Le Mans 2009

[Harsh]

so how was the trip?
fun, rubbish, unmissable?

much as it pains me, i need to know!

[Bigburd]

Edited from my PH Posting...

This was my first Le Mans so trying to find a campsite was always going to be a bit of a challenge, however PN recommended TL. Overall experience I'd give a 7.5/10

* Track Location 9/10
* Multi Weather 8/10 (reckon this site would be ok in all but a monsoon)
* Site facilities 8/10 (no onsite catering, but reasonable value bar and good showers/WCs)
* Pitches per Site 5/10 (felt a bit claustrophobic I gave a 5 as it is not as bad as Glastonbury)
* Security 7/10 (excellent during race though)

Without the 5/10 and a bit of improved security TL would have probably got a 8.5 or 9.0 out of 10 (Camping will never get 10/10 from me), if I was asked if it was value for money, I think that due to the exchange rate and the ACO, Le Mans is never going to be the true value for money experience that from reading up on the past events on here. But it is still better value than a F1 GP.

Will I be back next year? The jury's out, as it stands possibly not (as it has ticked the been to Le Mans 24hr Box) although I may consider the Le Mans Classic and if so I would consider TL again. But never say never, I am sure there is more to explore at Le Mans and see if we can improve on things next year...

Highlights include:
Our Radio Sales Neighbours
The Friday meet in Mulsanne
Mulsanne Night Tour under Captain Mace
Riding shotgun down the Mulsanne Straight with Ollie saying "I'll wait until the bus gets out the way before flooring it"

Lowlights:
I hate Camping!!
Too much bread'n'meat

Other than that, everything has already been said in previous postings...Roll on the Alpine Tour! Back to the Luxury Hotels instead of Camping!!!!

[Graebob]

Well, I've been to Le Mans before, but when I last went it was pretty badly organised (i.e: Ollie did most of the organising and I just turned up on the day we left). Therefore I was very much looking forward to experiencing the trip as I felt it should be done.

From meeting everyone on the ferry, I felt very welcomed and prepped for the trip ahead. This had a lot to do with being able to communicate over the forum and have some input into the trip itself beforehand (even if my part in this way was very small). I was also greatly reassured by the provision of the GPS itinerary to plug-in to my TomTom. I would rate the preparedness for the driving part of the trip very highly, around 95% to perfect, if only because we ran out of time to do the full route down the coast as was the original plan (my fuel bill thanks you for that).

On arrival at the campsite, things were organised quite quickly, although because of our fragmented trip down we ended up having a bit of a mish-mash tent setup. This could have been fixed by sending someone directly down to organise our site, or if we had all arrived together and pitched at the same time (I can imagine this being horrendously fraught). All in all, bearing in mind this was a camping effort, which I gather you PN lot aren't used to ( ;) ), I'd rate highly again, as even though there was a slight disorganised element, this would have been completely nullified if there hadn't been the disagreement with Team Langoustine over camping "real estate". The decision to have only a couple of people go to Carrefour and pick up provisions was an excellent one, as was the forum thread organising which stuff to bring to make up our communal area.

The camping experience went very well, better than I expected. Lots of friendly banter, everyone pitching in and plenty of meat-between-bread to eat. Again, if we'd stayed in a big hotel I'd have been disappointed with the menu, but in a field in the middle of France I found it more than acceptable (and a damn sight better than the food I brought for the camp, which is still in the back of my car).

The event itself was awesome, and our access to it was leagues ahead of the last time I came. The fact that I had a great campsite to go back to if I was too tired/hot to watch the race was great.

Overall, I was most impressed with the spirit of driving camaraderie among the PN'ers, and am proud to be included in the group. It's made me definitely set aside a part of my bank account to save to come on another trip, hopefully in the not too distant future! I'd go to Le Mans again, and I'll definitely be on another tour.

Cheers :D