Club Arnage

This might be a Taboo subject, particuarly as Mulsanne is off limits - but I have heard of people watching the cars flying down the straight and I'd REALLY like to see this - is there any tried and tested methods for getting to the straight?

If you dont want to put it on a forum, just drop me an email - BradRWills@aol.com

Cheers

Some useful advice here:

http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=211;start=0.

  I 'm sure there have been other threads on the topic too, either in General Discussion or Help, that might reveal other useful info.   If you want to stay on the right side of the law, the garden in the cafe next to the Shanghai restaurant still has reasonable viewing standing on tables against the fence - not as close as it used to be in the shrubbery next to the Armco, but still impressive.

Easy. Or used to be....
Exit infield under bridge at Tetre Rouge. Take first right, which is a farm road, running parallel to track. The road ends in a farm yard, so jump the fence before you get to farm and head out across the feilds towards the track, which you can see and hear in the distance. The fields are a bit boggy and you have to get across two water filled ditches, then scale an embankment and get through a big hedge - but it's worth it! You are right on the guardrail 15 feet away from cars blasting by at 180mph. You end up about 400 yards north of 1st chicane and cars have just selected top gear at this point. You'll know you are in the right place, due to a large collection of old Guinness cans littering the area.
Go under cover of darkness and be wary of track marshalls and coppers, who have no sense of humour about this kind of activity.

You can usually still hang over the fence like the old days during qualifying

They've been taking safety more seriously there over the last few years. I last took a look there 2 years ago and the fences had grown in hight & made less see through so not much could be seen at all.

The noise is incredible though.

Not like it was just a few years ago...


(Apologies for not getting a car in the pic, but they were moving too damn fast!)


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You could watch it here until about 3 years ago.

In my first year (6 yrs ago), this is where we watched the start of the race from. I'll never forget it.

Radio LM signalled the start and you could hear the rumble in the distance. I remember watching the helicopters, tracking the leaders, getting closer and closer. I wasn't sure what to expect. The noise got deeper and louder by the second. The helicopters had turned around Tetre Rouge heading down the straight and I remember the feeling the the cars through my feet as they got closer.

As the cars went past, it made your bones shake and the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, not to mention the effect on the ears. It was absolutely awesone being so close to the track with the cars going so quick (except if you are watching Merc's that is).

It's a shame you can't stand so close anymore.

Tony

In about 1983/4 we managed to get a window seat in the restaurant during the early evening....... I remember the curtains moving as the cars went past !! Awesome.  And there was only TWO rows of Armco then .....

........and I've still got a Restaurant des 24Heures plate, and a Ricard water container to prove it !!  No good being young if you cant't be a kleptomaniac !

I'm even more positive now that P&O put something in the drink.
One of our lot brought his son along one year, he'd have been about sixteen. I've never seen such a concerted effort at thievery in my life. Nothing was safe from the two of them, even before they got off the ferry they'd stashed thousands of fags away. We christened them Klepto & Son, and kept well away when we could. The suspension on their car was bottoming out on the journey back, and we thought customs may be a problem (this was about '89). It was.

(When Halleys Comet was out and about, the young lad saw an article on the TV about it and decided to go outside and take a look. After about 10 minutes he came back. "Dad, I can't see nothing!". Dad gave him a torch and told him to "try again with this". Out he went for another search.....)
H

.....Come to think of it, we also have a 'Gitanes' banner (used to be tied to the Armco - ads are painted on now), and a mate managed to remove a road sign showing Arnage and Mulsanne, which has pride of place in his garage. He managed to hoof it over the wall of the campsite, and retrieve it before some other thieving SOB got his hands on it .... he thought that was preferable to trying to explain it to the chaps on the gate  ;) ;) :D

Kind of explains why there aren't many signposts left in the area.  

As you may know, flags are my thing, not that this penchant hasn't led to trouble in the past. Did I ever tell you about the flag we had away following a visit to a beer festival in Belgium in 1990? I still have the huge flag but only half a set of teeth.  :'(

Nice one! Got a serious guffaw out of me, anyway.  

I seem to get 'carried away with it all' after the parade every year and cut the banners and flags off the barriers - collection includes Cadillac, Corvette Racing, Total oil and a long string of Corvette flag bunting.

You should get together with Dan (doesn't post here that often at the moment)

One of the nutters in his group aparently shinned out on the rea flag pole of the Pride of Le Havre and had it away with the Red Ensign..........mid channel of course!!!  :o

Aren't "Les Rossers" out in force and keeping an eye out for this sort of thing??  ;)  I have to ask as so far I haven't made it into town for the drivers parade.   :-[ Something to do with no-one capable of driving.

Gilles......what's the bus service like in to and out of town on Friday night?

One needs to be "discrete"  ;)

Are we thinking Alencon, Goats, and Mayors by any chance Andy????  :) :) :)

As it sounds like it's not the easiest of places to walk to, and none of our lot are likely to be sober enough to drive, is there a local person that Gilles might know with a minibus that might be available as a taxi service to/from Maison Blanche?? (oops, and Houx Annexe/Beausejour.....sorry Steve/Gibberish!!)

Don't worry mate.  We'll be going for a recce on Friday evening.

We normally behave ourselves on the drinking front on early Friday evening as we drive the cars up to town for the parade and then later "entertain" the crowd with burnouts and throttle blipping and other childish stuff.

If the support Cadillac comes along again this year, we usually shoehorn 6 or 8 others into that.  Another possible support vehicle for 2004 may be a 60's Lincoln Continental or a US Dodge pickup so we may have a bit of capacity.

BTW for friday evening as a MB return shuttle you may have some lads coming to the Flambadou and still able to pick you up to MB

OK, I managed to totally confuse everyone by going back to the original question of the thread without explaining myself!!   :-\

I was meaning a minibus service to the Mulsanne Straight from Maison Blanche on race night!

Sorry for the confusion!  That said, a trip into the drivers parade on Friday would be good too!!   :D

This would be usefull as I may well be slightly beveraged on Saturday night at the shampoo bar.

Our convoy generally drives down to Mulsanne Corner on Weds or Thurs night for qualifiying.

Steve - We all love the childish bits. Vroom Vroom

Don't think there is one, jpc, as the actual straight is strictly out of bounds. You can watch the first bit at Tetre Rouge (the famous Stella Bar), the middle bit from the garden of the restaurant at Hunaudieres, or the end at Mulsanne corner. Due to the traffic on the Sat night, it's best to either walk or cycle to Mulsanne Corner via Arnage (which has been discussed somewhere on this forum before).

hi guys,

first post on here, and already i can see that i'm amongst friends.  It was good to hear about other folks "acquiring" souveniers of their trip to lemans like i seem to have a drunken habit of doing.  Various steins, plates etc adorn cupboards in the house, and also a 12 foot banner that i removed from a dual carriage way bridge on the way back from a cycling trip somewhere around le mans.  still not quite sure what to do with it.  the most useful thing was a huge wheeled trolley from, the oiutbound ferry journey.  we bought "several" crates of beer and asked for a trolley to help get them down to the van on the trolley deck.  then just forgot to take it back.  came in very handy as a stand for ther cooking gear, and for the kids to transport the water butt to and from the tap.  then on the return leg we gave it back.

perfect...glad to join the group

swanny

I grabbed this rather nice Coca Cola banner last year from a roadside at Sebring. To the right behind the windbreak & tyres is gab's "smallest room". He never offered us use of it...



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OK, thats it, I am definately going to have to pilfer some Sunoco bunting at Sebring !

Smokie, did you get your PM I sent to you  ?

Regards
Chris

I've got one of those..........Bloody godsend :)