[LM24] Your experiences Le Mans 2014

[valedave]

So most people will be back home by now and there are a few comments scattered around various threads. Thought it might be good to collate everyone's thoughts here.

What do you think of the race/event? Share your experiences here.


Positives:
- Fantastic race, yet again.
- Crowd was noticeably larger IMO. Last year, the start/finish straight was deserted in the early hours, distinctly more people there at that time this year.
- The weather! Absolutely spectacular.
- More big screens to follow the action? Or did I just imagine that? Was there a screen opposite the Esses last year?


Negatives:
- Toyota
- Getting shafted by the French TGV strike (sure I'm not the only one), and very nearly a second time by the strike on the Paris RER on Monday.
- "At Nissan, we like to do things differently" (My beef isn't with the fact that the gearbox went, more with the fact that Cox went on RLM and said the weekend had been a complete success. Hopefully they look up the word humility in the dictionary before they come back next year.)

[bella]

a single, solitary phrase by which the entire weekend was shaped.

"le mans WILL provide"

great things come to those who embrace and respect the place

anyone want to post their best phone/experience picture from the race? i reckon i've got one that'll beat the lot

[GT6]

Big moment this year was Wednesday morning chatting and spending time with Derek Bell

[valedave]

Originally Posted by bella

a single, solitary phrase by which the entire weekend was shaped.

"le mans WILL provide"

great things come to those who embrace and respect the place

anyone want to post their best phone/experience picture from the race? i reckon i've got one that'll beat the lot

Go on then!

[bella]

[valedave]

Awesome!

[bella]

having said that, i think just being around to see dawn kicks that into the long grass every time. the atmosphere at the start and finish is one thing, but the REAL le mans is in that magical hour or so when the sun comes up.

[BudLightJaguar]

+In general, great experience
+Night racing
+Toni Vilander's team 1st in GTE Pro

-Toyota didn't win
-Finnish motorsports media DID NOT give any credit to Vilander's result (for major audiences motorsports is only F1 and WRC plus MotoGP and RallyX at some extent)

[The ginger prince]

+ Awesome race
+ Awesome weather
+ Attitude of the fans, both those trackside and those in the campsites (race? what race?)
+ I finally made it to Mulsanne corner, and now want to camp there next year. A true "racers" part of the track

- Prices in the circuit (14 Euros for Paella opposite the main stand,5 Euros for frites, 3 Euros for a tiny coffee)
- Nissans over confident attitude towards next year
- The fear that Toyota might throw their toys out of the pram and decide that enough is enough.

All in, it was an excellent week. I cant wait for 2014

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by The ginger prince

3 Euros for a tiny coffee)

This annoyed me as well. But can't blame LM, it's just different coffee culture. In UK, even a small coffee is sometimes too large for me (if "small" means 0,3 litres).

[Aysedasi]

A brilliant week. My 29th Le Mans. Gutted when the Toyota stopped and when Porsche were unable to take it to Audi after that. I don't begrudge Audi their win but this should have been Toyota's race and many of us really wanted it to happen.

Fabulous weather for the most part, aside from the rainstorm on Saturday and the perishing cold out the back of the circuit in the wee small hours on Sunday morning. I don't have any beef about the prices at the circuit - it is what it is and always has been. A fiver is loose change at Le Mans......

Great company from my crew, and I was chauffered by James (and Tony yesterday) in fine style. And James and I set a new joint record of four pizza maroccos at Del Arte in one week.....

Brilliant Tenths meeting on Saturday and huge thanks to our French hosts, Eric, Pascal and Bernard in particular but also to everyone else who brought foodstuffs or brain-destroying alcohol along. It was obvious that it was good from observing the incredible speed that people returned to the 'buffet' the split second that the annual team photos had been taken.

I'm sitting here at home in a haze of post-Le Mans depression, trying to come to terms with the fact that I have to wait a whole year to do it again.....

Thanks to everyone for making it so special.

[AllonFS]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

A brilliant week. My 29th Le Mans. Gutted when the Toyota stopped and when Porsche were unable to take it to Audi after that. I don't begrudge Audi their win but this should have been Toyota's race and many of us really wanted it to happen.

