/Maybe.

I'm not familiar with the campsite setup at Mulsanne but for the main campsites what they are trying to avoid is people bringing glass bottles into the circuit spectator areas.

How this gets translated to the security on the campsite entrances varies from person to person, car to car.

To avoid hassle bring cans or do your beer shopping once you are 'checked in' to the site so can breeze past security with just a wave.

[ukcobra]

We have never had ANY problems getting Alcohol into the campsite, what we have had issues with recently is getting alcohol into the race circuit.
The last few years we have been camping on Houx.

[RL17]

Speak french and just carry big boxes of little 25cl everywhere with you and leave empties all over the stands. That seems to work very well

[//j17]

The ban is on glass bottles (inside the circuit) but the ACO doesn't seem to be very good at communicating it with the random casual staff they employ to man the camp sites so this can often get translated in to 'no alcohol' at the gate at the start of the week. Usually after a couple of days someone French has gone hammering on the ACO's door complaining and a clarification has made its way down to the gates and everything's fine.

[Tyre Smoke]

We have always just sailed in with the Caravan packed to the rafters with boxes of bottled beer. Just don't be obvious about it or give the staff on the gate a load of verbal.

Pass the attitude test and you'll be fine. Be a tosser and expect to be treated as such.

[JT3K]

The bottles rule was brought in after some muppets at Terte Rouge got drunk and threw empties on to the circuit at an event a couple of years back, so not 100% unreasonable IMHO. Obviously none of us are such clowns, but cans usually get away fine.

[Le_Mans]

No issues shipping drink into Houx, but vehicles are checked entering the campsite as it's inside the pay line (we buried/hid bottles deep in the cars as I think glass is the real issue here). We were stopped taking ANY form of alcoholic drink into the circuit by security on all the Houx campsite exits (cans or bottles).

[DMN]

No issues with Blue Nord ever. Got stopped taking tinnies into the track once last year. So simply walked to the next enterance and where let straight in.

[C70R]

Every f*cking year, the same thread.
I've been going since 2005, and we've taken metric tonnes of alcohol (including, gasp, glass bottles) onto numerous campsites, and not once have we been challenged.

[RickRob]

//j17 said:

The ban is on glass bottles (inside the circuit) but the ACO doesn't seem to be very good at communicating it with the random casual staff they employ to man the camp sites so this can often get translated in to 'no alcohol' at the gate at the start of the week. Usually after a couple of days someone French has gone hammering on the ACO's door complaining and a clarification has made its way down to the gates and everything's fine.

I am very happy to be proved wrong, but last year "no bringing alcohol into the circuit" was being enforced right through to Sunday morning, or at least it was at the entrance nearest to
Beausejour.

I was told by a random punter that the ACO got greater revenues from the "official" beer sellers when they ban people from bringing alcohol in.

It wasn't a big deal after the first time as my mate became a an expert smuggler and I wasn't drinking much anyway.

No problems on the campsite (Beausejour).

[scottmodha]

Shock horror C70r but I too have taken a sh!tload of alcohol both into Mulsanne and the circuit. What I was asking related to the fact that I had missed last year and wondered how things had been.

2015 they were being complete arses down at Mulsanne, in the end I stood at the gate, and asked them what did they expect at an event like this?

I will do my shopping when I get to Mulsanne as normal anyhow, Ice I will get on the way down as it always seems to sell out in teh shops up at that end of the circuit.

Cheers for the comments all - I am looking forward to the event now.

Scott

[Le_Mans]

C70R said:

Every f*cking year, the same thread.

And every f*cking year there's somebody on here who doesn't take into account that there may be newbies looking for friendly advice or somebody needing an update having missed a couple of years....

[delta0]

I think it is good to keep monitoring it every year. I am usually discrete with alcohol. Keep it packed away and out of sight.

[99dndd]

As a Le Mans newbie, I'm grateful for this (and any other) advice.

I'm using a plane/train combo to get to Le Mans so won't have a car to hid booze in should the need arise.

[C70R]

delta0 said:

I think it is good to keep monitoring it every year. I am usually discrete with alcohol. Keep it packed away and out of sight.

As long as you don't drive in with 20 crates of 1664 on the roof of the car, I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine. The same advice that is given every single year.

[xemmaxsx]

C70R said:

Every f*cking year, the same thread.
I've been going since 2005, and we've taken metric tonnes of alcohol (including, gasp, glass bottles) onto numerous campsites, and not once have we been challenged.

Because every year seems to be different. 2009/10 I don't remember any issues at all, happily taking 4 pints of red wine into the circuit and never buying a drink from the bars. The last couple of years, we haven't had any problems with taking alcohol into Houx Annexe (but have been discrete and no glass) but have not been able to take any alcohol into the circuit. Spent far too much on beer last year, but at least it was semi-cold in the ridiculous heat!

[ukcobra]

Our experiences from Houx, was the same. Into camping area was no problem.
Into the circuit, we had to smuggle tins of beer, so backing up the no-alcohol experience of others. This has only been evident to me in the last 2 years.

[DS240]

Don’t camp at circuit so don’t know about that side of things, but we’ve had problems trying to bring a couple of bottles of wine into the circuit.

Rolled them up into a rug and carried them under the arm rather than carry them in a bag and we were in...

Since then, it has been a box of wine with the bag taken out and placed into a rucksack. As they are looking for bottles, this has worked very nicely.

Wine from a box... how uncivilized!

[JT3K]

DS240 said:

Wine from a box... how uncivilized!

Reminds me of that episode of Fraiser - "Can I see the wine list please?....I'll try the 'white'..."