Ever year I run a tour to the Le Mans 24 Hour race will be the 5th in succession in 2007.
Last year we had an awesome convoy of 20 cars with over 40 people piling through France in the dead of night arriving at Le Mans around dawn. Even that early on the Friday it was difficult finding space in the campsite for everyone to be together so for next year I am booking my own 5000 square metre fenced off camping area which I am hoping to fill with as many like-minded BMW enthusiasts as possible.
Louise and some crew from Performance BMW Magazine are also joining us for the weekend to cover the event. You will see a promo in the March edition.
I have 90 spaces available in my campsite. Each car will get a guaranteed 50 square metre (10mx5m!) area to themselves. After just a few weeks marketing, I have allocated 28 of my 90 car tickets and they are selling fast. The BMW Car Club are in as well and we should see many members from there coming along. We need to show BMW that someone really ought to be be running the marque at the 24hour as there are plenty of us to support them!
Le Mans is a brilliant, inexpensive weekend away - it's like Glastonbury but for petrolheads, minus the mud and with much better facilities! I sincerely hope to welcome some of the E30zone crew along to join the several from e36coupe.com, Evotechnik, PBMW and Pistonheads that are already signed up. Here are the details:
The Le Mans 24 hour race is an awesome spectacle run on closed public roads on an 8.5 mile circuit where speeds regularly top 210 mph. There are 4 different classes of car. The LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype) field which are pure prototypes of entire carbon-fibre chassis design. The LMP2s are similar but a touch less powerful. The GT1 cars are focused racers like the Aston Martin DBR9, Corvette and Panoz and the GT2 runners are pretty much just road cars (mostly Porsche 911) with minimal modifications to make them race ready. All these classes run together on the circuit which makes this quite a challenge for the drivers especially in the dead of night where aside from the main complex, most of the circuit is pitch black!
In 2007 the race will run from 4pm on Saturday 16th June to 4pm on Sunday 17th. The winner is the car that completes the most laps of the circuit in 24 hours. Cars must cross the finish line after the 24 hour clock has expired to be classified.
Purple denotes the circuit, red the public road section.
I am booking a dedicated area of campsite which will be fenced off from the general rabble. This means that whenever you choose to arrive, you can be safe in the knowledge that you will have a nice big space to get set up and we will not have to deal with the late-arriving Belgian squeezing himself on top of your camp! Those that came last year will testify as to how busy it gets down there!! If you are several cars travelling together then I will do my best to make sure you have neighbouring pitches.
After much dealings with the (insanely difficult) Frenchies at Le Mans, I have some provisional ideas for the details:
The campsite will be available from 12noon on Wednesday 13th June until 11am on Monday 18th. This will allow anyone that wants to, to make a proper holiday out of Le Mans instead of just a long weekend. I am also trying hard to arrange a Friday night Hog-Roast.
The Cost:
Access to the main campsite and the exclusive area will be priced at just £99 per car. This is based on the car plus two occupants. There will be a £25 additional charge for each additional passenger. It's up to you how you want to split the cost amongst your party.
Although the campsite is a large area, spaces will be strictly limited to 90 cars so get your names down early. I imagine that the deadline for payments to be in to be March 2007.
Additional items you might like to consider:
Crossing the Channel:
Given the amount of people that we are looking to take on 07 and the fact that they will all want to arrive at different times it's not going to be practical for me to arrange a convoy and ferries this time. You can cross the Channel from Portsmouth - Le Harve or Cherbourg (P&O or Stena line), Dover - Calais with P&O, Dover - Bologne with Speed-Ferries or Dover - Dunkirque with the Norfolk Line.
Personally, I would recommend the Norfolk Line. They have a fleet of brand new ferries and are by far and away the cheapest option for a crossing. Costs range from around £60-120 per car depending on which route you use. There is, of course, also the Eurotunnel option.
Race Tickets
The point of my tour is to try and keep the costs to an absolute minimum so race tickets are optional. There is a damn fine spot in the woods where you can indulge in a bit of Guerilla viewing but this is illegal and you will be chased off by security from time to time. Giving it 10 mins and going back though usually works! It's an especially excellent spot in the dead of night as it's one of the fastest points of the track with speeds over 200mph from the fastest cars. And you're 3 metres away!
Race tickets are extra and will be approximately ┚¬60 per person, are available on camp and allow you access to the official viewing areas at Arnage and the Porsche Exterieur corners.....
.......as well as access to the 'village' and Dunlop Bridge areas where there is usually a concert on Saturday evening (Charlatans last year, Jamoriquai in 2003). To be honest, it's worth getting these to get access to the fairground. The view from the top of the big-wheel over the pits is fantastic.
Grandstand seats are extra again.
Food & Drink
The chief way to eat is to BBQ by your camp however, there are numerous fast food vans and beer-tents on the main campsite so you can be as organised or disorganised as you like. The village of Arnage is just 2km away with a multitude of bars and restaurents along the main road which becomes a veritable rolling roadshow during Le Mans week....
.....there are also several very well stocked supermarkets where you can top up your beer/ice supply.
Team Graphics
Next year we are arranging team graphics for each car at a cost of just £20. Getting stickered up is an important part of the whole event and in addition to helping develop cameraderie and being a laugh. If every car in the camp is dressed up the same it will look awesome in the pictures. You will also be able to idenitfy other camp members both in and around Le Mans as well as on the drive down.
A trip to Le Mans is a must for any discerning petrol-head. Once bitten you are hooked and will come again and again. If you've not been before, make 2007 your year!
One last seller for you, both before and after the race you can play on the circuit for nothing. Just watch out for Monsieur Le Gendarme!
Pics from last year's tour can be viewed HERE
Please contact me via PM or at guydp@yahoo.com to book a place.
Please note that at the moment, prices are approximate. I doubt that they will change too much however.
Finally - at the time of writing it is possible to book a return ferry with Speedferries.co.uk for just £29!!
Tickets remaining - 62.
. My line of thought, is thinking, audi avant, cruise down, watch Le man, cruise back and drop in at a Hyper market to stock up on booze 
this place is so cool, bently name theire performance cars after the straight 
I went with 3 mate's and had a right laugh. It was the first time we'd been and we all loved it. The view from the top of the big wheel at night is the dog's. Missed out on alot because none of us knew where to go on the track or what was going on apart from the race. Everyone thier is really friendly and glad to help any one out. I would love to go again, definatley with a big group of people. I'll check out my money situation and speak to the ball and chain and get back to you. 
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