Engines, Endurance and Environment

First up apologies for the late blog - Tuesday today so a full 10 days worth of material to get through! In good news though, I will keep the motoring stuff fairly brief, and make this a reflection of our week at Le Mans, and our longest ever stint (motoring term right there!) off grid.

Last Sunday morning we had a fairly early start and pretty steamy weather - very hot but with misty type clouds making the journey to the circuit seem very magical. First up a couple of jobs, servicing all bits in the van, making sure we were topped full of water in every possible vessel - there was rumoured to be water at our field camping but you never know how far or how reliable that will be - plus doing a quick fill on the LPG as well. Then we headed towards the Le Mans circuit to try and locate our camping. This was almost a full week ahead of the actual 24 hour race, and France being what it tends to be, signing was clearly not on the "to do" list yet! Anyway, eventually we located our camping in the yellow zone and what is known as Beausejour camping near the Porsche curves part of the 8mile track. The camping was a bit of a free for all, so we selected a nice fairly level area next to a couple of English chaps and set about creating our home for the next week. The pitch size is 35m2 so we just about had enough room to roll out the awning and set the sides on so, effectively doubling our living space. We had also purchased a cheap ground sheet to make it feel a little bit nicer - the end effect was actually really great and worth the time. The rest of the day was spent watching people roll into the site, and create their own little piece of home, with a late wander to the Porsche Curves to see the track for the first time. For those who aren't aware, the Le Mans circuit is actually part road most of the time - so the bit we could see was in effect still an operational road.

Monday morning we woke to rain - heavy rain at that! When we eventually headed into our garden room, things felt very soggy indeed! Still, we did what we could and this included catching a full 2 bottles of rain water from our awning for use later in our solar shower! Eventually the weather broke a bit, and we headed for the free bus to the tram stop which would take us to Le Mans itself where the scrutineering was taking place - this is the technical control for all the cars and drivers to have their vehicles checked for legality and safety. Turns out this is quite a big event in town, and we were able to grab a great spot to see many of the cars and drivers at close quarters. The weather however was not playing ball, and we had several drenchings throughout the afternoon - one of which appears to have proved fatal to our camera. Really gutted about this, although we do have a couple of spares fortunately! Jules - this may be coming back to the UK with you as our "European cover" only seems to be any use if we can get the camera back to the UK.....!

Tuesday was another wet one so we had a fairly leisurely start. After lunch we headed into the actual circuit where we were amazed to be able to pretty much wander around as we wanted (the flip side of the lack of French organisation!) and around the pit areas to see the cars being prepared etc. There was also a driver autograph session at each of the garages and we found ourselves lucky enough to have a brief chat with Jenson Button, Paul Di Resta and plenty of others. Our question of choice - what's your favourite cheese?! Well, you want to stand out don't you?! Our driver of the day was James Calardo in the #51 Red Ferrari who was kind enough to do personalised cards for our nephews Ben and Josh - they had previously instructed me that the "red car" would be the best!

Wednesday was fortunately a much brighter start and we headed back into the circuit to look around the various trade stands. Total were running a free VR sim race game which I won against 3 others - Jase's engine blew up - fairly ironic given his job! We both won cool prizes though - a hat for Jase which we'd very nearly bought not 10minutes before, plus a t-shirt, 2 mugs and ear plugs each - all totally free and worth about €50 at the stands. We also had a go on a VR flight simulator - no prizes at this one, but Jase definitely did better there and kept his in the air much longer!
Jase's brother Mike had also been in touch to say he knew a chap running in team in the Road to Le Mans race (a support race to the main event). So we went along to their truck and had a talk around the 2 cars and inside the race truck (which used to be Jenson Button's and apparently has a bath tub although I never got to see this - shame as by this point that would have been actual luxury!). In the afternoon we had our first experience of the 24hr cars - a totally spine tingling moment. What amazed me at this point and throughout the event is the access. You can pretty much wander and watch wherever you want. Each spot was a different experience - the pit grandstand seats are great from a visual point of view, but very loud! The Dunlop Chicane is good because you get a few spills around there. In the evening we had the first night qualifying session which we watched nearer camp at the Porsche curves - really cool seeing the lights coming towards you at mad speeds in the dark! (the photo of this is a bit crap but you do get the sense of speed hopefully!)

Thursday morning was a bit of a late start, but more racing to watch - the cool thing with Le Mans is you can see as little or as much as you want. We chose to wander round a bit, and took a grandstand seat for a couple of the sessions. These seats are ticketed for the main event, but a free for all other than that. It was a great place to watch, until we had a short break in proceedings when Jase nipped off to the facilities, and I had to fend off all sorts of advances - for the seat you understand! Luckily a French chap next to me realised what was going on and told them in no uncertain terms to go away! After a late dinner we headed trackside to see the last hour of night qualifying - again a great spectacle.

