Le Man vs Le Man Classic 2020

[duggiesmith]

Duggie you should get general entrance tickets no problem. The Grandstands are sold out but you don't need. Campsites a lot smaller. The campsites behind pits/village mainly gone as the new factory teams from Ferrari, Cadillac, Penske-Porsche etc needing all the space for their corporate F1 style paddocks . So as usual the plebs squeezed out .
if you have accommodation already you should be fine. try 1st tickets for general entrance though you can usually pay on the gate but that me be risky being centenary year .

General admission is also sold out. I've been all over the official Le Mans website and all that's available are practice tickets or weekend hospitality at $2650
I checked 1st Tickets too. This is the message they have:
"Please note: Due to extremely high demand for tickets we are heavily oversubscribed for the Centenary with very limited supply. All our grandstand seats, general admission, parking and campsites have sold out to existing customers. Therefore, we are unable to open for bookings via our website."

[ScottJ-PS]

Even General tickets sold out, blimey that's a new one. Post Covid demand. Ive been 6 times to 24 hr, usually 250,000-280,000. And the Classic in 2016 with 50,000.

Well I'll be putting my tent up in back garden and stocking up on stubbies of bier d'alsace, cheese, and spicy paprika sausages .

[rossybee]

Duggie you should get general entrance tickets no problem. The Grandstands are sold out but you don't need. Campsites a lot smaller. The campsites behind pits/village mainly gone as the new factory teams from Ferrari, Cadillac, Penske-Porsche etc needing all the space for their corporate F1 style paddocks . So as usual the plebs squeezed out .
if you have accommodation already you should be fine. try 1st tickets for general entrance though you can usually pay on the gate but that me be risky being centenary year .

General admission is also sold out. I've been all over the official Le Mans website and all that's available are practice tickets or weekend hospitality at $2650
I checked 1st Tickets too. This is the message they have:
"Please note: Due to extremely high demand for tickets we are heavily oversubscribed for the Centenary with very limited supply. All our grandstand seats, general admission, parking and campsites have sold out to existing customers. Therefore, we are unable to open for bookings via our website."

Maybe worth trying other vendors such as Lycian, as they may have pre-purchased block bookings and therefore have some tickets still available?

[IanD]

Had our pre meeting Le Mans trip last night and wondered view of those who have done Le Mans or Le Mans classic in last few years.
Our organiser (Colin) has been a few times but not recently.
As ever internet searches give you ever answer.

He says
Cash is king bring a bunch of £’s since Lycian in camp site uses GBP, euro cash needed for rest of circuit ?

Would have thought cards would be common now and possible cards more common than cash, last thing I want to do is be carrying wads of money about ?


Rules seems to say bring no bottles into circuit areas, alcohol maybe into circuit area if you hide it. Taking alcohol and bottles in car to get to and for on site campsite use seems to say No in principal but you should be ok.

What have others done ?

Might do cautious approach and take alcohol in non glass in the car.

[douglasgdmw]

I am going to the LM Classic with Lycian and will be joining a bunch of Le Mans veterans.

They have suggested a Revolut account - it maybe due to distribution of "slush" fund betweenthe group or may be "virtual" cards to use at the event with better exchange rates but will try to find out

One suggestion that came out of the group was to bring a thermal isolation mat if your camping to sleep on as seemingly it can get very cold even with a decent sleeping bag Apologies if this is common sense but the last time I camped was when I was in the scouts

[IanD]

I have a revolut it’s a pre payment debit card, use it on foreign holidays.

I can see it makes sense if electronic payments is the norm.

No charge for foreign currency payments plus it uses a interbank exchange rate for currency payments so basically you get a good exchange rate.
Plus you can have a virtual or one off card number use when required.
It’s also very easy to transfer money between friends listed in the app so good for a group.

Still costs to withdraw cash at ATM’s but that a bank/ATM network thing.

I was more bothered about the alcohol / bottle question though

[rossybee]

Ian & George

We went last year with Lycian and are doing the same this year (George are staying at Village on the Curves?)

Lycian actually do prefer Sterling for booze, and we pre-paid breakfasts which was handy tbh, lunch & evening meals are had at the circuit.

We had Euros cash in a kitty for the beer, which is a keep the plastic LMC tumbler and get it refilled kinda situation

Food at circuit was card mainly I think, can't actually remember

We're in pre-erected tents this year with airbeds and yes it was cold at night - I had my own wee tent and campbed last year so splashing out on a bit more luxury this time

4 weeks Tuesday until we depart, staying at Caffeine & Machine en route to Portsmouth Wed night crossing and a short 3hr stint on the Thursday

Can we go yet???

[IanD]

12 days until start of our trip to LM getting exciting
Think it’s 8 cars/16 people leaving together on the Wednesday, 11 cars in total will be in our party.

Sure Glasgow curry meet up last night will be typical of the week, more spend on beer than food even though we went for the full 3 course meal.


Stickers arrived today.
Trial layout on the wrong car
Stripes are going to be too short for the 968 though, I’ll need a bit of a creative rethink

[douglasgdmw]

Spyder looks good with the stripes however sure the 968 will look ace. Think you will be ok with them being slightly short aa long as you place them at the window line down.

Ross,
I think it is the Village at the Curves we are staying for LMC but will try to find out

[ScottJ-PS]

I last went 2019 and used cash most places. Le Mans can get very cold and wet, so prepare as you would for Scotland. I've found cold more the norm than hot over half dozen trips .
Campsites hit & miss with booze and glass, some cars thoroughly searched by security, and some waved through. The usual numpties you get here. The big supermarkets have cottoned on and stock many cases of cans these days where as in the past was all glass stubbies. So buy cans lager and just hide glass bottles wine in car .

[IanD]

Thanks for info. Kind of fits with what I read.
But good to hear from you all.

Others have mentioned expect rain and it ain’t warm rain so be prepared.

Space isn’t a problem for me so I’ll chuck stuff in just in case. Club Sport has no back seats so my boot is about 2m long !

[C7Steve]

I thought you would take the Spyder over the 968, but it should be a brilliant trip either way.

Looking forward to reading how the trip was and hope it stays dry for you.

Remember your old faithful drinking cup.



Steve.

[rossybee]

Tickets and grandstand passes arrived today so now the excitement can build!

[C7Steve]

When are you leaving Ian?

Have a safe journey and looking forward to seeing some pictures and hearing about your trip.


Steve.

[IanD]

Left Wednesday, back yesterday.
Awesome time based on the whole trip and being in a group for the week plus the 24hr race.
7 days away, 7 cars out of 11 did the whole 1400 miles driving through UK, Netherlands, Belgium and France together (or at least kind of) with a whatsapp chat and walkie talkies.
Will post up a few pics and a story when I get a chance.

But amazing sitting trackside at the campsite while cars screamed along the straight at 200mph, lifting off and into Porsche curves constantly for 24hrs.

I was at the point of going and getting an hours sleep around 4.30am on Sunday but some of our group got up early to see sunrise so didn’t bother and finally went to bed about midnight Sunday. Of course I prepared sensible for the long day by getting 3hrs sleep Friday night

Will need to watch on TV now to piece together the bits we saw with the many gaps on what was going on !