Fabulous weather for the most part, aside from the rainstorm on Saturday and the perishing cold out the back of the circuit in the wee small hours on Sunday morning. I don't have any beef about the prices at the circuit - it is what it is and always has been. A fiver is loose change at Le Mans......

Great company from my crew, and I was chauffered by James (and Tony yesterday) in fine style. And James and I set a new joint record of four pizza maroccos at Del Arte in one week.....

Brilliant Tenths meeting on Saturday and huge thanks to our French hosts, Eric, Pascal and Bernard in particular but also to everyone else who brought foodstuffs or brain-destroying alcohol along. It was obvious that it was good from observing the incredible speed that people returned to the 'buffet' the split second that the annual team photos had been taken.

I'm sitting here at home in a haze of post-Le Mans depression, trying to come to terms with the fact that I have to wait a whole year to do it again.....

Thanks to everyone for making it so special.

Pretty much this - but then I did have the pleasure of spending Le Mans with Andrew, James and Tony this year so not a surprise my experience was so similar. It was a really special year for me, returning after my enforced absence. So good to see so many familiar and friendly faces at the meeting. One thing I have learnt is how important it is to have and cherish our good memories of life, they don't half help when times are more difficult. Counting down the days on my Team DoT June-June calendar until next year!

[Muppetdave901]

Biggest + for me..... being there when at the start of the year I thought there was absolutely no chance of me making it!

[Mal]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

This annoyed me as well. But can't blame LM, it's just different coffee culture. In UK, even a small coffee is sometimes too large for me (if "small" means 0,3 litres).

The only difference is the amount of water! The French 'tiny' ones probably have more coffee in than the average coffee from Starbucks

[greeny12]

This goes a bit against the grain, but... I have to say that for the first time at Le Mans I struggled to get into the race itself.

I can't quite put my finger on why, because I'm normally one of those anoraks who puts the race 100% above all other enjoyments during the weekend, but by the evening I was a bit... welll, bored is the only description.

It's weird, ever since my first trip there in 1996 I've always been able to see the big picture but this time (even with constant RLM in my ears) I was just seeing cars going past, not a 'race' if you like.

Maybe it's because I've been blooding my boy into live motorsport via BTCC and just couldn't handle the sudden change of pace, I don't know.

I was actually happy to desert the race and go back to our campsite in time for the England game, even though I wasn't really that bothered about the footy. Then only dragged myself out of bed at gone 8am despite pre-race assertions on seeing dawn in at the Porsche Curves!

Things livened up a bit when it looked like the #20 Porsche might actually win the thing (atmosphere at Arnage when #1 stopped was crackling!) but the eventual/inevitable Audi parade killed that stone dead.

Wondering how I might get my Le Mans mojo back, or if it's just simply run its course...

[Simmi]

Pros
- So many potential winners. Great action for much of the 24 hours.
- The weather. Really nice and warm by UK standards. But not ridiculous. Was happily undercover during the early-race downpours.
- Finally having an enjoyable experience at the driver parade. Thanks CTD and wwodb. Positioning is everything. Being close enough to interact with the drivers and pick up free tat makes it much better.
- An extra big screen (finally) at the Esses.
- The changes to the Ford Chicane. Wasn't sure about this when I first saw it. But watching the cars it did exactly what it was intended to do. Still big speed through the first part, but crucially no cutting of the final part. Don't think any cars got airborne during the week?

Cons
- Terrible TV production during the night. Made a bit of a lull during the second quarter seem more uneventful than it was. Sort it out ACO.
- No big announcement. Okay this was never going to make or break the weekend - but after so much hype... nothing. No matter how many times we checked Twitter.
- I went there. I bought the t-shirt. Have to agree with Ayse that, while I can never begrudge anyone winning the great race - I really wanted Toyota to make it happen. You need three cars to win Le Mans I think that couldn't have been any clearer than 2014.
- Hospitalisations. Thankfully nothing as bad as last year. But certainly more people ended up in hospital. I don't want to see the Porsche Curves altered as such. But three people hospitalised in two days is probably too much to ignore. Maybe some work needs to be done on making the GTs safer.

[PascaLM]

+ :
-> A nice weather for the week, except from the evening when the wind was coming from north, a bit cool during the night.
-> Smartphone application : gives the timing and ranking anytime you need it.
-> A fantastic race, Ã* l'ancienne, with many technical issues and leader changes in each category.
-> two hours of FYC, compared to 5 hours last year.
-> The new ACO members welcome, just before the braking for Ford chicanes, with every services you need.