Friday was sunny once again, and we had more track time - this time a part of the circuit was open to walk up which was really cool. The rest of the day was spent prepping for Pizza night before the Jamiroquai concert - all part of the ticket price as well! Great night out.

Saturday dawns and it's race day - the campsite is by now totally rammed. You can't move for the sound of generators & pumping Euro pop - the good news there is that the cars are so loud it does drown that all out! We headed circuit side to watch the Aston Martin feature race which included Paul Hollywood in the #99 car (saw him first lap, then assume he headed off to bake a cake) and Chris Hoy/Martin Brundle in the #12 car - they did much better until an engine problem towards the end. After a light lunch we headed back to the Curves to watch the first few hours of the race, 60 cars flat out - amazing. Again, for those who aren't aware, the 24hr race is one car, one crew but 3 drivers who each do what they call "stints". For some classes this is restricted, for others they can do as long as they want. Jase and I decided to deploy a similar strategy and have spectating stints too! Our first stint was from start until about 5pm. We then headed back to the van and made bean burgers (lush) before packing our night time picnic and heading into the circuit. We watched at all points - Tertre Rouge was my favourite, and also got the free bus to Mulsanne (very fast straight, very noisy) and Arnage (corner, good braking zone). We finally called it a night at just after 3am. Back at the van we drifted off to sleeping still hearing the engines buzzing around us!

Sunday morning, and still they go around! We headed trackside to watch the final 4hrs or so. The result was pretty much as expected with Alonso's Toyota team winning, but there were dramas along the way. It was a shame none of the British main drivers were able to finish, but the #51 Ferrari (the red car) did finish well. As soon as the race was finished the marshals open the track to spectators - we headed down through the gravel traps and rubber shards towards the podium, eventually finding a great spot in the pit straight to see (and smell!) the champagne fly.

So, was it worth it - I'd say yes for definite. You don't have to be a complete car nerd to enjoy it. You do need to have a strong pair of ears (or ear defenders) and not mind too much how much or how little sleep you get for the week. It is called an Endurance event, but I think that is as much about the spectating as the driving. Over the course of the week we did 150,000 steps and walked 64miles! No wonder we felt shattered too!
Spend wise, the ticket price (just over £200 including the camping) has come out of the treat fund - good value when you think we had 8 nights camping, more racing than you can really see plus there were 3 free concerts (Dr Feelgood and Texas in addition to the Jamiroquai one we saw). The food and drinks prices were, as we expected, ridiculous - €8 a pint, €4.20 for a soft drink, €15+ for food. We went self sufficient pretty much so our only spends were €10 on bread items, €5.80 on the tram and €4 to clean the van.

Monday we rolled out of the campsite without any issues fortunately - although I was surprised to see quite so many people leaving piles and piles of rubbish in the fields - there were no shortage of bins I would add. Having said that, one man's rubbish is another man's treasure, and there were no shortage of people coming in to pick over the spoils and indulge in a bit of recycling.......!

As would be fitting of such a trip, we did take the van down Mulsanne, round Arnarge and through the Porsche Curves - well you would, wouldn't you?!

Our route out has brought us to Luynes in the Loire, and just over an hour down the road. On our way we did a pit stop at Super U and stocked up the food, but also in a first for us the van got a complete hose down in a jet wash and we did our washing on the forecourt - no, we didn't hang the washing around the van in a 2-4-1 stylie, but many supermarkets have laundrettes on the petrol forecourt - cheaper than most campsites and from this experience, much better machines too. Once done, we headed into a campsite to a very well deserved proper shower - this one is now vying for top spot alongside the St Tropez one - to make sure it was a real contender (rather than just it being the first shower glow), I've been again this morning and yep with variable heat, a shelf and good power it is definitely a strong 4.5/5.

We had planned to move on this morning (Tuesday) but tiredness has set in a bit, so we are having a quiet day before heading on tomorrow for a chateau visit and Villandry. We then have a booked week in Bracieux which is a place we've stayed before.

Finally, the question this week from avid blog reader Tess - what meal are we most missing that we can't cook in the van? Well, in the early weeks this was a roast dinner, but thanks to Kay and Rusty that need was quashed. Then it was a full English, and Mum and Paul dealt with that one. So now, I would say for me it's pie and mash - we probably could deal with this one with the outdoor cooker, or nachos - again super chef Jase reckons he could do this - time will tell I guess - we do like a challenge!

Until next week folks, I hope I've not bored too many of you with the motoring stuff - normal service will be resumed next week.

Till then, stay safe all

J&J x