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.....we headed for Dover and the ferry, in a break from the norm the M3/M25/M20 were empty and we sailed straight down to the port, through check in and into the queue to board....
....the area was crawling with Brits in classics and supercars heading for Le Mans, it was at this time that Roy let slip that despite my "have you got everything?" comment had left his race tickets at home, a problem he'd solve at the circuit with sweet talking A smooth crossing and a short wait to regroup and we hit the Autoroute south towards our first campsite, then the rain started, several Caterhams, bikers and other open toppers were huddled under bridges sheltering, but not the trusty vans, a bay camper flew past us into the distance but we kept a steady 60-65mph and ploughed on through it
After almost 12hours on the road (and sea), we arrived in the town of Beaumont Sur Sarthe, 20kms north of the circuit and very peaceful, we set up camp for the long weekend and grabbed a welcome bite to eat at a place in town.
A lazy wake up was interrupted by our neighbours drying the engine of the pink Lotus out, they'd driven through the same storm we had, luckily with a V8 turbo you have a few cylinders left when they cut out in the damp.....
....we drove into town and parked up to grab a breakfast of pain au chocolat and coffee in the market square, before moving off for the track.
On the outskirts of town is the "British welcome to Le Mans" a classic car show and meet with some amazing cars on display...
The cars used in the drivers parade were parked up here, I was gutted that there were no 4.5lt Blower Bentleys there, I had to make do with a group of straight 8s instead.
Heading away from the meet we crawled through the traffic for hours and picked up our tickets, then took a blast round the track, the circuit is made up of a small private track and public roads so you get to V-Max down the Mulsanne Straight.
It was so much fun we had another go...
....turning round for a repeat session Leonard picked up his first battle scar, the carpark we were in had a very steep slope to get out and the over riders on the front hit the deck, we couldn't back up so pushed on and took the paint off the bottom of them, at least I can say I damaged the van on a race track . With the day coming to an end we headed back to base passing a stricken F40 on the way
and hit the R&R bed for the night.
Saturday morning and we were back at the circuit, the race started at 3pm so we walked the few kms from the camper parking area to the pits and with British cheek Roy forced our way to the front complete with pushchair and seats, you can't get much closer to the action without a pass
...but don't forget you ear defenders, 55 cars with at least 500hp each is very noisy for young ears
Just for Mr Ratbark, the flying lizards with a flashy new paint job
The hour approached and the flag dropped and they were away (catch fencing is a pain to shot through
After watching for a few hours we wandered round the shopping village to grab some goodies, I picked up a LM t-shirt to wear but decided to stay one step behind, so saved it till Camberg and kept a VW one on for the race. Theres a loads to do as well as the race, we looked round the museum
and listened to a few seconds of cheesy French rock grabbing a view of the race all the time
The atmosphere is electrifying, with thousands of people there, the sounds and sights are difficult to put into words, you really had to be there
With the day getting late for Oscar we went back to the vans and headed to bed once more at the campsite, the race was only 5 hours old but we were shattered . Another earlyish start and a stop in Arnage for breakfast, the street cafes do a roaring trade as the supercars cruise past....
....we headed back to the track once more and picked a new spot to watch the race
thats when it began to rain and rain and rain
We took shelter in the vans and tuned into race radio for a bit before deciding to call it a day, the race was 23hours old now and the safety car was called out for the duration, so we began the crawl out, it felt like an anti climax really but then they announced the SC was heading in with 15mins left, real racing to the end (not that real as the lead Audi had a 10 lap lead) the walkie talkie burst into life and Roy and i lept from the vans and made for the start finish straight, being more cheeky than last time we got ourselves on the line for the end to witness the monsoon like conditions at the end of the 75th 24 hour race, Audi won by miles, but a Brit made 4th overall and all 6 Aston Martins finished.
Wet and weary but buzzing after the finish we cruised to the campsite and dried off, the evening turned out beautiful in the end and we took a last look at Beaumont before heading off towards Camberg
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The LTV European Tour 2007 "Le Mans - Bad Camberg - Bracknell"
Bad Camberg happens once every four years, one of the largest gatherings of really early Volkswagens, every June the 24hour race at Le Mans takes place, as they happen a week apart it seemed like a great idea when fellow LTV club member Roy suggested we should drive around Europe and do both in a road trip that would cover almost 1800 miles in under two weeks, here follows the tale of "A campervan, 1785 miles and a few push starts"
Up at 6am and after an hour of getting ready and loading the van we headed out on tour, first stop sunny Bracknell to meet up with Roy, Laura and Oscar, travel buddies for the next week and a bit....
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Page last updated July 1st 2007
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