- :
-> Smartphone application : sometimes unavailable in 3G, depending on where you are on the circuit or in which kind a metallic structure you are ; I also had to reload the live timing each time the Smartphone went on standby.
-> Toyata should have learned that a victory at Le Mans is not cheap.

[wewantourdarbyback]

I'd echo what Simmi said. I'm never going to be sad that Audi have won, but a longer Toyota challenge would have been nice.

My only extra gripe was 3G coverage. I'd paid extra so I could live tweet on behalf of carwitter over the weekend and found myself having to ask the guys back in the UK from CW if the tweets had actually sent. They need some temporary transmitters for those moments at start and finish when 200k people try to tweet videos of the start.

[whitemr2]

Originally Posted by GT6

Big moment this year was Wednesday morning chatting and spending time with Derek Bell

A big thank you Simon for introducing me to this legend. It sure was one of the highlights.
The picture turned out great. I would post it if I knew how.

[whitemr2]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I'm sitting here at home in a haze of post-Le Mans depression, trying to come to terms with the fact that I have to wait a whole year to do it

So 'happy' to read this. Glad I'm not the only one At the start I have tears in my eyes (full of happyness), while the cars finish I have tears in my eyes (feeling happy and sad at the same time) for I have to wait another year. Thank god there is tenths.

[wewantourdarbyback]

The period between the end of the race and going to sleep is the worst bit for me. Simmi crashes out but I find myself sat there, reading the year before's annual and pretty much grieving for the fact the race is over.

Helping ease it now by watching both a world cup game and the 2010 race on YouTube

[whitemr2]

This is only my 8 Le Mans and so far it has been my best by far.
Positives,
-I decided to get myself a ACO membership, only because I think you have to support the organisation that organises the ONE thing you love. It got me some nice extra's I have never seen the advantages from, like the relaxing area's, the 'normal' prices for coffee and food, a free program, nice restricted vieuwing area, clean toilets, vip tour during scruteneering and not to forget the feeling you belong to a very selective family.
-the absolute beautiful weather
-the fabuleuse race, I don't care who wins, this year it was a well deserved win for Audi, although I would have loved Toyota to win. Let's hope they stay in LMP1.
-The visit behind the screens at race night, Wooooooooww what a thrill
-Meeting Derek Bell at Sarthre sur le Loire and talking although only short about my car, of wich he drove several and remembered the extreme handling, I adore the picture of him and me together with our cars.
-Beiing able to drive my car on the main parking at stSaturnin
-Attending the Piston Head meet
-Getting invited at the Facebook ACO dinner on monday and dining and talking to two of the Rebellion 13 drivers, AWESOME

Negatives,
-The ACO app not working properly and having to update it during race 13.5 mb is a lot when you have to buy it on your 'not'french phone.
-Why does ACO not provide wifi in the members area
-The bloke next to me on the grandstand smoking a big cigar (I could see on his face that is what he promised himself, at the start of the race to also enjoy his cigare) afterwards I could see the fun of it.
-The politics played by Ferrari to get what they want in F1 (if you can't build winning cars in F1 don't fool arround in my beloved LM) The chance of Ferrari comming to LMP1 is zero I think.
-How does a weekend go past so quikly

[GT6]

Originally Posted by whitemr2

A big thank you Simon for introducing me to this legend. It sure was one of the highlights.
The picture turned out great. I would post it if I knew how.

Send it to me and i will get it posted simon_gt6@yahoo.co.uk would love to see how it turned out anyway

[valedave]

Another highlight was seeing this dude catching forty winks at the exit of Ford Chicane at 4am. He was genuinely fast asleep (but gone by dawn, poor lad):

[isynge]

Originally Posted by valedave

Another highlight was seeing this dude catching forty winks at the exit of Ford Chicane at 4am. He was genuinely fast asleep (but gone by dawn, poor lad):

Brilliant.

Reminiscent of the bits which featured in the middle of all the 1980s highlight videos, which showed people enjoying themselves in the village, with an obligatory public information segment displaying a drunk (and often British) fan being lifted onto a stretcher or generally being shambolic.